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A Darker Side of Hypermobility

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A Darker Side of Hypermobility

SAGE Publications,

5 min read
5 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

Frequent travel, as glamorous as it may seem, affects people’s personal and social lives.

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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Innovative

Recommendation

Today, traveling around the world and recording that experience have become status symbols in many societies. People seeing Instagram or Facebook pictures of people working or vacationing in exotic locations desire a similar lifestyle. Researchers Scott A. Cohen and Stefan Gössling discuss the mechanisms that depict “hypermobility” as glamorous. They offset this alluring portrayal by detailing the negative consequences of frequent travel. While the authors’ critical review of the downside of business travel provides practical insight in this often ignored problem, their writing is fairly academic and a bit repetitive. Nonetheless, getAbstract recommends this new perspective on the topic to business travelers, their bosses and their spouses.

Summary

Privileged societies and various forms of media depict “hypermobility” – or traveling for business and leisure – as glamorous. When people view frequent travel with admiration, it becomes an indicator of a person’s social status. Among other aspects, the miles people travel, the money they spend and the number of famous sites they visit become social currency. By traveling regularly and living in various countries, elites shape their “social identities” and accrue “network capital” – that is, the ability...

About the Authors

Scott A. Cohen is a researcher on sustainable mobility and hypermobility at the University of Surrey, Guildford, UK. Stefan Gössling works at Lund University’s department of service management in Sweden.


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