Rights statement: The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, The Sociological Review 64 (3), 2016, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2016 by SAGE Publications Ltd at The Sociological Review page: https://journals.sagepub.com/home/sor on SAGE Journals Online: http://journals.sagepub.com/
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Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Toward a critical sociology of lifestyle migration
T2 - reconceptualizing migration and the search for a better way of life
AU - Benson, Michaela
AU - Osbaldiston, Nick
N1 - The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, The Sociological Review 64 (3), 2016, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2016 by SAGE Publications Ltd at The Sociological Review page: https://journals.sagepub.com/home/sor on SAGE Journals Online: http://journals.sagepub.com/
PY - 2016/8/1
Y1 - 2016/8/1
N2 - This article places under critical and reflexive examination the theoretical underpinnings of the concept of lifestyle migration. Developed to explain the migration of the relatively affluent in search of a better way of life, this concept draws attention to the role of lifestyle within migration, alongside understandings of migration as one stage within the ongoing lifestyle choices and trajectories of individual migrants. Through a focus on two paradigms that are currently at work within theorizations of this social phenomenon – individualization and mobilities – we evaluate their contribution to this flourishing field of research. In this way, we demonstrate the limitations and constraints of these for understanding lifestyle migration; engaging with long-standing debates around structure and agency to make a case for the recognition of history in understanding the pursuit of ‘a better way of life’; questioning the extent to which meaning is made through movement, and the politics and ethics of replacing migration with mobilities. Through this systematic consideration, we pave the way for re-invigorated theorizing on this topic, and the development of a critical sociology of lifestyle migration.
AB - This article places under critical and reflexive examination the theoretical underpinnings of the concept of lifestyle migration. Developed to explain the migration of the relatively affluent in search of a better way of life, this concept draws attention to the role of lifestyle within migration, alongside understandings of migration as one stage within the ongoing lifestyle choices and trajectories of individual migrants. Through a focus on two paradigms that are currently at work within theorizations of this social phenomenon – individualization and mobilities – we evaluate their contribution to this flourishing field of research. In this way, we demonstrate the limitations and constraints of these for understanding lifestyle migration; engaging with long-standing debates around structure and agency to make a case for the recognition of history in understanding the pursuit of ‘a better way of life’; questioning the extent to which meaning is made through movement, and the politics and ethics of replacing migration with mobilities. Through this systematic consideration, we pave the way for re-invigorated theorizing on this topic, and the development of a critical sociology of lifestyle migration.
KW - Lifestyle migration
KW - mobilities
KW - individualism
KW - historical sociology
KW - migration
U2 - 10.1111/1467-954x.12370
DO - 10.1111/1467-954x.12370
M3 - Journal article
VL - 64
SP - 407
EP - 423
JO - The Sociological Review
JF - The Sociological Review
SN - 0038-0261
IS - 3
ER -