114 Chapter 3 In mobility studies, one of the ways to classify types of mobility is by identifying the ‘push and pull’ factors that motivate mobility.349 The factors that make a place unattractive and cause people to move away from a place are commonly referred to as push factors; the factors that make a destination attractive and cause people to move to that destination as pull factors.350 The distinction between push and pull factors forms the basis of the mobility model introduced by Yannis Stouraitis.351 The model reflects insights in recent studies on mobility and allows for comparisons within and beyond Byzantine studies. A distinction is made between voluntary mobility – in which pull factors and the individual’s agency are the key motivators for mobility – and involuntary mobility – in which push factors are the key criteria for mobility and in which the agency of the mover is severely compromised.352 Stouraitis indicated multiple subcategories within the general categories of voluntary and involuntary mobility. For involuntary mobility he identified as push factors natural catastrophe, state coercion and war.353 For voluntary mobility he identified the categories of pilgrimage, educational, professional and economic mobility (see table 2). This model will be used as a starting point for analysis in this chapter, while both expanding it and taking its limits into account. Table 2: Mobility model, based on Stouraitis (2020) Voluntary mobility Involuntary mobility Pilgrimage Educational mobility Professional mobility Economic mobility Natural catastrophe State coercion War 349 Another way is for example to distinguish between different types of travellers based on their social, professional and/or gender identities. Koray Durak, for example proposes a hybrid model for analysis based both on travel motivation and traveller identity. Durak (2022), p. 444. Durak justly points out that we should acknowledge the permeability and cross-overs between the different categories. According to Durak we should especially take into account the multiple and changing identities of travellers. Although this study will reflect on some of the insights of Durak, especially on the fluidity of categories, the present study has as its focus the representation of travel motivation and will therefore opt for a model focussed on motivation. Moreover, instead of already selecting the relevant aspects of identity as categories of analysis, this study will ask how representations of travel motivation helped to shape the portrayal of the saints’ identities. Finally, a less complex and more general model hopefully enables making comparisons more easily in future research. 350 See e.g., the discussion on push and pull factors in Preiser-Kapeller and Mitsiou (2018), p. 32; Preiser-Kapeller et al. (2020a), p. 4. 351 Stouraitis (2020). Unfortunately Stouraitis is not specific about the sources he has used (or has neglected to use) in making his diagram, labeled ‘Categorisation of the types of migration and their causes discussed in Byzantine sources’. In his article he discusses types of involuntary mobility (refugees of war, deportation and resettlement of populations by enemy forces and state-coerced resettlement of populations), collecting the findings of other scholarly research and including examples from a variety of primary sources. His article thus reflects mostly the state of current research, rather than an extensive inventory of types of mobility found in a large corpus of primary sources. Nevertheless, the criteria for distinguishing the types of mobility are clear, that is, he identified various push and pull factors, and the categories are general and applicable to many journeys. Stouraitis’ categorisation may therefore serve as a starting good point for discussions on travel motivation. 352 Ibid., p. 142. 353 The categories of state coercion and war Stouraitis specifies with further subdivisions. For war the two push factors he identifies are deportation and flight – both types find examples in the saints’ Lives. Further specifications are not so relevant for the present study, for the Lives mainly represent voluntary mobility. Stouraitis (2020).
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