The Experience of Multilocal Living: Mobile Immobilities or Immobile Mobilities?

Abstract

three cases oF multIlocal lIVIngAude is sitting on the sofa in her little apartment in Switzerland.Bookshelves and photos line the walls, a big sofa, a small table and her desk with her computer leave little space.Aude says that this apartment is the first place for her, which she calls "mon chez moi" in her life.Aude is in her mid-thirties and works as nurse.She grew up in a small town in France.Aude worked in five places in different countries before coming to Switzerland.In each place she lived, she made a good friend to whom she still has close contact and visits regularly.Two of her friends made her godmother to their children and a third godchild is on its way."Godmothering" became her way of "doing family" 1 .One of her friends has four children she raises alone with little income.For Aude, this is "her family".She commutes to their place regularly during her long weekends and supports them with financial and practical help -"thanks to Easyjet", as she emphasised.Altogether, Aude has four main places where she stays and sleeps.Firstly, she works night shifts and has a room with a bed at the hospital.Secondly, she has an apartment where her job is and where the interview took place.Thirdly, she has her family in France.Finally, she visits her friends in Canada regularly.This multilocal setting resembles the image of an "archipelago of different islets" (Duchêne-Lacroix 2011, 2014b) where her life takes place.In Aude's narration, it is remarkable how the activities of her life are finely separated and split up between these places.The hospital is her working place.The apartment is her living place, where she is alone and can withdraw.Her friend in France is her family, where she helps with the children and in the household.1 | We understand "doing family" as a set of reflexive or routinised social practices which create, activate or change the family as a Gemeinschaft (Schier 2010; Von Arx and Duchêne-Lacroix 2014).

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