'The Traveller Way'

Imagined and Actual Mobility among Scottish Gypsy Travellers

Authors

  • Beth Jamie Gorrie Social Anthropology Undergraduate - University of Edinburgh

Keywords:

Gypsy Travellers, Mobility, Scotland, Place

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.

 

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Published

28-May-2019

How to Cite

Gorrie, B. J. (2019). ’The Traveller Way’: Imagined and Actual Mobility among Scottish Gypsy Travellers. re:Think - a Journal of Creative Ethnography, 2(1), 101–114. Retrieved from https://journals.ed.ac.uk/rethink/article/view/2976

Issue

Section

Academic Essays