Staying away: Narratives of young adults in Bali

This paper is about young people and their identity work in a context of a globalized world in which travelling and staying abroad longer periods of time is possible.
Questions studied in the project are: How the youth experience their everyday life, what kind of individual choices they make, what social and cultural life and relationships means for them, as well as why they choose to travel and stay away.
A case study has been made about a reality show (Away Bali) about Finnish young adults who talk about staying abroad, and what living ‘far away’ means for them. These young people have been given the possibility to talk about their experiences and about their living in a social context where they have chosen to live.
The narratives of the young people show some essential aspects about a neonomadic way of life, living abroad in a context of ‘a paradoxical paradise’ which affects their social and cultural identities and their contemporary everyday life in several ways. The personal narratives describe a lifestyle including thoughts about living conditions (work and leisure, “here” and “there”), social relationships (family and friendship), perspectives of family life, life philosophy, as well as reasons to travel and to stay.