ABSTRACT
The shift of interest within mobility research towards more detailed and individual accounts of personal experience and senses of identity has reached the stage where a variety of responses to being mobile is becoming clear. It should not be surprising that men and women encounter mobility in different ways, and explain their reactions in distinctive narratives (compare Lawler 1999 with Miles et al. 2011). There is no reason to believe that young people, fresh from having become mobile, will explain themselves in the same way as older men who are well-advanced in their careers (compare Giazitzoglu 2014 with Miles et al. 2011). It is plausible that differing extents, routes, and directions of mobility produce a range of effects in post-mobility life. However, despite Morgan’s (2005: 172) call for the intersection of masculinity, social class, and lived-experience to be investigated, we are currently still at a very early stage. This chapter explores some of the issues connected with experiencing mobility for formerly working-class men in the UK. In particular, it considers those who have become self-employed rather than employees.
