This anthropological research investigates the lives of Western children (aged 2-12 years) whose parent(s) have decided to repeatedly spend part of the year in the state of Goa on the Western coast of India. The research asks in what kind of social and cultural environment the children in Goa grow, and how they experience the mobile lifestyle their parent(s) have chosen. Moreover, how do they define their identities, home and belonging? The study is ethnographic. Research methods are participant observation, interviews and drawings.
Most important publications:
Korpela, Mari (2014) Growing up cosmopolitan? Children of Western Lifestyle Migrants in Goa, India. COLLeGIUM. Studies across disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, 15: 90-115.
Korpela, Mari (2014) Lifestyle of Freedom? Individualism and Lifestyle Migration. In Michaela Benson & Nick Osbaldiston (eds.) Understanding Lifestyle Migration. Theoretical Approaches to Migration and the Quest for a Better Way of Life. Palgrave Mcmillan. 27-46.
Korpela, Mari (2013) Marginally Mobile? The Vulnerable Lifestyle of the Westerners in Goa. Two Homelands, 38: 63-72.
In the media:
Drawings on mobile childhood on Allegra Lab
On Youtube