Volha Vysotskaya
Jan Skrobanek
Ute Karl
The research from the MOVE project leading to these results has received funding from Horizon 2020 under Grant Agreement N° 649263.
Final MOVE Conference
Luxembourg
9 March 2018
Young people on the move: agency in the context of young
people’s cross-border mobility experiences for work
State of art: Agency
Bourdieu
Giddens
Emirbayer and Mische
capture notions of free will, choice and volitional action
agency is always with structure
agency is in everything
emphasis on temporal dimension
3 changing agentic orientations of agency
A and S are linked differently
•
agency in habitus
•
all persons have the
capacity of agency to “actively
make the social world “
•
agency is only conscious
understanding of a person’s
perception of the situation
•
structure and agency are
conceptualised as mutually
constitutive
•
to ‘make a difference’, to exercise
of power
•
iterational dimension (based on habits and
schemas )
•
projective towards the future, imagination
•
practical-evaluative dimension -possibilities of the
actual situation , judgement
agency is dominated by
structure and the embodiment
of the habitus
link A/S is romantic ( Collins (1992) agency as “social and relational … since agency
centres around the engagement by actors of the
different contextual components that constitute their
own structured yet flexible social universes”
Point of departure
•
to understand mobility by including temporal dimension in mobility: three dimensions of habit,
imagination, and judgement (HIJ)
•temporal-relational contexts support particular agentic orientations” (Emirbayer and Mische
1998, 1004)
•different patterns of the interlacement of habit, imagination, judgement, and a concrete
(historical) situation can be identified in situations of mobility
•
elaborate on the possibilities to practically reconstruct agency within migration studies by
analysing how young people speak retrospectively about the process of moving abroad for work-
and employment-related purposes
Data and Methods
•
Grounded theory
•Agency as a sensitising concept
•
Reconstruction of the the interlacement of habit, imagination, and judgement in and with a
concrete (historical) situation
•Employment mobility
•Young people between 18 and 29 years old
•Various skills, male, female, mostly single
3 cases from the data corpus: 3 different patterns of the interlacement of agentic orientations
•
Nika from Iceland
•
Greta from Greece
Case 1: Nika
Challenges in going on with the habitualised while imagining a better future
habit • no previous mobility
habitual orientations: security, economic wellbeing,
When I was going home from work, and I was paid I called my husband and said now we have to go. It was very little paid, so it is not easy (in Iceland), it is very expensive, you cannot save money to buy a house or apartment and the salary is not good and wealth
• habitual development caused by the emergence of a “mobility option”
Then I started to think about how we can make the life easier for our children, better salaries, try to do new things
imagination • optimistic of future through mobility
Future is linked with habitual orientations regarding her and her family’s socio-economic (in)security
I thought it will be easier in Norway, I suppose to get to the places we want to be faster, we can save up money here, and we can maybe build the house, this is his [husband] dream
• open to future and positive outcome
Norway] gives me the feeling to think about the future
judgement • mobility frame: negative view on her chances vs. an attractive alternative elsewhere
So, I called him [her husband] and said we had to move
• connection between her own situational interpretation and a collective imagination of the situation
Case 1: Nicolas
Why not be mobile? Living in the present and being open to opportunities coming to your life
habit • mobility as routine, curiosity driven
habitual orientations: flexibility, independence, mobility Yes, I was looking [for a job] but that was difficult here in Luxembourg, also because I went back to live with my parents, and now I have been living alone for so long. So... after seven years of living alone, going back to your parents’ place is not like the best thing for you to happen if you like living a little bit more free
• decision to look for other opportunities that fit his habitual practices—of being mobile
Absolutely, I would absolutely call it transition year, [that year] for me was coming back from University, looking for a job, couldn't find one, being back with my parents. So when the opportunity came to go to [town A in Germany] I was like OK, I will be living by myself again (00:07:25)
imagination • staying open to future
No job at home vs. doing uncommon mobility
95% of the people I know of my friends live in Luxembourg...I , I am the only one who is living abroad, and, friends are calling me: when are you coming back, when are you coming back, you know?
• no fixed priorities
open towards the social environment and enjoying the life opportunities
I was not really uhm, looking for it but when it came, I, because I was not opposed to it, I was like: Why not?
judgement • mobility driven by opportunity, rather than of structural constraints
… getting my first job in a really nice town, there was nothing that, that could have kept me at that moment. I had no
girlfriend
• cultural capital gained and gained mobility experience allow him to adapt to anywhere
Case 1: Greta
Step by step towards realising life objectives in mobility
habit • socio economic situation vs. determines to come to the UK
habitual orientations: flexibility, independence, mobility No, the thing is, I mean, the way things are in Greece right now, everybody is …looking around, and depending on the languages you speak, ...you're a bit limited if you don't go for England, then … your next option are international countries
• decision to look for other opportunities that fit his habitual practices—of being mobile
I think that for Greek people, what makes sense, is to move to [city A in the UK] because most people do a Master in [city A in the UK], the next step is to find somewhere to work there and stay, and due to language barriers of course you're more comfortably moving in
imagination • present mobility phase is imagined from the viewpoint of her future , ( UK)
In, in [city A in the UK], you're one of a million. There the
demand is quite high, so you might ... be able to find something, but it's gonna be ... very ... entry, entry level, so you will start by distributing coffees, and eh we already had some experience in Greece, so it was just easier to go, it's the second-best choice, because you can come through, eh with English. Any other destination would be more difficult
• habitual and judgement orientation towards the move to Luxembourg is strongly rooted in her projection on the UK. • Her current mobility phase is temporary
Again, I ... will think at my first eh initial thought, but, I say that I have [city A in the UK] in mind, but that's like eh … five, six, seven year, plan …when I moved here, I, I felt like it was for more than eh, a year. but eh one year later, I feel happy with myself, you did a year
judgement • professional life to her own present situation, her age, her capabilities in the country of origin vs. open-minded towards future due to an unfamiliar environment in the new destination
I knew that I won't make the change a lot of times so I thought, that if I don't do it now, I will, I will do it more reluctantly, at 30, so if it fails, it's okay I can always go back or find something else, but eh for now, it felt good
• linking social environment to her personal character
Analysis
Case 1. Nika
Case 2. Nikolas
Case 3. Greta
Challenges in going on with
the habitualised while
imagining a better future
Why not be mobile? Living in
the present and being open to
opportunities coming to your
life
Step by step towards realising life
objectives in mobility
habit
security orientation
flexibility and adaptability
determination and planning
imagination
aspirations and hope for the
future in the new country
determination for plan
realisation
why not –keeping open and flexible
judgement
