Cosmopolitan Bodies: Fit to Travel and Travelling to Fit

Abstract

This article aims to respond to recent calls for more material accounts of cosmopolitanism by considering the way the cosmopolitan sensibilities of flexibility, adaptability, tolerance and openness to difference are literally embodied by a specific group of mobile subjects. Drawing on a study of round-the-world travellers and the 'body stories' they publish in their online travelogues, this article explores the various ways travellers embody cosmopolitanism through the concept of 'fit'. Fit refers both to the physical condition required for long-haul travel and to the ability to blend in and adapt to a variety of geographical and cultural environments. By focusing on the way cosmopolitanism is literally embodied, the empirical account offered here draws attention to the notion that cosmopolitanism is not just an abstract, materially iterated orientation to the world as a whole.

Intimations of postmodernity in sports tourism at the Tour de France

“…see Molz, 2006), he hatched a sophisticated plan to overcome this constraint, drawing on his professional background in information technology:…”

Senses and Sensibilities

“…Contrary to what may happen for other groups of migrants, many of our interviewees, like cosmopolitan and 'culinary tourists', coveted, prepared and cultivated change (Lee 2002, Molz 2006, Falconer 2013). Yet the distance between desires and bodily capacity is in both cases at stake.…”

“…At the other end of the spectrum, the briefer encounters of cosmopolitan tourists also involve confrontation with issues of the bodily 'fit' required to take in and 'eat difference' (Molz 2007, Falconer 2013. See also Molz 2006). In Molz's work, 'fit' refers both to the physical capacity of the traveller, their bodily competence for 'tolerance and openness toward the world', and to the body's 'suitability ', or 'propriety' for 'fitting in' in different environments (2006: 6).…”

Swimming in Cultural Flows: Conceptualising Tour Guides as Intercultural Mediators and Cosmopolitans

“…According to this, cosmopolitanism 'designates an enthusiasm for customary differences, but as ethical or aesthetic material for a unified polychromatic culture -a new singularity born of a blending and merging of multiple local constituents'. Hence the most evident link between cosmopolitanism and tourism is the aspect of global mobilities arising through the interrelated processes of increased connectivity and cultural contact (Kwok-Bun, 2002;Molz, 2006;Urry, 2004). In this context, most authors argue that the tourist is the personal embodiment of mobility, whereas labour mobility still plays a marginal role (King, 1995;Nonnenmann, 2007;Riley, 2005).…”