All Aboard! A case study of movement and mobility in Northern Paraguay
Summary
Globalization is a powerful force shaping today’s postmodern world. In this postmodern world, the social sciences have a tendency to look upon the world from a globalist framework. In mobility discourse this means that a strong line is drawn between global ‘movers’ and local ‘dwellers’. Through a case-study of a single cargo/passenger boat in Northern Paraguay and the movement and mobility it comprehends for its passengers, I argue in this thesis that this static line between ‘globals’ and ‘locals’ can in reality be a rather blurred one. Through a description of the experiences of the boat people with movement, of the opportunities the boat provides them and of their everyday dealing with ‘home’ and ‘belonging’, I show that movement is greatly embedded in their lives and that fixity and passiveness are not suitable words for describing this local, intranational movement.