Planned maintenance
A system upgrade is planned for 10/12-2024, at 12:00-13:00. During this time DiVA will be unavailable.
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • apa.csl
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Stories of lifestyle mobility: representing self and place in the search for the ’good life’
Umeå universitet.
Umeå universitet.
2015 (English)In: Social & cultural geography (Print), ISSN 1464-9365, E-ISSN 1470-1197, Vol. 16, no 3, p. 351-370Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

In recent decades, mobility researchers have paid increasing attention to the flows of relatively privileged individuals whose mobility practices are largely understood to be lifestyle-motivated, consumption-led and tourism-induced (e.g. Benson, M., & O’Reilly, K. (Eds.). (2009). Lifestyle migration: Expectations, aspirations and experiences. Surrey: Ashgate; King, R., Warnes, A. M., & Williams, A. M. (2000). Sunset lives: British retirement migration to the Mediterranean. Oxford: Berg). Situated within the context of lifestyle mobilities, this paper aims to analyse the significance of place and representations of place in the movers’ stories of mobility. The mobility experiences of Swedish retirees practicing routinised and seasonal mobility between Sweden and Malta have been analysed, and this paper explores how they actively give meaning to their choices and decisions. In their narratives, the movers express their representations of themselves in relation not only to their imaginings of places and to their belongings to and engagements with these places, but also to their mobility practices. The findings contribute to a discussion of how place imaginaries and self-identities are constructed through lifestyle mobility practices.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Taylor & Francis Group, 2015. Vol. 16, no 3, p. 351-370
Keywords [en]
lifestyle mobilities, multiple dwelling, place attachment, narrative, identity, representations of place
National Category
Human Geography
Research subject
Human Geography
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-70768DOI: 10.1080/14649365.2014.987806ISI: 000349786000006OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kau-70768DiVA, id: diva2:1281334
Note

Originally published in manuscript form with the title: Stories of lifestyle mobility: place, identity and the search for the ’good life’

Available from: 2019-01-22 Created: 2019-01-22 Last updated: 2019-01-28Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. The Best of Both Worlds: Aspirations, Drivers and Practices of Swedish Lifestyle Movers in Malta
Open this publication in new window or tab >>The Best of Both Worlds: Aspirations, Drivers and Practices of Swedish Lifestyle Movers in Malta
2013 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

It has often been claimed that contemporary societies are shaped by globalization; the rapid interconnections of societies, economies, markets, flows and information potentially linking all places in the world to each other. In search for experiences, variation, escape or comfort, individuals are travelling, circulating, and migrating between places, challenging the notions of ‘home’ and ‘away’, ‘everyday’ and ‘extraordinary’. This thesis addresses the ways lifestyle-led mobilities are produced and performed, by studying the mobility trajectories and experiences of Swedes dividing their time seasonally between Sweden and Malta. It explores how movers are faced with a structural framework that both facilitates and directs their choices concerning mobility, and how they interpret and respond to these structures. It also explores the imaginaries, meanings, and feelings for place, identity, and lifestyle that the movers negotiate through their mobility practices and through the links they create and sustain in places. Thus, this thesis is situated in an evolving field of research on lifestyle mobilities. Lifestyle mobilities are here defined as those mobility practices undertaken by individuals based on their freedom of choice, of a temporal or more permanent duration, with or without any significant ‘home base(s)’, that are primarily driven by aspirations to increase ‘quality of life’, and that are primarily related to the individuals’ lifestyle values. The thesis is based on four individual papers exploring different aspects lifestyle mobility. The aim is to understand how production and performance aspects of lifestyle mobilities are related, and how notions of identity and belonging are negotiated in relation to lifestyle mobility practices. The production aspect relates to those structures and frameworks that create, facilitate, or sometimes delimit opportunities for lifestyle mobility while the performance aspect focuses on individual agency and meaning of lifestyle mobility practices. The studies are based on in-depth interviews with Swedish movers in Malta, and focus on how structural frameworks and mediations influence the ways that movers manoeuvre, manipulate or adapt to structures and influences in order to arrange their life context to achieve ‘quality of life’. A second aim focuses on the ways that movers reflect upon their identities and belongings as they travel routinely between two (or more) significant places, and how this may influence mobility practices. It is concluded that structures and mediations are both facilitating and delimiting movers’ space of choice regarding mobility decisions. Through their agency, movers negotiate their space of choice by allocating resources and experience, accessing supportive networks and tailoring their access to entitlements. The production and performance aspects of lifestyle mobility practices are interlinked in complex ways.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Umeå: Umeå universitet, 2013. p. 69
Series
GERUM, ISSN 1402-5205 ; 2013:2
Keywords
lifestyle mobilities, multiple dwelling, lifestyle management, transnationalism, place imaginaries, identity and belonging
National Category
Human Geography
Research subject
Human Geography
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-70765 (URN)978-91-7459-766-0 (ISBN)
Public defence
(English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2019-01-22 Created: 2019-01-22 Last updated: 2019-01-28

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full text

Authority records

Åkerlund, Ulrika

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Åkerlund, Ulrika
In the same journal
Social & cultural geography (Print)
Human Geography

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 189 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • apa.csl
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf