Studying Abroad Narrative Imaginaries: North and South Europe

Abstract. Through analysis of 50 autoethnographies I interpret international students’ imaginaries of Italy-Florence (South Europe), Finland-Helsinki (North Europe) and what can be called “the cosmopolitan elsewhere”. International students’ imaginary of Finland-Helsinki is very slight; that of Italy-Florence is richer and variously articulated: media images and narratives shape students’ expectations before their arrival in the host country. The Finland-Helsinki country profile is instead associated with a vague idea of Northern Europe and often confused with Scandinavia. The respective autoethnographic passages can be synthetically interpreted as past (Italy) vs. present (Finland). On one side Italy-Florence’s image is almost embedded in a cultural past, on the other Finland-Helsinki’s image is almost severed from its history and is seen more as a geographical entity: the deep and mysterious north. Analysis of secondary sources connected with studying abroad reveals the absence of a clear-cut narrative of what it means to be an international student. Nevertheless, there is a glimpse of a vague cosmopolitan narrative. This story, constructed on a global scale by different actors and institutions upholds the generic validity of studying abroad for both instrumental and expressive reasons, and sees it as an institutionalized rite of passage towards global citizenship.

Keywords. International students mobility, media images and narratives, autoethnography, Italy and Finland, cosmopolitan imaginaries.

Birindelli, P. (2024). Studying Abroad Narrative Imaginaries: North and South Europe. SocietàMutamentoPolitica, 15(30), 147–160.  https://doi.org/10.36253/smp-15945

We can synthetically interpret the dedicated autoethnographic passages in a comparative way as past (Italy) vs. present (Finland). On one side Italy-Florence’s image is embedded in a cultural past; on the other Finland-Helsinki’s image is severed from its history and is seen more as a geographical entity: the deep north …  While Finland is “north”, “cold” and “nature”, Italy is “south”, “warmth” and “culture”. Italy represents a culture of the past while Finland is recognized as a culture of the present and a sort of enlightened and progressive land for the future. (p. 155)

The analysis of the collected autoethnographies reveals that the social, cultural and academic experience in Finland-Helsinki is, so to speak, more connected to the “reality” of ordinary everyday life. Using Freud’s famed cornerstones of humanness, Finland-Helsinki is ‘arbeit’, Italy-Florence is more ‘liebe’. Studying abroad in the Belpaese seems an extra-ordinary experience that goes beyond everyday life. The Italian dream has a limited temporal duration: namely, a vacation. And the Italian sojourn is like a play performed on a well-defined stage and with a clear script made up of articulated and internally consistent images-narratives derived from movies, advertisements, fashion, “Made in Italy” and previous visits during holidays. (p. 157)

If “developing a cosmopolitan identity is at the core of discourses on educational travels” (Huang 2021: 4), in this study we might simply say that, through two different bildung itineraries, the educational and overall life experience in Finland and in Italy shape two different kinds of “cosmopolitan selves” (George 2010): the northern cosmopolitan and the southern cosmopolitan. The former can be seen as someone who acquires a species of ordinary cultural knowledge that could later be utilized in the world of work and in everyday practices and experiences. The latter has experienced a species of extra-ordinary cultural knowledge more closely resembling that of a connoisseur, a worldly, refined person, someone who has good taste, be it in food, wine, fashion or art: an aesthete. (p. 158)