Multi - locality and work - life reconciliation

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Mobility is perceived as a positive phenomenon for social cohesion and economic development (e.g. European Parliament 2006). However, current research reveals the complex relation between mobility and social life. Numerous studies identify diverse practices of doing family under the conditions of job-related multi-locality, such as long-distance relationships, weekend marriages, weekly commuters, transnational families and others.

For our 2nd network meeting we invite especially contributions related to following aspects:

Economic migration and multi-locality – transnational migration and multi-local family arrangements

The European Union’s support of spatial mobility, motivated by specific needs of European labor markets, has resulted in an increase of migrant inflows. Currently, most migrants in the European Union (EU) are non-EU nationals (Eurostat 2017). Transnational migration poses questions about family life and social cohesion in local contexts. In the context of migrant families, a growing number of researchers conceptualize migrants and their kin as transnational families (Baldassar/Merla 2014). A series of recent studies has focused on the role that state policies and international regulations play in facilitating or hindering family solidarity across borders (Kilkey/Merla 2013).

21st century labour markets, working conditions and requirements: multi-local living arrangements and impact on intimate and family life

Numerous studies articulate the ambivalent consequences of work-related multi-locality for social contacts, partnerships, and family life (Roehling/Bultman 2002, Bonnet et al. 2008), others focus on place attachment, multiple place relations, and constructions of being at home among people performing work-related multi-locality (van der Klis 2009). The gendered nature of job-related multi-local living arrangements of families (Collet/Dauber 2010) as well as their implications for the division of household responsibilities are also explored in this research field (Bergström/Casinowsky 2013).

Timing and spacing of everyday life in multi-local families and partnerships

The residential multi-locality perspective shows that the conduct of everyday family life under mobile and multi-local conditions requires maintaining specific permanent arrangements. Managing recurrent mobility, various strategies to cope with the constant change of physical presence and absence of the job-mobile family members; and diverse ways of designing the “choreography” of family life  (Duchêne-Lacroix 2009, Schier 2014).

Methodological considerations and strategies for multi-locality research

As multi-local everyday life questions the territorially fixed either/or, research requires methodological approaches on social relationships and practices that integrates several locations (Schier/Schlinzig/Montanari 2015). Multi-local integration and identification, interdependences and different forms of mobility make it necessary to break with territorially fixed concepts, samples and methods as e.g. Marcus (1995) suggests, introducing a multi-sited approach by following multiply-situated family members, their practices, connections, associations and relationships across space. Social dynamics force the social sciences to find both suitable qualitative and quantitative methods.

There is no conference fee.

Program:

 Thursday / 24 May

13:00-13:30 Registration/Welcome Refreshments

13:30-13:45 Welcome Address LENKA FORMÁNKOVÁ/TINO SCHLINZIG

13:45-14:30 Key Note: Multilocality as indicator of an all-at-once-society? CÉDRIC DUCHÊNE-LACROIX

14:30-14:45 Coffee Break

Session 1: 21st Century Labour Markets and Multi-local Living Arrangements

14:45-15:00 JOSEF BERNARD Structure and dynamics of work-related multi-locality in Czechia

15:00-15:15 HEIKO RÜGER Weekend commuting of employees in Germany between 1991 and 2012

15:15-15:30 LENA GREINKE TempALand - Temporary attendances and absences of multilocal living workers in rural areas. Companies and their crucial influences on rural development

15:30-15:45 LISA STADTLER Work-related Multilocality: Analysing the Role of Employers

15:45-16:15 Discussion

16:15-16:30 Coffee Break

Round Table: Employment Mobility and Care at a Distance: Impact on Intimate and Family Life

16:30-16:40 LENKA FORMÁNKOVÁ I have barely seen my parents, when I was small … reflections on multi-local care arrange-ments by children of third country migrants living and working in the Czech Republic

16:40-16:50 MARCO ALBERIO Work-care balance in a multi locality perspective. The case of Québec, Canada

16:50-17:00 PETRA EZZEDDINE/HANA HAVELKOVÁ Transnational Care vs Territorialisation of Social Rights

17:00-17:10 MILA MAEVA Multilocal living in Bulgaria (on Russian and Turkish Cases)

17:10-17:40 Moderated Roundtable Discussion

20:30 Social Dinner (optional, arranged by organizer and at everyone’s own expense)

Friday / 25 May

09:30-10:00 Morning Refreshment

Session 3: Multi-Locality and Work-Life-Reconciliation: Conceptual and Methodological Considerations

10:00-10:15 SARAH MURRU/LAURA MERLA Studying children in shared physical custody in Turin, Italy: methodological considerations for the study of multi-local residency.

10:15-10:30 MATTEO COLLEONI/FEDERICO LA BRUNA/CAMILLA LOCATELLI/MATTEO TONOLI/CHIARA VITRANO Socially Expected Durations and Strategies on the Move: A Socio-Temporal Approach to Mul-tilocality

10:30-10:45 CÉDRIC DUCHÊNE-LACROIX  Between unities and discontinuities: Remarks about the concepts of household, doing family, and the rationale of being multi-local

10:45-11:00 TINO SCHLINZIG Between convergence, rejection and self-assertion: normalization strategies of multi-local post-separation families and the role model of the “normal family”

11:00-11:30 Discussion

11:30-11:45 Coffee Break

11:45-12:45 Planning session: The Network, Publications and Joint Research

12:45-14:00 Lunch (optional, arranged by organizer and at everyone’s own expense)

Contacts:

Dr. Lenka Formánková (Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague), lenka.formankova@soc.cas.cz

Dr. Cédric Duchêne-Lacroix (University of Basel), c.duchene@unibas.ch

Dr. Tino Schlinzig (Dresden University of Technology), tino.schlinzig@tu-dresden.de