Synchrony of Intersecting Temporalities in Young People’s Housing Transitions: Intergenerational Cross-national Comparisons

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper takes a longer historical view on the topic of young people and housing and examines how intersecting temporalities affect both the timing of moving out of the parental household and the subsequent housing trajectories for three generations in the same families. Synchrony between levels of biographical, family and historical time are important for timing of transitions. A main question addressed is if and how synchrony or lack of such between temporal levels affect biographical decisions in questions of housing and moving out. The paper is based on a study with a case-based cross-national comparative design and involves analysis of cases set in the wider contexts of Norwegian and British societies. In both countries changes at the structural level across generations have affected timing of moving out at the family and biographical levels and thus the synchrony involved in these processes.