Nomading can be exhausting though: having to figure out where to shop for groceries and necessities and dentists in every location, no integration with the local community, no investment in a place or its future. It attempts to take meatspace and turn it into a disposable, consumable commodity.
There needs to be a distinction made between true nomadism and just living in a 2-3 countries at a time.
Thanks for the comment, Swag! I think it's a mistake to use terms like "true nomadism" because it encourages people to "other" each other and detracts from the larger and more important conversation around global mobility rights. The term "nomad" is a fluid definition, just like the term "freelancer". My past life as a journalist taught me that getting bogged down in distinctions often encourages in-fighting and misses the bigger picture.
Some of the issues you've identified, such as a lack of integration and a lack of investment in places and their future (I assume you mean through taxes), have indeed been problems in the early days of the movement. But a lot of progress has already been made in terms of addressing them and moving things forward since the pandemic. I'm hopeful, and working every day towards solutions!
At one extreme, we have digital nomads aggravating the legal and other persecutions of historical Traveller (Roma, Gypsy) cultural lifestyles. One community's privilege is the demise of another's cultural legacy. One person's #yolo #vanlife is another person's fear of having their belongings burned and chased out of town.
So I am not so confident you can conveniently claim that new anti-camping and anti-overnight-parking laws in a community equally impact those with faddish Instagram lifestyles with communities who have been persecuted for it over generations. There is a bigger picture here.
As for lack of investment in places and their future, some of that is taxes. But it's also about being a good neighbor, caring what happens to the people, animals, and trees in a neighborhood. Transience encourages disposabilty, which is an affront to the people left to tend local issues after the circus has packed up and left town.
thanks for the posts Swag. I'd encourage you to write up your own essay exploring this topic too. I'd be happy to link to it. Don't think we're going to resolve this in the comments :-)
fwiw as an outsider it seems overblown. nomads are generally incredibly positive people and are most likely always a net benefit to the society they're temporarily in
Nomading can be exhausting though: having to figure out where to shop for groceries and necessities and dentists in every location, no integration with the local community, no investment in a place or its future. It attempts to take meatspace and turn it into a disposable, consumable commodity.
There needs to be a distinction made between true nomadism and just living in a 2-3 countries at a time.
Thanks for the comment, Swag! I think it's a mistake to use terms like "true nomadism" because it encourages people to "other" each other and detracts from the larger and more important conversation around global mobility rights. The term "nomad" is a fluid definition, just like the term "freelancer". My past life as a journalist taught me that getting bogged down in distinctions often encourages in-fighting and misses the bigger picture.
Some of the issues you've identified, such as a lack of integration and a lack of investment in places and their future (I assume you mean through taxes), have indeed been problems in the early days of the movement. But a lot of progress has already been made in terms of addressing them and moving things forward since the pandemic. I'm hopeful, and working every day towards solutions!
At one extreme, we have digital nomads aggravating the legal and other persecutions of historical Traveller (Roma, Gypsy) cultural lifestyles. One community's privilege is the demise of another's cultural legacy. One person's #yolo #vanlife is another person's fear of having their belongings burned and chased out of town.
So I am not so confident you can conveniently claim that new anti-camping and anti-overnight-parking laws in a community equally impact those with faddish Instagram lifestyles with communities who have been persecuted for it over generations. There is a bigger picture here.
As for lack of investment in places and their future, some of that is taxes. But it's also about being a good neighbor, caring what happens to the people, animals, and trees in a neighborhood. Transience encourages disposabilty, which is an affront to the people left to tend local issues after the circus has packed up and left town.
thanks for the posts Swag. I'd encourage you to write up your own essay exploring this topic too. I'd be happy to link to it. Don't think we're going to resolve this in the comments :-)
fwiw as an outsider it seems overblown. nomads are generally incredibly positive people and are most likely always a net benefit to the society they're temporarily in
similar experiences as well. willing to be wrong about this though...
Also worth a read: https://www.euronews.com/travel/2021/05/10/why-the-vanlife-trend-is-hurting-gypsy-roma-traveller-communities
fair point - i think most "nomads" settle into such a pattern for the above reasons.