The Worldmaking Agency of the Sri Lankan Travel Vloggers

This article presents an examination of the significant worldmaking role of emerging Sri Lankan travel vloggers and its underlying sociotechnical implications, presented through a case study of Trip Pisso : a popular YouTube channel by young Sri Lankan professionals who travel for pleasure. They share their experiences of reaching somewhat difficult-to-reach destinations, helping the disadvantaged, and offering digital access via advanced technology such as aerial videography. As such, this qualitative inquiry broadens insights on the “tourist gaze” through a netnography of how they promote a novel and responsible form of domestic travel, employing an “activist gaze” through the combination of volunteerism and activism. However, it exceeds a mere exploration of vloggers and their worldmaking power to a scrutiny of the “complex and capricious organism” that they are entwined in. As such, employing the notion of sociotechnical imaginaries, it innovatively postulates the intrinsic nature of technology to modern-day travel, establishing that worldmaking is glued together by human actors empowered by material and nonmaterial technology. Through the consideration of sociotechnical assemblages, the study innovatively explores the nexus between mobility, technology, and sociality within the fast-evolving context of new mobile and media technologies and their role and agency in worldmaking.