RGS-IBG Session on Diversity in transitions to adulthood and implications for residential mobility

RGS-IBG Annual Conference 2011

London, 31st August to 2nd September

CALL FOR PAPERS

Diversity in transitions to adulthood and implications for residential mobility

Convenors: Nissa Finney (University of Manchester) and Naomi Tyrrell (University of Plymouth)

Sponsored by the Population Geography Research Group and the

Geographies of Children, Youth and Families Research Group

Migration has long been recognised as an experience associated strongly with life stage. However, it is relatively recently that substantial attention has been paid to the interaction between migration and lifecourse, as demonstrated by the publication of special issues on this topic in Population, Space and Place (2008) and Demographic Research (2007). This emerging arena of research has been propelled by findings that transitions to adulthood and migration’s relation to family change are more complex than previous understandings recognised. So too, the geographies of migration across the lifecourse have increased in their complexity. Thus Geist and McManus (2008, 283) assert that “the increasing complexity of career and family trajectories throughout adulthood call for a re-examination of geographical mobility across all age groups”.

In lifecourse research, there has been recent theorisation about destandardisation and the increase in complexity of transitions to adulthood, in parallel with more general concerns in the social sciences with individualisation of experiences. This has led to calls for the study of the experiences of subcultures and subgroups and the comment that “the life course literature has largely ignored these alternative life course patterns” (Dannefer 2003, 651).

This session engages with these debates by focusing on the implications of diverse transitions to adulthood for residential mobility. Papers are welcomed from any national/regional context. Themes of papers may include:

–          Career aspirations and trajectories

–          Access to housing; changing housing markets

–          Ethnic differences in higher education participation

–          Cultural meanings of marriage

–          Understandings of home

–          Gender and mobility

–          Intergenerational transfer (e.g. of cultural norms, economic resources) and housing choice

–          Community ties and networks

–          Family influence on housing decisions

–          Financial constraints and material resources

– Methods for researching transitions to adulthood and residential mobility

If you would like to present a paper in this session, please send an abstract of 200 words to Nissa Finney (nissa.finney@manchester.ac.uk) and Naomi Tyrrell (naomi.tyrrell@plymouth.ac.uk) by 7th February 2011.