Caravan Cultures : Second Homes on Wheels

• Motorised camping had its real breakthrough in Europe in the 1950s and 1960s, largely following the post-war expansion in private car use. An increasing popularity of camping eventually came to place the caravan as one of the most potent symbols of working-class leisure. More recently, what can be seen as a renewed interest in mobile dwellings, associated with new waves of lifestyle mobility as well as movements of domestic downsizing, resonates with a common and strong popular association between second homes on wheels and a perceived freedom of mobility. This chapter disentangles the caravan as a specific category of second homes, by focusing on its part in the production of various meanings of mobility. Through an ethnographic case featuring seasonal regulars at a Swedish campsite, I draw attention to a class-sensible notion of mobility potential that informs contemporary European caravan dwelling. Finally, the ownership and maintenance of a caravan are both restricted and enabled, I argue, by legal and economic voids.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi -- Socialantropologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology -- Social Anthropology (hsv//eng)

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