I've been thinking about some of the ideas of "rootedness" that have been brought up on v-2.org over the last several weeks. In particular, the idea of a non-rooted, mobile lifestyle where one remains "connected" but physically distant from elementary social and environmental spheres of familiarity. Can you, in lieu of traditional constructions of "place," instead be distant-yet-rooted in social areas? How and what does that feel like? What does a rootless but connected life look like compared to a rooted one? How does modern communication technology affect this? It's a lot to chew on.

Just to start with, to toss in a disclaimer, I haven't studied social psychology nor social construction and maintenance in more than a cursory way. I'm linking concepts according to where my head takes me, but am not pretending to be an expert.

I think it might be useful to elaborate on some of these terms: "Rootedness," "Connectedness," "Social constructions" both interpersonal and environmental (are there more?), and a fairly long discussion of what it means to be in a "place."

I was born, raised, and continue to live in Phoenix, AZ. Most of my friends, family, and acquaintances live here. I make money, pay taxes, and participate in local government (I vote) here. Growing up, all the schools I've attended are in a 3 mile radius of each other. I am rooted to this place, but rootedness is a general name for a number of individual behavioral patterns.

I can navigate the Valley, am able to get around within the different cities. I'm familiar with the seasonal weather patterns. I can tell where I am based on landmarks as well as a more general sense that comes from being in one place long enough. It's an environmental rootedness. Most mornings at the coffee shop I stop at before work someone mentions the weather, sometimes it strikes up a debate: are the monsoons late this year? Is the sun less harsh these days? Isn't it a beautiful day?

Also, and just as relevant, I'm able to function as an adult here. I can take care of my own business during the course of the day with a minimum of aid from others. I have friends, acquaintances, co-workers, and bosses who all make up a series of daily interactions, socio-power relationships, laughter and fun. More broadly, and not limited to simply this city but America in general, I can mail letters, order food, recognize social cues and behave according to a common social schema that doesn't set me apart from other people.

Obviously there's a lot more unpacking you could do with the concept of rootedness as it relates to individual and macro social structure. I'm being brief because wrangling over definitions of concepts that I'm not very familiar with just doesn't appeal.

The idea of connectedness, on the other hand, merits some exploration. It's conceptually different from rootedness in cognitive-linguistic and sensory implications. One is just touching, but not nestled down in the earth. There is inherent tactility, but not necessarily the imperative positive feedback relationship required for rootedness (more on feedback loops here— 272k PDF).

In historic human society I would draw a parallel to traders and trade routes— one might buy an idol, a bold of cloth, spices, dye, or whatever and wind up with a connection to that object's place of origin without actually bringing more than related proximally to the society that produced it.

In more contemporary terms, specifically related to the digital telecommunications, look at how web sites work to aid a connected culture. Implicit in the name is the word site, which refers to a location. A website is a place, then, where one can go. It's also fashioned by a person, so it's an object that relates to a place (like the dye or the bolt of cloth), and contains things that were fashioned by someone.

Objects point to some kind of pre-existing social structure. Nothing comes from nowhere, after all. There is certainly social structure to the internet, but more importantly, many sites have their own moires, members, and tourists. One doesn't post on Slashdot like one posts on Nerve, for example.

I would argue that regardless of it's linguistic connotation as "place," a website that serves (or represents) a community is not a condition in which one can ever find rootedness. Contact can be made, but that's all. The lacking half; the other requirement for a rooted culture, that of an individual understanding and a social naturalization towards the environmental conditions remains lacking.

A mobile, transitional lifestyle that floats on a liminality of globalized market culture can find social connectedness through digital communicative devices, but will never achieve a socio-cultural rootedness upon which humanity has based thousands of years of development; which is in our nature.