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A Global Sociology on Lifestyle Migrations

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International Residential Mobilities

Part of the book series: Geographies of Tourism and Global Change ((GTGC))

Abstract

This chapter explores lifestyle migration from the vantage point of a global sociology of migration. It picks up strands of the transnational approach to migration studies and asks what other concepts and concerns emerge when lifestyle migration is added to our picture of global migrations. The chapter explores how the self-understanding and place representations of North-South migration, often studied in lifestyle migration scholarship, reflect global inequalities. Drawing on Bourdieu’s field theory, the chapter develops some key concepts for lifestyle migration scholars to think with, concepts that allow us to locate self-projects, identities, emotions and place representations in global social space. The chapter also reflects on the role of a critical, public sociological approach that lifestyle migration may be able to develop towards lifestyle migration and global inequality.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For lack of a better concept, I wish to extend the notion Bourdieu developed in terms of a social space to the global level, by bringing into the frame a global history of unequal distribution of the rewards (material, symbolic) of collectively produced surpluses. Though the working classes of postwar France occupied low status and economic positions in the French social field, this latter was configured in relation to French colonies, and the ability of French consumers to acquire objects that were produced with the labour power of low-paid, racialized workers.

  2. 2.

    It is also important to note how racial hierarchies affected the redistribution of surpluses within core regions of the global economy. As only one example, in the United States, mortgage lending practices such as “red-lining” discriminated against African Americans and prevented the accumulation of wealth for many black workers (see Gotham, 2002).

  3. 3.

    Whether this continues beyond 2020 is very much up in the air in light of the ongoing coronavirus emergency in much of the world at time of writing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, St. Thomas University, Fredericton, NB, Canada

    Matthew Hayes

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  1. Matthew Hayes
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canari, Las Palmas, Spain

    Josefina Dominguez-Mujica

  2. Geography and Spatial Planning, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal

    Jennifer McGarrigle

  3. Department of Geography, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas, Spain

    Juan Manuel Parreño-Castellano

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Hayes, M. (2021). A Global Sociology on Lifestyle Migrations. In: Dominguez-Mujica, J., McGarrigle, J., Parreño-Castellano, J.M. (eds) International Residential Mobilities. Geographies of Tourism and Global Change. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77466-0_1

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