Mobilités circulaires entre les métropoles Européennes et Reconfigurations des Espaces de Vie – MEREV

1. Scientific background and objectives In our increasingly mobile Western societies, where the motivations and destinations of population movements are numerous and varied, new mobility behaviours, as yet not well known or understood, are spreading across Europe. This research concerns international circulatory mobility patterns between European metropolises. These mobility patterns are defined by regular and/or frequent movements to and from a main place of residence. They differ from other forms of mobility by the fact that they entail an accumulation of experiences and a strong awareness on the part of the individuals concerned of the number and variety of settings encountered. In this way they are today a very good indicator of the emergence of new, original territorialities. This project aims to apprehend how the populations involved in these circulatory mobility patterns reconfigure their living space, both in the way they use it and in representations they entertain of it. Indeed, these frequent movements on the one hand generate new needs, create opportunities, and implicate time-space management constraints (family, social, etc) that all contribute to reconfiguration of living spaces; and on the other, they alter the spatial representations entertained by these mobile populations, which in turn influence the reconfiguration. Thus the hypothesis of this work is that there is a strong relationship between international circulatory movements, and usage and representations of the living spaces by the individuals involved. These spaces will be apprehended explicitly in their multi-scalar dimensions: daily living territories, the overall metropolitan territory in which the place of residence is located, the network of places frequented/used, or even the places of reference overall whether or not they are frequented/used. The project is structured around four main lines of research. The first sets out to identify the main types of circular mobility in their spatio-temporal dimensions. The second aims to understand how the "chain of mobility" becomes established. This expression refers on the one hand to the combination of movements on the part of a given individual for different reasons or motives, and on the other to the diffusion of mobility patterns through the social network to which the mobile individual belongs. The third research theme aims to develop explicative models to evidence specific factors governing the reconfiguration of living space. The task is, in particular, to pinpoint the determining role of circulatory mobility patterns. The fourth line of exploration aims to characterise the way in which these mobility patterns could contribute to re-structuring metropolitan regions, and in particular urban "centralities". This is an important issue for the management of these metropolises, because of the use made of them by mobile populations. 2. Methodology Fields of study Since the most diversified circulatory movements are observed to occur among the large European metropolises, this project has selected five as the focus of its investigations. The aims is to study the relationships between metropolitan mobility patterns and the dynamics of the living spaces of individuals residing in one of the following five European metropolises: Berlin, Brussels, Lisbon, London and Paris. Choice of mobilities Circulatory mobility behaviours among European metropolises are motivated by different factors: they may be professional, educational, family, or touristic, and these factors can be combined and cumulate. By defining the object of study from these circular mobility patterns rather than from types of population involved in this type of mobility, the area of study is widened in relation to previous work. Investigation methods The different lines of research for this project require the combination of several modes of investigation to provide keys for the interpretation of the ways in which the individual and the collective spheres are articulated. So as to provide a general framework for the spatio-temporal configurations of circular mobility patterns in Europe, aggregate data will be used, and exploited via the implementation of classic tools for flow analysis (graph theory, modelling and mapping). The exploration of these mobility patterns and reconfigurations of living space will be conducted using questionnaires of the biographical type, and in-depth semi-directed interviews of a sample of subjects involved in circulatory mobility.