ABSTRACT This article has three interrelated aims: first, to examine the achievements of the study of the phenomenon of backpacker congregations as ‘enclaves’, and present the principal historical trajectory of… Click to show full abstract
ABSTRACT This article has three interrelated aims: first, to examine the achievements of the study of the phenomenon of backpacker congregations as ‘enclaves’, and present the principal historical trajectory of those enclaves in terms of a sequence of transitions: from inception and enclavisation, to conventionalisation and eventual medialisation. Second, to offer a critique of the prevailing approach to backpacker enclaves and dwell upon its inherent deficiencies. Finally, to suggest an alternative approach to backpacker congregations, based on the concept of ‘assemblages’, for a more adequate and nuanced representation of the spatial and virtual processes, by which backpacker enclaves are constituted, and to explicate their multiple enmeshments in their proximal and distal environment.
               
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