As our way of life becomes more mobile and dependant on our mobile technologies, many of our everyday experiences become electronically mediated. Concepts such as `home' and activities like shopping change as they are separated from their physical geographic locations, and the sprawling architecture of the cultural landscape strengthens this mutation of sense of place.The first part of this thesis explores the technologies and social conditions that have led to the nascence of mediated environments (i.e. the rise of the automobile and the Internet). The second part contains a case study that describes an acute example of this technologically-borne placelessness: recreational vehicle enthusiasts that travel the highways and camp in parking lots of `big box' stores, searching for the `American dream'. The final part of the thesis describes an architectural design project created to reconnect these people to each other and to the communities they wander through. / Department of Architecture

The number of leisure and working RVers roaming America?s highways, now conservatively estimated at over eight million, continues to increase (Curtin 2001; Sommer 2003). In spite of their growing presence and unique lifestyle, these populations remain sociologically understudied. This exploratory case study of two distinctly different RV parks is a small but significant step toward filling that research gap. At both RV parks I found a diverse population of individualists who value self-contained travel, freedom, relaxation, and sociality. In spite of sharing a collective, subcultural lifestyle, they differed along multiple axes. Marked differences separate RVers into three broad groups (full-timers, long-termers, and vacationers) and into multiple subgroups within those categories. I analyzed triangulated data sources using a theoretical lens that combines subcultural and boundary work theories. I concluded that full-time and long-term RVers practice boundary work and form subcultural identities based, primarily, on levels of commitment and divergent RVing practices.

Thesis (M.S.) -- Mississippi State University. Department of Sociology, Athropology, and Social Work. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

This ethnography describes RV [recreational vehicle] seasonal migration as an adaptive, transhumant strategy. The study population is retired, transhumant migrants, who are members of a nation-wide, membership camping organization. Fieldwork was conducted over a period of seven months at two sites located on the West Coast. These sites reflect northern and southern locations corresponding to seasonal migration patterns. Standard scholarly orientations to the study of retired RV seasonal migrants manifest ethnocentrism and a tendency to stereotype RVers as amenity-migrants. An original and primary objective of the present study was to reach beyond these conceptualizations and popularized images through first-hand, descriptive accounts collected within the context of the culture. This research expands on two existing studies focusing on social and cultural aspects of RV seasonal migration. In contrast to these accounts, the present study provides cultural description of the daily life of retired RVers focusing on the distinctive ways that members of this subculture express mainstream American cultural values underlying their adaptive strategies. This study proposes an alternative conceptualization of RV seasonal migration, derived from the culture itself. The conclusion is that these adaptive strategies reflect patterns of social organization, patterns of resource management, and patterns of social, familial, and interpersonal relationships, that are congruent with mainstream American cultural values of self-reliant individualism, equality, and material comfort; values that have historical, philosophical roots in the Protestant Work Ethic. The RVers' identity derives from maintaining membership in a temporary, fluid, mobile community. They have cohesive social networks with well-defined boundaries, which they defend against threats to group identity. This study contributes to an understanding of what RV seasonal migration means to the participants themselves, and by extension, to their families, to communities, and to our aging society. / Graduation date: 1996

The identity of the Tin Can Tourists of the World, the first recreation automobile organization, has been poorly defined in the historical discourse, the factors contributing to the 1919 formation of the organization in Tampa, Florida represents a landmark shift in tourism in America towards the automobile. The group’s subsequent solidification of a distinct identity gives insight beyond their organization. The thesis defines their identity as well as looks at their impact on American automobility and tourism. The thesis therefore focuses on the previously undefined concept of recreational automobility giving it definition and showing how the group helped to define it. The group’s early role in mass use and adaptation of the automobile for recreation represents the first steps in creating a market for recreational vehicles. The imposition of organization on the camping experience by the Tin Can Tourists and their influence on creating special places for the practice of their activities helped define recreational automobility. The footprint left by the Tin Can Tourists helped shape part of America’s modern tourist industry. The legacy of their ideas about recreational automobility also suggests influence they had on later groups using recreational vehicles. This thesis examines and clarifies the identity and influence of the Tin Can Tourists of the World as a window on important trends in automobility and tourism.