A Life on the Road: Experience of Geographical Mobility and Acculturation Among Transnational Mobile Professionals
While cross-cultural geographical mobility is considered as one of the main social conditions of contemporary times, social sciences research in mobility has examined mainly leisure mobility or mobility of sedentary populations (e.g., sojourners). This article studies a group of contemporary nomads, transnational mobile professionals (TMPs)—a global consumer segment characterized by cosmopolitanism and voluntary mobility that is not anchored in national territories and is constantly on the road. Contrasting TMPs to sojourners, the article suggests that TMPs experience mobility as an out of ordinary experience, as a mean for creating, transforming, and developing self-identity, and a way of achieving other professional or life goals. The article also shows that TMPs take a cosmopolitan perspective on mobility and other cultures and engage voluntary in the acculturation process in the host country.
Keywords: ACCULTURATION; CONSUMPTION PRACTICES; CROSS-CULTURAL GEOGRAPHICAL MOBILITY; GLOBAL CONSUMER; GLOBALIZATION; TRANSNATIONAL MOBILE PROFESSIONALS
Document Type: Research Article
Publication date: 01 October 2006
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