Gil Viry

Coparenting and Children’s Adjustment to Divorce: The Role of Geographical Distance from Fathers

After divorce, shorter distances between parents’ homes are often seen as facilitating nonresident fathers’ involvement with their children, good coparenting practices, and children’s well-being. However, few studies have explored how geographical distance relates to coparenting and children’s adjustment. Moreover, the direction of causality remains unclear, as uninvolved fathers due to paternal disinterest, maternal gatekeeping, or interparental conflict are more likely to move farther away from their children. Based on a probability sample of 144 divorced mothers of school-aged children living in Geneva, Switzerland, this study explores how the distance between parents’ homes relates to maternal promotion of the father–child relationship (cohesive coparenting) and children’s emotional and behavioral outcomes. Results show that cohesive coparenting relates more to frequent father–child contacts by phone or e-mails than to residential proximity. Both cohesive coparenting and fathers’ residential proximity have positive and independent effects on children’s adjustment. Children whose fathers live nearby exhibit fewer behavioral difficulties and more prosocial behavior than children whose fathers live far away. These findings suggest that frequent contacts by phone or e-mail can substitute for distance in coparenting, but geographical proximity still matters for fathers’ contribution to children’s well-being. Overall, this study recommends that spatial and mobility dimensions should receive more attention in divorce research.

Migration and Long-Distance Commuting Histories and Their Links to Career Achievement in Germany: A Sequence Analysis

Moving and travelling extensively for job reasons is often seen as a way to achieve a successful career. Yet, evidence based on longitudinal data is limited. In this paper, we use a sequence analysis to study typical histories of intensive forms of work-related spatial mobility, i.e. migration, daily and weekly long-distance commuting and overnight business travel (called below ‘high mobility’), and their links to career achievement. Using retrospective survey data from Germany, we show that a variety of high mobility histories coexist. While migrations occur mainly in the first years of the professional life, the chances of experiencing long-distance daily or weekly commuting and frequent overnight business trips remain stable over the career. Some evidence was found that long-lasting high mobility is associated with better incomes. Nevertheless, having repeated experiences of high mobility has no positive impact, per se , on managerial responsibilities or socio-economic status. These findings suggest that high mobility has become a ‘usual’ feature in many job careers and is often a way of combining a distant job with a local attachment to a place, home or community, rather than a way of achieving upward career mobility. This study points out that, besides migration, long-distance commuting and frequent travel for job reasons should receive more attention in longitudinal research on spatial mobility.

High Mobility as Social Phenomenon

Over the past 20 years, several forms of long-distance travel have intensified in Europe and in most industrialised countries (Frandberg and Vilhelmson, 2011; Meissonnier, 2001; Schneider et al., 2002; Hofmeister, 2005). This refers to bi- or multi-location family arrangements (for example, living apart together relationships, commuter marriages, long-distance parenthood), a pied-a-terre near the workplace when the principal residence is hundreds of miles away, or leisure activities in multiple places (for example, vacation homes used seasonally). It also refers to daily long-distance or long-duration commuting, when people must travel hundreds of miles each day for their job, or spend a great deal of time commuting between home and work. Likewise, it includes people who often sleep away from home - whether for work-, leisure-, or family-related reasons. None of these forms of travel are completely new. However, while they were marginal practices just a few years ago, together they have become a major social phenomenon. In this book, we focus on work-related forms of long-distance travel. We grouped them under the umbrella term: high mobility.

High Mobility over the Life Course

We begin this chapter with a brief portrayal of three different mobility histories, those of Jean, Christelle and Thierry who participated in our study. Jean’s career has been marked by high mobility and regular absences from home. Having completed military service at age 20, Jean rose through the ranks of the French national railway company SNCF from ticket inspector, to train driver in the Paris metropolitan area, to finally becoming a high-speed train driver. Christelle has a diploma in sales and marketing. For several years, her job in sales involved 5-day periods away from home. At 31, she found a more sedentary job with a view to starting a family. Thierry teaches music at several music schools and municipal associations. Working in several locations means that he must commute over long distances in order to make a living wage.

