“I Have Been Born, Raised and Lived My Whole Life Here” – Perpetually on the Move While Remaining Still

Abstract

This article explores the story of Einar, a Faroese man who always lived within a 500-meters radius on the island of Suðuroy, who never felt “stuck” or “immobile” in the literal sense of the word. Studies have shown that staying is a process, as much as mobility; yet while mobility studies mainly show that imagination is an incentive to move, we argue that imagination may also actively support staying. Combining sociocultural psychology with mobility studies, we propose to explore the entanglement of symbolic mobility (a form of imagination) and various forms of geographical (im)mobility. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and hours of conversation, we present the case study of Einar’s life on his island. We follow the sociogenetic development of the island, and the expansion and contraction of the imaginative horizon over time. On this background, we then retrace the life of Einar and show how, within this transforming context, his imagination developed thanks to resources he could use from the mobility of technologies, ideas, and other people. Interestingly, at different bifurcation points, his symbolic mobility almost led him to move away but, at another point, helped him to refuse geographical mobility. Hence, he was always symbolically mobile while staying. We finally propose directions for generalising from this case study, and implications for cultural psychology and for mobility and migration studies.

Social Psychology of and for World-Making

“…In this way, we aim to understand the constraints and enablers of developing in a given direction. Third, researchers need to reflect on their own positionality and role in knowledge cocreation ( Cornish, 2020a ; Pedersen & Zittoun, 2022 ). Case studies are heterogeneous in their conceptualization and application.…”

What Is the Nexus between Migration and Mobility? A Framework to Understand the Interplay between Different Ideal Types of Human Movement

“…We have developed the MMN as an overarching tool, only with human movement in mind. At this stage, we still have a limited understanding about how this could apply to immobility, as well as to mobility of non-human phenomena -ideas, culture, data, waste and pollution, and capital (Söderström et al, 2013;Zittoun, 2020;Pedersen and Zittoun, 2021). Further work in this direction is necessary.…”

Expériences sociomatérielles. Objets, interactions, espaces

“…Ainsi, les travaux sur le développement des enfants avant le langage ont montré l'importance de la maîtrise progressive des objets matériels selon des usages canoniques, c'est-à-dire dans des échanges sociaux et des activités sémiotiques (C. Moro et Rodriguez, 1998 ;Rodriguez et al, 2018). Les travaux sur les adultes en mobilité mettent en évidence l'importance des objets et du rapport au voisinage et du paysage, dans leurs aspects matériels et symboliques, dans la définition de soi et la continuité psychique (Levitan, 2018 ;Pedersen et Zittoun, 2021 ;Zittoun, 2006Zittoun, , 2019 ; les travaux sur l'apprentissage au travail révèlent la place prépondérante de la sociomatérialité dans l'acquisition de nouvelles compétences, la prise de conscience ou la résistance au changement (Filliettaz et al, 2008 ;Kloetzer, 2020 ;Lamamra et Masdonati, 2009). Il existe par ailleurs une période de la vie durant laquelle l'importance de la sociomatérialité devient particulièrement criante : lorsque les personnes deviennent très âgées, au point que leur force physique et leur mobilité commencent à décliner.…”