Being lost: encounters with strange places

Abstract

Being lost is an enduring reality of mobile life: a fundamental learning experience in which our bodies negotiate unfamiliar spaces, places, and even feelings. Yet mobilities literature continues to give the experience of being lost little-devoted attention reinforcing the problematic assumption that journeys are predictable and controllable. In response, this paper considers the significance of being lost through the conceptual lens of encounter. Drawing on interviews conducted in Newcastle, Australia, the paper offers two key contributions to the literature. Firstly, focusing on the character of being lost offers an expanded theoretical understanding of encounter which moves beyond the stranger-as-figure and engages with mobile encounters with strange places. Sharing stories of being lost offers new possibilities for how these encounters with place both enable and constrain bodily capacities during movement. Secondly, using the lens of strange encounters illuminates the significance of being lost for mobile life. The diverse ways in which bodies perform when lost, as well as carry the lingering affective memories and intensities of these encounters with them, illustrates that there are different styles of being lost which warrant attention from mobilities scholars. This paper offers a reading of four different styles of being lost: fearful, inadequate, skilful and lively lost.

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