Paper short abstract:

Commuters dwell more that one place. When we live on transfer we use different strategies in order to achieve the necessary atmosphere and create a ‘homely’ feeling and a certain sense of belonging. Often we use sounds, smells, material objects, personal signs and other tactile elements to transform the place.

Paper long abstract:

Living on constantly transfer:

There are many homes and ways 'to home' oneself. Many of us quite often dwell in other places than at home (as professional commuters between two places, as travellers staying in hotels, as children from divorced families living one week with mom and one week with dad). In these movements and settings we spend much time, perhaps we even (have to learn how to) 'home oneself'. We use different strategies in order to achieve the necessary atmosphere and create a 'homely' feeling and a certain sense of belonging. Often we use sounds, smells, material objects, personal signs and other tactile elements to transform the place. In my research and field walk I follow different commuters from 'home 1' to 'home 2', and observe how they do this kind of mobility, the concrete transfer and movement, how they pack and unpack, how the connect themselves back home through internet (mail and Facebook) and mobile phone and skype. As a cultural phenomenologist I might claim that a transition from 'home-out-home' to 'home-home-home' takes place.