Elite formation in the third industrial revolution

1. The heroes This paper examines brings together two topics normally understood separately: the study of elites and the processes by which new ‘technologies’ develop. We discuss these in the context of the new technology known as additive or 3D printing. We examine how it was that elites came to be formed in this new and as yet still-to-befully-formed area of development. We show behind every elite are formations of complex mobilities. We extract and visualize public patent data from the early history of this technology and consider the mobilities of innovation across organizations, relationships and affiliations. Social network analysis (SNA) is used here to examine critically the popular notion that elites are uniquely and individually responsible for what may be significant game-changing innovations.

Generations, Intergenerational Relationships, Generational Policy

This text, aimed at professionals, professors, and researchers working in different areas of the social sciences, is presented as a compendium of terms that seeks to “contribute to the current debate” about the fascinating subject of intergenerational relations. The Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences’ decision to publish this compendium was motivated by the diversity of intergenerational relations and the fact that such relations are “key to understanding the development of individuals and communities.” The authors attempt to create a unified conceptual structure that, based on the concept of generation (the manifest multidimensionality of which urgently calls for the creation of a network of language structured around this notion), makes it possible to use a “common language that is beneficial for overall communication” across disciplinary, linguistic, historical, social, and cultural boundaries. To this end, they have put their efforts into the creation of a conceptual guide, of an ambitious toolbox that can be used by different actors involved and interested in intergenerational relations. Why? To bring about further reflection on the concepts at play as used by the different currents, approaches and geographies and to facilitate and propitiate understanding of public discourse on this matter, often plagued with simplistic and, in many cases, dogmatic definitions. So, we have before us a necessary and coherent work. I outline some of the most significant tasks taken on by its authors. First of all, the creators of this compendium present an overview of the notion of generation. To do so, they use, among other methods, metaphors, those great grammatical and pedagogical resources, with which they blend elements in a kind of interdisciplinary intersection from fields of knowledge as solid and of such long cultural tradition as biology, history, anthropology, and sociology. Second, they explore some very suggestive questions, such as “The Three Phases of the Concept’s History” (p. 97) or “Orientations in the Current

Under Which Conditions Can Intensive Commuting Be a Way of Life

Travelling extensively for job reasons is often seen as a matter of personal choice, for the sake of one’s own career or family. Yet, evidence on subjective experience of spatial mobility practices remains limited. In this paper, we argue that socio-economic and mobility conditions impact the way people perceive and experience high mobility. A large European sample of highly mobile people were studied to determine to what extent long-distance commuting, long-distance relationships and regular absence from (the main) home for job reasons are perceived as a way of life, i.e. a situation where people have incorporated their practices of high mobility into their private life and shape a positive, lasting vision of them. We show that, in the long run, people making frequent overnight business trips, men, self-employees, those with a high work status and high mobility resources are more likely to see their mobility as positive. Long-distance commuters living with partner and children and those firmly settled in their place of residence tend to see their mobility as a necessity. Finally, women, single parents, people with a low work status, low mobility resources and poor access to transport facilities are more likely to perceive their mobility negatively, which can be seen as a forced mobile way of life. High positions at work were found to be a better predictor of a mobile way of life than education. Overall, this study shows that work-related high mobility may reinforce gender and social inequalities. Besides migration, long-distance commuting and frequent travel for job reasons should receive more attention in current debates and research on work-family balance.

