Nomad

Nomadic people (Greek: νομάδες, nomádes, "those who let pasture herds") are communities of people who move from one place to another, rather than settling permanently in one location. There are an estimated 30 to 40 million nomads in the world. While most of these nomads are part of rather traditional nomadic tribes, there is also a small but increasing amount of people (mostly in the Western world) who adopt a nomadic lifestyle, roaming around freely over a vast territory.

Other and older terms used to describe all kinds of nomads: hobos, itinerants, technomads, perpetual travelers...

Humans have been surviving for hundreds of thousands of years as nomadic tribes, maximizing the effectiveness of the use of resources through sharing within their tribes. Still today, some of the harshest places on earth are inhabited by nomads.

=Neonomads=

Neonomads are yet to be properly defined.

Neonomads are people travelling as a lifestyle, staying a few days to a few months in a place.

Neonomads, can be travelling with very limited amounts of money, through hitchhiking, gift economy, dumpster diving or just by trusting strangers, learning to receive, hence to give and share, according their needs and resources.

What is a nomad? A nomad is someone who believes that traveling (physically or mentally) is a way to learn (about others and about themselves) and to experience life. Some of the nomads travel for work, others for study, others to learn from random encounters on the road.

Neonomadism is a non-exclusive sub-culture. People can identify themselves as nomad to a certain extend without being constantly on the road, or they can be nomads for periods and live a more sedentary lifestyle at times.

Common Needs

 * Love
 * Warm shelter
 * Food
 * Hygiene
 * Emotional support
 * Internet connection
 * Opportunities to contribute to projects that value us
 * Learning opportunities

Common Resources

 * Nomadbase-type economic projects
 * Networks
 * Peer production infrastructures
 * Mainstream institution support: grants, programs...
 * Sponsorship opportunities

Common Challenges

 * Sustaining a family
 * Lack of residency status in any country
 * Create (our own) reference points
 * Exhaustion of the road and withdrawal
 * Punctual physical weakening
 * How to keep the underground close to the surface, to not withdraw ourselves from all other 'realities'

Relationships

 * Communication/relations with sedentary people - others who do not experience multiple shifting realities
 * Keeping presence when faced to other peoples fears
 * Stable intimate relationships

Economics

 * Earn money: Some people stop to get a full-time job for a short period, other freelance...
 * Spendings: ... and where and how to spend less

Social Participation

 * Collaborate on long term projects
 * Build social recognition: people assimilate freely neonomads, travelers, tourists and freeloaders, but these concepts do not overlap clearly, and carry different connotations.

Conception of Time
Most neonomads do not differentiate the days of the week, and treat each day as "another day". Therefore, they do not see week-ends as special moments.

They have a conception of time that is very anchored in the present. It's difficult for them to make plans further than a few months ahead, and if they do, it's very likely that these plans will change according to the opportunities they meet en-route. They usually have a flexible approach to scheduling. They can have very productive periods followed by rest days or travelling days, each of these feeding a different aspect of the nomad's life.

Conception of Space
This is a moment to get deeper within neo-nomadic culture and discuss everything listed in the Personal/Social relations section of the Topics: Interaction between ourselves and more "fixed" people, intimate relationships and family, creating and maintaining stable reference points, our role in society, how we are perceived, social recognition, participation in long-term projects, etc. By understanding more our reality and its challenges, we are better able to name our needs and pool our resources in wider projects.

More resources

 * A wikistory on Digital Nomads
 * http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/technomad
 * Dante's Nomadology Links