Creative Travel - Study of Tourism from a socio-cultural point of view - The Case of CouchSurfing
LATJA, PIIA (2010)
2010
Tiedotusoppi - Journalism and Mass Communication
Yhteiskuntatieteellinen tiedekunta - Faculty of Social Sciences
This publication is copyrighted. You may download, display and print it for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2010-06-15
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:uta-1-20964
https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:uta-1-20964
Tiivistelmä
This thesis is an ethnographic study regarding one specific travel orientated online community. CouchSurfing community is a vast traveller's network and I have aimed to make sense of how it functions as well as study the many different ways it is used by its members.
I have chosen few key elements witch play an important role within the network. Under particular interest have been concepts such as home, trust, strangers and collectiveness. This strange mix is at the heart of the community and I have discussed with members how they view the other community members in relations to the selected key concepts. Under questioning has also come the fact that CouchSurfing is a rather unique online community, hence it is put into use everyday in the real, offline world.
I will also discuss to some extend about history of tourism and travel as I aim to make comparisons between the more traditional tourist and Couchsurfers. I discuss why people choose CouchSurfing as they preferred travel method and what the experiences have been alike.
The methodological approach to the study is the combination of ethnography and auto-ethnography. I have been a member of this community for many years and because of that I have used my own experiences as a form of data. The primary data I have used has come from other members who I have been interviewing. Data has also been drawn from meetings, from the Internet site itself as well as from e-mails that other Couchsurfers have send for me. Mainly I have collected CouchSurfing stories; hence they best demonstrate how the interaction really occurs within the community. Therefore this piece reads like an ethnographic description regarding the community.
It seems that against all the odds CouchSurfing seems to work quite effortlessly. It appears to be a safe and valued community and the members have found many, unexpected ways to use if for their advantage. The CouchSurfing community has proven to be an excellent safe heaven for drifters and travellers of all sorts. It is a unique community, where the members have shown great respect towards other members and in many creative ways they have made exploring and travelling both safer and more interesting.
CouchSurfing is expanding in vast speed and the growth of the network will create problems regarding safety and more so it seems that many new members are not so actively involved with the community, which can harm the community spirit. It remains to be seen if CouchSurfing is just a passing phase and a social network that will flourish and eventually die out or whether it will something greater.
Keywords; CouchSurfing, (Online) Community, Travelling, Home, Strangers, Hospitality
I have chosen few key elements witch play an important role within the network. Under particular interest have been concepts such as home, trust, strangers and collectiveness. This strange mix is at the heart of the community and I have discussed with members how they view the other community members in relations to the selected key concepts. Under questioning has also come the fact that CouchSurfing is a rather unique online community, hence it is put into use everyday in the real, offline world.
I will also discuss to some extend about history of tourism and travel as I aim to make comparisons between the more traditional tourist and Couchsurfers. I discuss why people choose CouchSurfing as they preferred travel method and what the experiences have been alike.
The methodological approach to the study is the combination of ethnography and auto-ethnography. I have been a member of this community for many years and because of that I have used my own experiences as a form of data. The primary data I have used has come from other members who I have been interviewing. Data has also been drawn from meetings, from the Internet site itself as well as from e-mails that other Couchsurfers have send for me. Mainly I have collected CouchSurfing stories; hence they best demonstrate how the interaction really occurs within the community. Therefore this piece reads like an ethnographic description regarding the community.
It seems that against all the odds CouchSurfing seems to work quite effortlessly. It appears to be a safe and valued community and the members have found many, unexpected ways to use if for their advantage. The CouchSurfing community has proven to be an excellent safe heaven for drifters and travellers of all sorts. It is a unique community, where the members have shown great respect towards other members and in many creative ways they have made exploring and travelling both safer and more interesting.
CouchSurfing is expanding in vast speed and the growth of the network will create problems regarding safety and more so it seems that many new members are not so actively involved with the community, which can harm the community spirit. It remains to be seen if CouchSurfing is just a passing phase and a social network that will flourish and eventually die out or whether it will something greater.
Keywords; CouchSurfing, (Online) Community, Travelling, Home, Strangers, Hospitality