Distant Friends,Mobility and Sensed Intimacy

Abstract

This article draws on a qualitative, interview-based project to argue that emotionally close friendships at-a-distance can create distinctive spatial sensibilities of friendship. These sensibilities are formed when friends move apart geographically. In part, they are composed of the tangible forms of friendship practices (such as visiting), but their main constituent is the more intangible emotional bond between friends which can extend across considerable distances. The spatial sensibilities of friendship thus form particular geographies of intimacy; they shape how individuals come to understand and ‘feel’ spatial distances, and influence individuals’ own feelings about moving.