Hello world.  I see so much that is chaotic, beautiful and intricate as I drift above you, observing the goings-on below.  Not that I feel I am ‘above’ you, not in that way.  But I feel like a light traveller, never resting in any one place for long, going where the breeze takes me.

I didn’t always travel this way.  When I was growing up as the daughter of a diplomat, I used to get very attached to the various places we were posted.  I remember, as a nine-year old, standing in our backyard and singing a teary goodbye to the grey British skies I was being forced to leave behind.  My father had heard we had a week to leave the country before the government kicked us out, and the next day at the school I’d just begun to feel comfortable in was going to be my last.  But that’s another story for another post…

Since that day, I have lived in eight countries and had the chance to travel to many, many more.  I rarely stay in one place for longer than a year or two.  I’m not the only one to do this—us global nomads are a rapidly-growing species.  Nor is it always easy, as I long, at times, to settle somewhere and put down roots.  But I do feel I’ve had the chance to see a little of this world and to do some interesting things in it, so I’d like to use this space to explore some of it.

This isn’t really a travel blog, though.  As a doctoral student of international relations, I’m fascinated by societies, culture and politics around the world.  Broad topic, I know, but there is just so much out there in the way people live their lives from Trento to Timbuktu that intrigues me.  This is another theme behind “the light traveller”: as I float lightly from place to place, so I often float between the many issues and ideas which interest me.

This does not mean I cannot be passionate about a belief, or that I do not also sometimes become unreasonably invested in a particular viewpoint.  But I’m unable to make this blog about one topic in particular, because there is just so much rich detail in our global tapestry.  Detachment can also be a virtue, because it allows us to see any issue from many viewpoints.  I have no ideological axe to grind here, nor converts to win over.  The trick is knowing when to throw off the sandbags and climb higher into the air, or when a special cause or idea is worth coming back down to earth for.  It is a trick I am always hoping to become better and better at.

To narrow things down a little, though, I’m particularly interested in modernisation and modernity.  Although I’ll devote a later post to what exactly these mean to me (it can be controversial), I want to know more about the ways our human condition changed after the Industrial Revolution, and how these changes continue to reverberate in different societies.  My dissertation addresses the ways in which policy-makers in developing countries think and talk about modernization, and focuses particularly on China and India.

It’s largely for this reason that I’ve chosen to give this blog a vaguely steampunk feel (I hope it will become more so as I get more adept at the technical side of things).  Steampunk, it is often said, represents the intersection of technology and romance.  It takes the setting of the 18^th century Industrial Revolution and reimagines it in a darker but more beautiful parallel universe filled with zeppelins, airships, locomotives and brass.

In many ways, as the above link points out, steampunk captures the sense of wonder with which the Victorians approached modernity:  the technology opened up new horizons and enabled heroic explorations into the unknown.  On the other hand, steampunk is also post-apocalyptic and bleak.  For this reason, the movement, to me, captures both the promise and threat of the modern world—the awe of the first aeroplane and the horrors of mechanized warfare.  It is a legacy we are still dealing with today…

The Light Traveller, then, tries to travel without unnecessary baggage—both physical and intellectual.  She does not always succeed, and sometimes she gets too carried away by the wind, but at least she has a lot of fun on her journey.  So welcome to my blog; I hope I have given you some idea of what this space will be about.  I look forward to your comments and suggestions!