Placing ‘Home’ and ‘Family’ in Rural Residential Mobilities

Abstract

This article aims to examine rural population/residential movements through a mobilities perspective to provide an inclusive analysis of the diverse processes of movement that (re)produce rural places beyond the dominant counter urbanisation narrative. We seek to contribute to the literature in two ways. Firstly, we examine a sample of rural residents who have moved house within a 10 year period to examine the full range of actually existing residential mobilities, including counter urbanisation, lateral inmigration and local mobility within an Irish context. We suggest that counter urbanisation provides only a partial explanation of rural mobility accounting for 44 per cent of our recent movers -moreover, within the counter urbanisation group, approximately a half of this group were originally from a rural context suggesting a more nuanced 'return-to-roots' movement rather than a stereotypical urban-rural movement. Secondly, we explore two relatively new dimensions of rural mobilities -the importance of the actual house characteristics to where respondents moved to and the pull of family networks as key mobility factors. In the Irish context explored in this article, we argue that rather than a search for greenspace and idyllic landscapes, decision-making is often driven by a desire for more private space (internal and external) and the presence of existing family networks.

Rural youth and their lack of mobility

“…A vidéktudományokban jellegzetes módon a nemzetközi migráció, és a visszatelepülés az a kutatási témakeret, ahol egyáltalán szó esik a vidéki társadalmaknak a települések között hosszabb időtartam alatt sem mozduló csoportjairól (Boyle -Halfacree 1998, 2014, Scott et al 2017, Champion 1988. A rurális települések lakosságcsökkenése, egyes területeken az elnéptelenedés veszélye folyamatosan a kutatások, a fejlesztéspolitika, az uniós tervezés napirendjén tartja a migráció kérdéskörét (Schmied 2002, Solana -Solana 2010.…”

Local Ambivalence to Diverse Mobilities – The Case of a Norwegian Rural Village

“…Contemporary research on second home owners reveals such place contestations as tensions between rural ‘locals’ and propertied ‘visitors’, referring to differences in their demographic composition, value orientation, way of life, location in the rural economy, socioeconomic status, and relation to the rural landscapes (Farstad and Rye ). Rural spaces may be contested as places for the consumption of a rural idyll or as places to live and work (Flø ), and power relations may shift between ‘local’ and ‘non local’ groups, across classes and other identities (Scott et al , p. 601).…”

“…Paradoxically, part of Inland's attractiveness is its rootedness in a traditional Norwegian highland culture, which contains elements associated with classic romantic nationalism (Berg-Nordlie 2018). Within this mix of mobilities and ideas of rootedness and traditional authenticity (Søholt et al 2018), tourists, in-migrants, and permanent residents of Inland live side-by-side on an everyday or seasonal basis.Research on rural mobility often focuses on the migrants (Halfacree and Rivera 2012; Scott et al 2017). This article examines how long-term residents in and around the rural village experience tourists and seasonal in-migrants and how the flux of diverse migrants affects them and the local community.…”

“…Research on rural mobility often focuses on the migrants (Halfacree and Rivera 2012; Scott et al 2017). This article examines how long-term residents in and around the rural village experience tourists and seasonal in-migrants and how the flux of diverse migrants affects them and the local community.…”

Language struggles: Representations of the countryside and the city in an era of mobilities

“…As Cresswell (2010) highlights, this literature combines ways of thinking and conceptualising that 'foreground mobility (of people, of ideas, of things) as a geographical fact that lies at the centre of constellations of power, the creation of identities and the micro-geographies of everyday life' (p. 551). For Cresswell and others, a mobilities perspective is essentially relational: it moves beyond more narrow fields, such as transport or migration studies, to embrace all forms of mobility (material and immaterial), from small scale personal and even transient movements (or even immobility experiences) to the global flows and of capital and labour (see also review in Scott et al, 2017). In this mobility era, researchers have investigated diverse representations, practices and experiences produced by mobilities, such as what mobilities mean and for whom; what representations are embodied through mobility; how they might change our understanding of places; and what power struggles and inequalities they might produce across intersectional identities:…”