This article investigates the implications of substituting the trope o
f travel for that of globalization. By exploring the possible temporal
and spatial assumptions in 'travel', it considers how this might allo
w for contigency and particularity in lived experience and in forms of
knowledge. In contemporary cultural theory, movement (or travel) and
multiplicity are valued as principles of meaning, knowledge and the se
lf; but there is a danger that a simple privileging of movement can en
d up reinventing the very singularity that would be undone. Developing
a more subtle approach to movement that retains multiplicity involves
putting into question simple oppositional structures and reversals su
ch as stasis/movement. These issues are addressed with reference to th
e uncanny structure of home and away, the centrality of borders to mov
ement and the significance of ruptures and 'the moment' to 'lived' tim
e.