Feeling like at home in airports: Experiences, memories and affects of placeness among Third Culture Kids

Abstract

When analysed as network places for the mobility of subjects and objects, many descriptions refer to airports as placeless and meaningless spaces carrying no singular identity to themselves and to their users. This imagery does not necessarily fit with those people whose experiences are intrinsically linked to mobility as a recurrent early life style and as a part of their subjective identity. Drawing on affect theory this paper portrays an alternative picture of airports as meaningful places through the narratives made by a particular community of onward/multiple migrants, adult “Third Culture Kids”, associated with the experiences and memories of transiting in airports. By doing it, this article aims to add another dimension to mobilities that regards people’s affections and experiences ascribed to places of mobility.