Interrail youth travel (re)producing communities of belonging – memories of Finnish travellers 1972–1991

Abstract

The creation of the affordable Interrail rail ticket offer in 1972 opened up European railway networks to European youth, enabling unprecedented leisure travel abroad for many young travellers. In the Nordic countries especially, Interrail became a generational European youth experience in the 1970s and 1980s. This article examines how Finnish Interrail travellers reconstruct their experienced senses of belonging when reminiscing on their Interrail journeys between 1972 and 1991. The article is based on a qualitative analysis of Finnish Interrailers’ interviews and written narratives. One month’s travel abroad allowed participants to contemplate their identification with and attachments to various groups. Although many Finnish Interrailers experienced the nation state as one reference point in their identification, these young travellers also felt strong senses of belonging to different transnational groupings, such as youth as their age peers or the interrailing community. These findings demonstrate the multiplicity and situationality of belonging. Identification moreover appears as an ongoing temporal process in which reminiscing is also important.