Local and transnational every day practices in four European cities: Are new barbarians on the road?
Résumé
Based upon comparative empirical research, this chapter deals with the transnational mobility and rootedness practices of a segment of the upper middle classes (managers) in four European cities: Paris, Madrid, Milan and Lyon.1 The research follows a micro-level perspective, looking at individual experiences and practices and how they are expressed in interviews. In contrast to other studies on mobility (Elliott and Urry, 2010), this chapter simultaneously deals with the dynamics of mobility and rootedness of managers living in neighbourhoods with different social composition (mixed and homogeneous). We explore how these people combine mobility and deterritorialized practices, together with their embeddedness in their urban context and neighbourhoods. Comparing socially contrasted neighbourhoods allows us to grasp how our interviewees develop different practices in relation to their social context. Our main hypothesis is that this social group is developing ‘partial exit’ strategies, investing resources outside the city and developing transnational networks also to organize and defend its interests at the local level. In socially mixed neighbourhoods, where managers live with less privileged social groups, we expect these managers to put into practice ‘partial exit’ strategies to a larger extent than those managers living in homogeneous neighbourhoods.