This article investigates the experiences of mobility and work transition for some "trailing spouses" following their partners in professional overseas assignments. It draws upon in-depth interviews conducted in Switzerland both with female and male accompanying spouses, in order to illustrate some aspects characterizing the subjective experience of precarity for these people living a mobile life, when career trajectories and occupational identities are interrupted, unstable, or altogether reimagined. The meaning of "precarity" will be discussed from a combined sociocultural psychological and anthropological perspective, through a look at the socioemotional relations involved and at the role of imagination. [trailing spouses, precarity, gender, imagination]
NCCR on the moveThis special issue explores the interplay between imagination and human mobility. It presents theoretical, empirical and methodological explorations on how imagination and mobility shape each other. It asks questions such as: how is imagination triggered or blocked by people's experience of mobility? How does the creative process of imagining alternative worlds and lives in turn affect people's capacity and (im)possibilities to move? This editorial, in particular, highlights the contributions of the various articles and addresses a series of emerging ways of studying the interplay between mobility and imagination. It presents the specific ways through which the various articles of this issue offer important explorations on the imagined and potential character of mobility, and on the always changing and shifting nature of imagination on the move.Mobility is a crucial aspect of human life. As more than mere physical movement, mobility relates to the act of moving (Cresswell, 2006;Kaufmann, 2002) entangled with power, norms and meaning (Frello, 2008), and involving social, material, temporal and symbolic components that make movement (im)possible. The capacity and potential to move can be located 'in the dreaming of, planning for, or fear of mobility' (Leivestad, 2016, p. 143), in our fantasying on where, when and how we move. The field of possibilities to move physically can be infused with the act of imagining origins, traversals and destinations, with the aspiration for other lives and future selves. Or a person's imagination can be triggered, blocked or changed across time by the actual experience of (im)mobility. For one can move all around the word, and still have a limited imaginative experience; or conversely, one may be placebound, be stuck in an endless present and have the feeling that life
This paper proposes a sociocultural perspective of mobility, of which migration is only one case, with a focus on mobile families. Consistent with mobility studies, sociocultural psychology of the lifecourse proposes to study both the sociocultural conditions of mobility, and the perspective of mobile people. In addition, in this article, we consider interrelated lives in mobility. We discuss the specific case of one family documented as part of a larger research project on repeated geographical mobility, and highlight the specificities of the context, the experiences of each family member, and some of their overlapping spheres of experiences. We thus hope to document the life of such families, but also to provide theoretical directions for the psychological study of mobility. Public Significance Statement This study examines the interrelated lives in families who move frequently internationally for professional reasons. It invites to pay a closer attention to the various members' distinct experiences of repeated mobility, and especially children's specific experiences. It also highlights the role of joint, transportable activities that may support a feeling of continuity and "home" for family members "on the move".
Most people support the idea that we live in a complex society and that complex evaluations and strategies are needed in order to effectively address most societal problems. However, little attention is generally paid to the degree of presence of complex thinking in youths' attitudes towards the most significant issues that characterize contemporary human societies. This paper presents a preliminary analysis of the relationship between youths' "complex thinking" and their evaluations of and attitudes towards one of these issues, namely cultural diversity. It examines some excerpts from anonymous open-ended essays on "multiculturalism" in Italy, recently written by pupils aged 14-18. The paper indicates that youths' low levels of complex thinking are often expressed through a prejudiced and basically negative representation of a multicultural society, and through a scarce awareness and a simplistic description of their personal and others' emotions related to this representation. It also indicates that high levels of complex thinking usually characterize youths' positive relationship with and thoughtful understanding of cultural diversity. The paper underlines the importance of fostering the development of high levels of complex thinking at the educational level, so as to strengthen youths' capability of building a more autonomous and complex outlook on their relationship with cultural diversity, and with diversity in general.
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