Care-related journeys over the life course: Thinking mobility biographies with gender, care and the household

Abstract

As they go about everyday life, members of households negotiate complex arrangements around mobility and immobility, which continue to change over time. Mobility biographies research has made an important contribution to our understanding of these dynamics. At the same time, mobility biographies often rely on limited definitions of the household and change over the life-course, reflecting an empirical focus on cohabiting nuclear families in North-West Europe. In this paper, we approach everyday im/mobilities as based in the changing relations of care which shape the everyday life of households. We demonstrate how the care relations which underlie everyday im/mobilities are gendered and intergenerational, exceeding distinctions between productive and reproductive activities, or living together and apart. The transformations which everyday im/mobilities undergo over the life-course are not limited to pre-defined milestones, but unfold through a range of abrupt, subtle and multi-directional processes. Drawing on data from Manila and London, we examine these dynamics with particular reference to childcare and ageing, in order to make visible the complex ways in which households negotiate and re-negotiate everyday im/mobilities.