In his essay "Nomad Thought" Gilles Deleuze argues that any philosophical discourse that has its origins in institutions is 'part of a cultural drive towards immobility and fixity'. To oppose this fixity, he sees nomadism as essentially seeking to 'deterritorialise' or unfix and mobilise cultural dynamisms.

Nomadic subjectivity typically then seeks to blur boundaries and transgress fixed categories. Feminist theorists like Rosi Braidotti in her book "Nomadic Subjects" claim that the concept of nomadism offers great potential to move beyond phallogocentric thought and hence allows for a 'new female feminist subjectivity'. Donna Haraway's metaphor of the cyborg is a nomadic figuration.