The usefulness (of geography) is of various kinds, in respect both of the actions of politicians and commanders and of the knowledge of the heavens and the things on land and sea, animals and plants and fruits and everything else that can be seen in each, and indicates that the geographer is a philosopher, one who is concerned with the art of life and happiness. -Strabo Defining Freedom: An Ethnographic Study with American Vanlifers Stephanie Murray, Honours Bachelor of Arts Geography Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (MA) Faculty of Social Sciences, Brock University St. Catharines, Ontario ©2019 For my Nana, Sarah Carleton Davies. April 15th, 1936—May 8th, 2011 You always believed that I’d accomplish this…I only wish you’d lived long enough to see it. Abstract Moving alongside the “snowbirds” and grey nomads that have been discussed in the academic literature, there is a group of nomads that appears to have escaped scholarly attention. United under the “vanlife” and “buslife” hashtags, these individuals belong to a community of nomads who convert ordinary (and sometimes, extraordinary) vehicles into living spaces, and travel North America’s backroads in search of freedom and adventure. Using Cresswell’s definition of mobility as the combination of movement, representation, and practice, this thesis explores the meanings that American vanlifers assign to their mobility. Relying on participant observation and ethnographic interview data collected on the road during the summer of 2017, this thesis argues that when we deconstruct vehicle nomads’ use of the word “freedom,” it reveals important information about how they understand their mobility. By using a relational ontology and employing an epistemology of mobility rather than place, this thesis also attempts to expand the ways in which mobility can be understood by geographers. Through a detailed exploration of participants’ representations and practices, this study finds that when vanlifers used the word “freedom,” they were referring to their mobility in three specific senses: as freedom from social norms, freedom from routines and schedules, and freedom to pick up and go whenever they liked. As existing studies on RVers and British traditional nomads have already captured similar uses of the word “freedom” among their participants, this finding draws the existing research on vehicle nomadism into conversation in a productive way. Keywords: Vanlife, Mobility, Nomadism, Automobility, RVing Acknowledgements The thesis you hold in your hands is the product of a (literal and figurative) journey, and I’d like to acknowledge some of the people who helped me along the way. To Dr. David Butz, my thesis supervisor, thank you so much for your guidance, patience, and support throughout the entire process; with every round of revisions, you pushed me to deliver my best, and helped me to create something I can be proud of. To Dr. Mike Ripmeester and Dr. Jeff Boggs, thank you for your thoughtful contributions and questions as members of my supervisory committee. Jeff, thanks also for the way you’ve believed in me since the 2nd year of my undergrad, and the way you continue to make me believe in myself. Kind thanks also to Dr. Peter Kabachnik for his attentiveness in providing feedback as my external examiner, and to Dr. Ebru Ustundag for being a kind and supportive presence in my life. Acknowledgement should also be given to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for their generous funding of my research. Mum, for your unending compassion, patience, love, and support, you deserve all of the thanks that I can offer. I’m so grateful for all of the times you listened to my stressed-out rambling while I was writing this thing, and for the burdens you shouldered in the later stages of the project so that I could focus entirely on my work. Dad and Amanda, thank you for your unending love and support, for being there for me, and for letting me crash at your place for a few months while I was getting the first draft done. Knowing you guys were rooting for me the whole time meant more than you know. To my Papa, thank you so much for your love and encouragement, and for helping me with the van build. To my wonderful co-nomad Guber, thank you for inspiring me and for helping me to realise that nothing was holding me back from hitting the road except my own fears. To Khat, thank you so much for helping me with Lola, and for encouraging me to look after my spiritual well-being (even when I didn’t listen). To my best friend Cheryl, there’s so much I owe you…your empathy, joyfulness, and loving support pulled me through the darkest times in my life, and taught me that a person doesn’t have to be your blood to be your family. To my best buds Nathan, David, and Rachel, thanks for all the D&D sessions that helped me to de-stress when the going got tough, and to Rachel especially, thanks for your support in the final stages of the project. Gratitude and love also go out to Bonita, Jubie, and Zhane for bringing so much joy to my life, and to Tami for being one of the most compassionate human beings I know. Sal, thank you for listening to my constant whining when I was prepping for my defense and working on my post-defense revisions. And Kristi, thanks so much for being a great and supportive friend, and for giving me a destination to hit on my first trip across Canada. To Boomhauer, my deepest and most heartfelt thanks…you kept me from scrapping my van in a moment of desperation, and no words can express how grateful I am to you for that. Kind thanks also to the vanlifers and the skoolie who sat down with me to share your thoughts and opinions on vanlife as part of this research…you made this project what it is. Last but not least, thank you to all of the wonderful members of my cohort and the cohorts below us. To Chelsea, thank you for warming the grad lounge with your cheerful personality, and for getting us through those dog days in January when we were working on our proposals. Khuram, thanks for being such a good listener on those days when there was no-one in the grad lounge but us. To Claire, thank you for your strength and support in what was probably the most challenging semester of my academic career. And to Katelyn, thank you for your unending support, and for the delightfully salty humour you bring to even the direst of situations (please don’t ever change). To all those mentioned here (and to all the ones who aren’t), thank you, from the bottom of my heart. Without you, this wouldn’t have been possible. Table of Contents CHAPTER 1: American Nomads .................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER 2: Matters of Representation: A Review of the Literature on Mobility, Vehicle Nomadism, and Automobility ......................................................................................................... 7 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 7 Mobilities .................................................................................................................................. 14 Sedentarist Metaphysics in Theory ........................................................................................... 16 Sedentarist Metaphysics in Practice .......................................................................................... 17 “Nomadic” Metaphysics ........................................................................................................... 19 Cresswell’s Politics of Mobility ................................................................................................ 23 Ontology .................................................................................................................................... 25 Place Matters, Movement Matters: Mobility and Geography .................................................. 32 Foregrounding Mobility in a Geography of Vanlife ................................................................. 34 Vehicle Nomadism .................................................................................................................... 37 Recreational Vehicle Users (RVers) ......................................................................................... 39 Snowbirds .................................................................................................................................. 40 Grey Nomads............................................................................................................................. 42 Full-timers or Part-timers? ........................................................................................................ 43 Boondockers .............................................................................................................................. 44 Gaps in the Literature ................................................................................................................ 44 What’s in a name: A Review of the Literature about Vehicle Nomads in the British Isles ..... 46 Making Connections ................................................................................................................. 55 Automobilities ........................................................................................................................... 56 The “System” of Automobility ................................................................................................