Conference Agenda

Starting from a new value system, in which the perceived quality of life is increasingly influenced by environmental factors in addition to economic ones, the contribution aims to understand how permanent migration and temporary movements are related to these factors in the contemporary Euro-Mediterranean space. Based on both theoretical considerations and empirical research, the first results of a survey carried out in the Italian Apennines are presented. Considering that "mobility involves a fragile entanglement of physical movement, representations and practices", we look for the manifestation of "constellations of mobility" as pervasive "patterns of movement, representations of movement and ways of practicing movement that make sense together" (Cresswell, 2010: 18).

The Euro-Mediterranean region has historically been characterised by migratory mobility, mainly from south to north, from small towns to large cities, from the interior to the coast, , and from the mountains to the plains. The question is whether the extensive mobility of people living in or coming from areas in demographic decline accelerates the loss of place-identity, or whether it encourages forms of place-attachment through multiple belonging that can represent added value in terms of social capital. We also ask whether this process may be a frictional element in the dynamics of abandonment.

The research is based on a mixed-method approach. In the first phase, twenty in-depth interviews allowed to capture the sense of living in the mountains today and to outline interpretative hypotheses, on the basis of which it was possible to construct a questionnaire and to obtain 150 semi-structured interviews. Indeed the spatial relations investigated include networks connecting metropolitan and peripheral areas. The results allow us to understand the factors that can condition decisions to leave or stay, forms of living and the activation of networks shaped by new lifestyles that have mobility as their fundamental character. For the Apennine mountains, the way in which mobility is conceived and practised is closely linked to the life choices of individuals who opt for a settled or multi-localised life. Choices that generate forms of community belonging in variable geometry that seem to define territorial identities and affective relationships with places.

Postmodernism has brought new hypermobile traveler segments alive that fluidly combine leisure with online remote work, valuing alternate capitals like nature, trust, compassion, innovation, culture, experiences and intellect. Consequently, it invokes a redefinition of the economic scaffolding for society and for tourism in today’s uncertain polycrisis environment. Our research focuses on digital nomads, conceptualized as archetypal hypermobile travelers forming a location-independent and technologically enabled lifestyle mobility.

In less than a decade, digital nomads moved from eccentrics to mainstream, challenging the traditional tourist push-pull motivation model being unsuited for characterizing and segmenting postmodern travelers routinely by demographic or class-based aspects. Hence this study seeks to establish a theoretical framework for segmenting postmodern travelers cross-referencing the findings from semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with digital nomads with secondary literature review on the neo-tribe theory (Bennett 1999).

The neo-tribe theory was first introduced in the 1990s as an alternative to the concept of subculture in which individuals from different paths of life come together in fluid groupings, bound by common interests, similar lifestyles, and rituals. Drawing on our primary findings, our research aims to identify distinct segments within the hypermobile traveler group of digital nomads by examining their various life stages. Our study explores the similarities and differences of digital nomads in different lifecycle stages through a comparative analysis of intangible aspects, such as tribal symbols, rituals, and hubs, motivations for their lifestyle choices and unique travel and consumption patterns.

By employing the neo-tribe theory to map digital nomads by lifecycle stages, we hope to contribute to the understanding of these hypermobile travelers by exploring their specific motivational, consumption, and travel characteristics. Consequently, this research promotes inclusive tourism and supports the competitiveness of regions by developing attractive destinations for diverse groups of digital nomads and hypermobile traveler segments.
Bennett, A. (1999): Subcultures or Neo-Tribes?: Rethinking the Relationship Between Youth, Style and Musical Taste. Sociology. 33(3). pp. 599–617.

A substantial part of the population has gained new freedoms in where to locate themselves due to the rise of remote work and improved accessibility. This has fuelled in particular also lifestyle migration over greater distances as households perceive that some locations may better satisfy their needs. Given the greater freedom in locating, when intending to move, people increasingly consider a wider range of potential places than before, also including places and regions that they have not directly experienced before. This means that subjective perceptions of what those places offer are becoming more important.

The images we have of particular places and regions are formed through representations of those geographies in news and social media, television, films, books and art, or in conversations with the people surrounding us sharing their impressions. To reduce real world complexity that the human mind cannot grasp, such images of places and regions are by definition simplified, partial, incomplete and generalized, often building on stereotypes that tend to exaggerate certain distinctive features while neglecting others. First behavioural geography and later cognitive geography approaches have tried to find how mental images shape spatial behaviour, among which migration.

While these approaches so far predominantly focused on individuals, this contribution focuses on a more aggregate level. Employing natural language processing to capture sentiments embodied in news items reporting on Dutch places and regions over a 14-year period, we examine whether more positive attention given to places and regions makes these geographies more attractive as destinations for migration than places and regions that receive more negative reporting. We will also explore whether negative reporting has a stronger impact om migration than positive reporting, and whether there are spatial patterns in how places and regions are being portrayed, and how these have evolved over time. This paper integrates computational social science/digital geography approaches, cognitive geography and economic geography to shed a new light on migration dynamics.

Although the idea of traditional and static rural areas persists, globalization has increased mobility and enabled attachments beyond the living rural environment. Rural areas are transformed into an ‘arena’ of permanent changes, requiring more sensitive development strategies and approaches, including valorizing local values and assets. The recent study focuses on processes in rural areas by introducing staying as a new mobility concept or highlighting the mobility trend depicted by ‘newcomers’ as a highly diverse category. As Haartsen and Stockdale (2018) concluded, newcomers are migrants with a choice and purposeful decision to move into rural areas based on predefined goals and positive aspects of rural life, however with significant contribution to the quality of life and social and economic resilience of rural communities.

This paper is based on various findings from two-year research conducted in Serbia, focusing on people who stay or move into rural areas. It examines the extent of various movement types in rural areas and their impacts on economic activity, social and community engagement, and service provision. The research applies a place-based approach to understanding rural issues, intertwining local assets and local community perception of rural life. It encompasses seven municipalities in the Šumadija and West Serbia Region (NUTS2), which characterized similar topographical and rural issues, with certain vital impulses in rural areas toward demographical and economic sustainability. Settlements selection for case studies is based on comprehensive statistical analysis represented by the set of 22 indicators. An in-depth analysis is performed in 110 settlements by survey research, based on a standardized questionnaire, on the population aged 18-64 years. The in-person and drop-off-and-collect survey techniques were used on the sample of 2% of the total population in the selected settlements. The survey investigates the social, economic, and demographic features of the respondents, their satisfaction with the village attachment and quality of life, and their motives to stay. The newcomers’ attitude toward rural life, their intentions to stay, and the business and social novelties that they introduce to rural communities serve as meaningful guidelines for rural areas' transformation into resilient and sustainable environments.