Towards a mobility biography approach to long-distance travel and mobility links

Abstract

´Mobility biographies´ research has highlighted how different forms of spatial mobilities co-evolve over the life course. Yet, so far, it has focused on (largely short-distance) daily travel behaviour, and relied on socio-psychological understandings of travel habits. In this conceptual chapter, I propose to extend the mobility biography approach to long-distance travel (LDT), arguing that this requires some adaptation. Given the nature of much LDT (infrequent, non-habitual, pre-planned 'breaks from routine') greater emphasis should be placed on life-long habituation and socialisation dynamics, i.e. how intensive patterns of LDT develop (or not) over the life course. Notably, the 'mobility links' between LDT and other forms of long-distance mobility (e.g. migration, multilocality) deserve particular attention, as they can be self-reinforcing. In the chapter, I focus in particular on three underlying mechanisms: i) the acquisition of skills and dispositions; ii) the development of spatially dispersed social networks; iii) the participation in distance-intensive social practices.