Socialisation to High Mobility?
Résumé
This chapters examines the ways highly mobile people are formed by high mobility, that is acquire the skills, practices and values of high mobility, and transformed through the experience of high mobility, that is change their skills, practices and values previously acquired. We draw here on the notion of socialisation defined as formation and transformation (Darmon, 2006) to investigate this process. We first define the concept of socialisation and situate it in the sociological tradition. We then explore the role of primary (childhood) and secondary (adulthood) socialisation to high mobility. We finally discuss the ways these two types of socialisation influence how highly mobile people experience, feel and plan for the future their mobility. We show two different attitudes towards mobility experiences during childhood and within the family (primary socialisation). For some, high mobility appears to be a continuation of childhood mobility experiences. Others, however, reject the mobility practices to which they were exposed early in life. Concerning secondary socialisation, we show that, for some people, certain mobility experiences, such as travel or job training, serve more or less as direct preparation for high mobility. For others, preparation for high mobility occurs through practice, with greater or lesser degrees of success.