Job-related “high mobility” in times of economic crisis: Analysis from four European countries

ABSTRACT

Social and spatial mobility is a core value of late modern societies. Increasing numbers of people are practicing work-related high mobility, such as daily or weekly long-distance commuting and frequent work-related travel. In this article we propose to explore the impact of the economic crisis on job-related high mobility. The data used come from a European longitudinal quantitative survey (in Germany, Spain, France, and Switzerland) of work-related mobile individuals. Several dimensions are considered, including mobility practices and perceptions thereof and individuals’ abilities and willingness to move. Faced with an economic crisis, working people are turning to these forms of intensive work-related high mobility. Unemployment, or the risk of it, encourages people to plan high mobility for the future because it proves to be an important resource for access to jobs/employment. However, those affected are often poorly served by transport infrastructure and have weak mobility skills.

Funding

The authors would like to thank the Mobile Lives Forum, the German Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB), the Autonomous University of Madrid, and the European Union’s FP7 who funded the data collection. The Mobile Lives Forum also funded the research on which this article is based.

Notes

1. See Piron, Dureau, and Mullon (2004) for more information.

Additional information

Funding

The authors would like to thank the Mobile Lives Forum, the German Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB), the Autonomous University of Madrid, and the European Union’s FP7 who funded the data collection. The Mobile Lives Forum also funded the research on which this article is based.

Notes on contributors

Emmanuel Ravalet

Emmanuel Ravalet is an engineer, socioeconomist, and senior researcher at the Urban Sociology Laboratory (LaSur) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (École Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne [EPFL]), Switzerland. He holds a PhD in transport economics from the University of Lyon (France) and in urban studies from the National Institute of Scientific Research, Urbanization, Culture and Society (Montreal, Canada). He is currently investigating daily mobility behaviors and the role that proximity plays in contemporary ways of lives. He is particularly interested in urban segregation, job-related mobility, energy consumption, and uses of active modes of transport.

Stéphanie Vincent-Geslin

Stéphanie Vincent-Geslin is a sociologist with a specialization in mobility and urban issues. She holds a PhD in sociology from the University Paris–Descartes La Sorbonne and gained research experience between 2009 and 2016 while working at the Laboratory of Urban Sociology (LaSUR) at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and at the Transport Economics Laboratory at ENTPE in Lyon, France. She is currently a researcher at the Institute of Geography and Sustainability at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Her research deals with mobility practices, modal change, and decision-making processes of transport mode, job-related mobility, and youth mobility patterns in urban contexts.

Yann Dubois

Yann Dubois holds a master’s in geography from the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. His research mainly focuses on spatial mobility and urban issues. He is currently working as a research fellow at the Urban Sociology Laboratory (LaSUR) of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (École Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne [EPFL]), where he is doing a PhD on cross-border mobility.