High Mobility in Europe: An Overview

Using the quantitative part of the fob Mobility and Family Lives in Europe study (JobMob), the present chapter describes (1) the scope of high mobility in Europe, (2) to what extent Europeans are increasingly highly mobile, (3) who the highly mobile people are and (4) how they perceive their mobility. This general overview is discussed in the light of existing literature in the area. Such an overview has already been carried out, based on the 2007 survey conducted in the six countries of Germany, Spain, France, Switzerland, Belgium and Poland (Luck and Ruppenthal, 2010). This chapter pursues this work with a longitudinal approach. A few results from 2007 are presented again for comparison. Here we only consider the first four countries and reversible high mobility practices, namely, daily long-distance commuting, overnighting (long-distance weekly commuting and regular business travel) and long-distance relationships. People who have recently migrated are not considered highly mobile in the present book. Whenever possible, we highlight situations that are specific to each country and the form of high mobility considered.

Generations, Intergenerational Relationships, Generational Policy: A Trilingual Compendium

This text, aimed at professionals, professors, and researchers working in different areas of the social sciences, is presented as a compendium of terms that seeks to “contribute to the current debate” about the fascinating subject of intergenerational relations. The Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences’ decision to publish this compendium was motivated by the diversity of intergenerational relations and the fact that such relations are “key to understanding the development of individuals and communities.” The authors attempt to create a unified conceptual structure that, based on the concept of generation (the manifest multidimensionality of which urgently calls for the creation of a network of language structured around this notion), makes it possible to use a “common language that is beneficial for overall communication” across disciplinary, linguistic, historical, social, and cultural boundaries. To this end, they have put their efforts into the creation of a conceptual guide, of an ambitious toolbox that can be used by different actors involved and interested in intergenerational relations. Why? To bring about further reflection on the concepts at play as used by the different currents, approaches and geographies and to facilitate and propitiate understanding of public discourse on this matter, often plagued with simplistic and, in many cases, dogmatic definitions. So, we have before us a necessary and coherent work. I outline some of the most significant tasks taken on by its authors. First of all, the creators of this compendium present an overview of the notion of generation. To do so, they use, among other methods, metaphors, those great grammatical and pedagogical resources, with which they blend elements in a kind of interdisciplinary intersection from fields of knowledge as solid and of such long cultural tradition as biology, history, anthropology, and sociology. Second, they explore some very suggestive questions, such as “The Three Phases of the Concept’s History” (p. 97) or “Orientations in the Current

Job Mobilities and Family Lives in Europe (Second Wave)

This data documentation describes the second wave of the study Job Mobilities and Family Lives in Europe – Modern Mobile Living and its Relation to Quality of Life. A first wave was conducted in 2007 in six European countries: Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland, Poland and Belgium. Overall, 7,220 randomly selected individuals were interviewed. The study focused on three main aspects: first, on the prevalence and variety of job-related spatial mobility in Europe, second, on the causes and circumstances of people’s mobility decisions, and third, on the consequences of job-related spatial mobility for subjective well-being, family life, occupational career and social integration. Between 2010 and 2012, a second wave of the survey was carried out. It consists of a follow-up survey that was completed in four countries (Germany, Spain, Switzerland and France) and of additional surveys oversampling highly mobile individuals in Germany and France. In the follow-up survey, 1,735 respondents from the initial survey could be interviewed again (overall response rate: 34.5%). The resulting panel structure provides a deeper insight into the research interests by providing an opportunity for longitudinal analysis. Moreover, this opportunity is enhanced by a collection of extensive retrospective data about spatial mobility, employment, partnership and family. The survey also includes new content with topics such as social integration, volunteerism and social mobility. In the additional surveys, 499 randomly selected, job-related spatially mobile individuals were interviewed in Germany and France. It aimed to increase the number of people who were spatially mobile for job-related reasons in order to provide a large enough subsample to analyse the situation of these mobile people in a differentiated way. This document features a description of the forms of mobility investigated in the followup and the additional surveys, the contents of the questionnaire, the sampling procedure, the fieldwork, the sample dropouts and the weighting of the data. The data set is available as a scientific use file at GESIS Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences (study number: ZA 5066, doi:10.4232/1.12644).