Rethinking Europeanness through travelling imaginative geographies

Abstract

Tourism mobilities play a significant role in how European identity and the European space are imagined, encountered, and negotiated, but this role has rarely been interrogated. To address this gap, the present article discusses the nexus between tourism and Europeanness, drawing from the concept of ‘travelling imaginative geographies of Europe’. This concept was developed from literature that identifies Europeanness as everyday practice, geographical imaginations, tourism, and mobilities. To test the concept, a limited number of tourist pictures that were shared in a pilot study conducted with 24 ‘students-cum-tourists’ – international Master’s-level students who had gone on tourist trips across Europe – are presented. The pilot study results revealed that travelling imaginative geographies reproduces and challenges consolidated narratives on Europeanness, including the role of cultural heritage and tourism mobilities, urban sociability and public space, embodied semiotics, and perceived boundaries. Considering the multiple crises presently ongoing in Europe, this article proposes that further research on travelling imaginative geographies may support their contribution to the evolution of Europeanness and, specifically, the question of Otherness as it pertains to the European space.