Job-related spatial mobility is a subject of great importance in Europe. But how mobile are the Europeans? What are the consequences of professional mobility for quality of life, family life and social relationships? For the first time these questions are analysed on the basis of the data of a large-scale European survey. This vo l - ume analyses the causes and determinants of job mobility and their individual and societal consequences in cross-national comparison.

Job-related spatial mobility is a subject of great importance in Europe. But how mobile are the Europeans? What are the consequences of professional mobility for quality of life, family life and social relationships? For the first time these questions are analysed on the basis of the findings of a large-scale European survey.The contributions in Volume 1 are directed at the diversity and the extent of mobility in six European countries (Germany, Spain, France, Poland, Switzerland, Belgium).

This book brings together ten original empirical works focusing on the influence of various types of spatial mobility – be it international or national– on partnership, family and work life. The contributions cover a range of important topics which focus on understanding how spatial mobility is related to familial relationships and life course transitions. The volume offers new insights by bringing together the state of the art in theoretical and empirical approaches from spatial mobility and international migration research. This includes, for example, studies that investigate the relationships between international migration and changing patterns of partnership choice, family formation and fertility. Complementing to this, this volume presents new empirical studies on job-related residential mobility and its impact on the relationship quality of couples, family life, and union dissolution. It also highlights the importance of research that looks at the reciprocal relationships between mobility and life course events such as young adults leaving the parental home in international migration context, re-arrangements of family life after divorce and spatial mobility of the elderly following life transitions. The scholarly work included in this volume does not only contribute to theoretical debates but also provide timely empirical evidence from various societies which represent the common features in the dynamics of spatial mobility and migration.

Travelling intensively to and for work helps but also challenges people to find ways of balancing work and personal life. Drawing on a large European longitudinal study, Mobile Europe explores the diversity and ambivalence of mobility situations and the implications for family and career development.

Mobility, which has represented a critical scientific category and political driver, is currently under strong public scrutiny: has mobility lost its potential for social cohesion and political integration? Europe Beyond Mobility: Mobilities, Social Cohesion and Political Integration assesses this question by focusing on the European integration process, conceptualized as a political project for the promotion of different flows of mobility. Mobility has been a fundamental tool for territorial strength and political integration among European countries. Based on a realistic understanding of the potentials and limits of mobility, this book pleads for a "resonant mobility" in the interest of a renovated European integration process. It examines how, in opposition to those advocating for national borders and mobility restrictions, the EU needs to explore new regulatory models which limit mobility’s adverse social, economic, and environmental impacts and make accessible the benefits of alternative flow models. It also provides an analytical framework for the study of current trends of mobility limitation, migration restriction and re-bordering, and offers a complementary and innovative framework for the study of globalization. Europe Beyond Mobility will be of interest to academics and students as well as policy makers and practitioners internationally in the fields of mobility, migration and border studies.

Wellbeing of Families in Future Europe: Challenges for Research and Policy - FAMILYPLATFORM - Families in Europe Vol. 1

The theme of this issue of Perspectives on youth is “Connections and disconnections”. Our authors have contributed articles on migration, employment mobility, new familial relations, the Internet and new media, young people’s social and political engagement, their connections with their own countries, with Europe or the wider world, and intercultural contacts in general, and others besides. They address the potential benefts but also the tensions and contradictions that are inherent in contemporary social, cultural, economic and technological changes. Such changes are creating opportunities for young people to connect in new and positive ways with other young people, with their families and communities and with social institutions, in ways that increasingly “cross borders” of various kinds. But it is also clear that these changes do not always take place in a smooth or mutually complementary way: expanded opportunities are not necessarily enhanced opportunities; increased participation in education has not translated into more and better employment prospects; societies and communities are increasingly diverse and yet some perceive this as a threat rather than an opportunity. A related question arises as to whether the policies that are designed both to shape and respond to young people’s circumstances and the resulting practices are themselves appropriately connected or disconnected with each other. Perspectives on youth is published by the partnership of the European Union and the Council of Europe in the feld of youth with the support of fve countries: Belgium, Finland, France, Germany and the United Kingdom. Its purpose is to bring national youth policies closer together and to keep the dialogue on key problems of child and youth policy on a solid foundation in terms of content, expertise and politics. The series aims to act as a forum for information, discussion, refection and dialogue on European developments in the feld of youth policy, youth research and youth work and to contribute to the development and promotion of a youth policy and of a youth work practice that is based on knowledge and participatory principles. It is also intended to be a forum for peer-learning between member states of the European Union and the Council of Europe.