ABSTRACT
Multi-local living is on the rise. This development was the starting point for my considerations. The term describes the long-term living arrangements across two or more residences. This is by no means a new social phenomenon, but it has been undergoing a fundamental change due to the ever-faster social changes in late modernity. It interacts with numerous social fields of action, for example with the infrastructures of housing and transport, settlement trends, civic commitment, social relationships (partnership, family, or neighbourhood), or investment behaviour. The present paper is based on a study which above all aimed to explore the phenomenological breadth of multi-local living. The study design puts a strong emphasis on the multi-locals’ practices of everyday life. The issues raised relate to action patterns in and meanings of multi-local arrangements, focusing on the relationality of the housing locations. The methodological core of the study consists of 31 qualitative interviews with multi-local actors (and some of their partners) in Switzerland. The main findings resulted in a real-world typology of the lifeworlds of people living multi-locally. Based on the present analysis of multi-local living, a phenomenon emerges that cannot be attributed to a specific academic research field but must be regarded as a distinctive socio-spatial strategy.
