ABSTRACT
Introduction There is an extensive literature on residential migration that demonstrates how migration is closely related to the life course, with most movement being undertaken by young adults, and with many moves precipitated by key life course events such as marriage, birth of a child, divorce, children leaving home, retirement or death of a partner (Rossi, 1980; Champion and Fielding, 1992; Pooley and Turnbull, 1998). It seems reasonable to suggest that everyday mobility will also be affected by life course factors, and the ways in which family commitments can constrain mobility have already been alluded to in earlier chapters. In this chapter we focus on two aspects of the relationship between mobility, family and the life course. First, we examine the ways in which the mobility of children aged 10/11, those most dependent on adults for their mobility, is affected by family circumstances, and the ways in which this has changed over time since the 1940s. Second, we focus on respondents born 1932-1941, and examine the ways in which the mobility experience for this group has altered over their life course: what are the key changes in mobility experience that they have encountered during their life time? This is achieved by combining some quantitative evidence with the use of detailed case studies to create vignettes of mobility life histories.
