1st Edition

Ferry Tales Mobility, Place, and Time on Canada's West Coast

By Phillip Vannini Copyright 2012
    264 Pages
    by Routledge

    258 Pages
    by Routledge

    The purpose of this rich and innovatively presented ethnography is to explore mobility, sense of place and time on the British Columbia coast. On the basis of almost 400 interviews with ferry passengers and over 250 ferry journeys, the author narrates and reflects on the performance of travel and on the consequences of ferry-dependence on island and coastal communities. Ferry Tales inaugurates a new series entitled Innovative Ethnographies for Routledge (innovativeethnographies.net). The purpose of this hypermedia book series is to use digital technologies to capture a richer, multimodal view of social life than was otherwise done in the classic, print-based tradition of ethnography, while maintaining the traditional strengths of classic, ethnographic analysis.

    Visit the book's website at ferrytales.innovativeethnographies.net

    Part 1: Before Departure  1. A Queen’s Drowning  2. Ways of Moving  3. Getting to the BC Coast  4. The Making of Ferry Tales  Part 2: Welcome Aboard  5. Travel as Performance  6. Of Ferries and Their Passengers  7. Ferry Technoculture  8. In the Kids’ Zone  Part 3: A Different Kind of Place  9. Insulation and Isolation  10. The Feel of Island and Coastal Life  11. En Route to Heaven?  12. Removed  Part 4: In Time, Out of Time  13. Island Time  14. Speed…Sort of…  15. Keeping the Rhythm  16. Are we there yet?  Part 5: Ferries, Power, and Politics  17. Constellations of (In-)Convenience  18. Danger: Keep Off the Rocks  19. More Cracks in the Water  20. Changing Life on the Coast  Part 6: Performing Elusive Mobilities  21. The Taskscape of Travel  22. How to  Catch a Ferry  23. Ritual, Play, and Drama  24. Elusiveness  Part 7: Waiting for a Ride  25. Time Thieves  26. Dwelling in Lineups  27. Mind the Gap  28. Another Sailing Wait

    Biography

    Phillip Vannini is Associate Professor in the School of Communication and Culture at Royal Roads University, in Victoria, Canada, and Canada Research Chair in Innovative Learning and Public Ethnography. He is author and editor of eight books including Understanding Society through Popular Music (with Joe Kotarba), and The Senses in Self, Culture, and Society (both published by Routledge).

    "This is a book to savor slowly. Presented as a multimedia experimental ethnography embedded with sound recordings, maps, photos, and website, Ferry Tales will transform how we share scholarship as well as how we think about mobility and moorings."Mimi Sheller, Center for Mobilities Research and Policy, Drexel University

    "This deliciously written (and titled) text is a mobile ethnography of performance, action and ritual as played out on and around the islands and coasts on Canada’s west coast. Ferry Tales will transport readers to fresh and humane reconstitutions of space, place, time, and technology."Godfrey Baldacchino, Island Studies, University of Prince Edward Island, Canada

    "...in his direct and affectionate observations of how we live and move on this coast, he captures us as individuals and as a culture."—Crawford Kilian, The Tyee

    "Reading Ferry Tales and experiencing the complementary material on the book’s website is a thoroughly enjoyable process. It is an imaginative and innovative work that is to be relished, not rushed." – Social & Cultural Geography