'The Traveller Way'

Imagined and Actual Mobility among Scottish Gypsy Travellers

Abstract

Although a population recognised externally for their itinerancy, the mobility of Gypsy Travellers in Scotland has been fundamentally misunderstood. Endowed with creative power, mobility exists for Gypsy Travellers not only in times of transit, but continuously through an imagined connection to the spirit of travel. The dominant settled population’s understanding of movement, which has informed past policy-making, has overlooked the significance of mobility in making meaning, resulting in a system within which the travel of Gypsy Travellers has been effectively illegitimated, and their community further marginalised. By challenging notions of place as fixed by necessity, we can see that ‘place’ can be created through movement, which occurs physically as well as through imagination and anticipation.