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Трудовая деятельность и сообщества при внепрофессиональном образе жизни (на примере российских вольных путешественников)
This article describes labor activity and communities among people, leading a nonprofessional way of life. We have conducted this qualitative research on the sample of Russian lifestyle
travelers, for whom the main life activity is not a work, but a journey. The sample included Russianspeaking lifestyle travelers — one woman and seven men aged from 25 to 41 years with experience
of lifestyle travel in different countries from 1.5 to 21 years long and with homes in the territory of
the Russian Federation or Ukraine. We interviewed each respondent, and then used theory-based
thematic analysis with pre-specified categories based on the parameters of the professional way of life.
In addition, we analyzed several books written by lifestyle travelers, and their collective and personal
Internet resources. Finally, we have made participant observation on several gatherings of the lifestyle
travelers’ community in the Moscow region. We have found that labor activity in the non-professional
way of life of free travelers is episodic and serves only to ensure their existence during journey. They
take local jobs and work intensively for a limited period of time, or earn money online permanently
and not actively. While working locally lifestyle travelers are limited by local laws, so they often get
jobs unofficially, and their pay is usually lower than for locals. However, online jobs among lifestyle
travelers have no specific legal restrictions or lower payment rates. In addition, we have found out that
communities of lifestyle travelers are similar to professional and amateur communities - they also have
a culture of special knowledge sharing. They share it on live collective gatherings or through creating
information sources — books, videos, travel reports, etc. Such communities, in mostly, are formed
around Internet sites or social media group. Further, lifestyle traveler have specific communities -
temporary communes (enclaves) and permanent communes. These findings are giving ground for
creating new models describing non-professional way of life.