Immobility and insecure labour markets: an active response to precarious employment

摘要

This paper explores how people experience and respond to a post-industrial labour market\udcontext through residential (im)mobility. Focusing on places that are represented through a\udrange of official measures as ‘declining’, the research explains why people may remain in\udweaker labour market areas, rather than moving to places that could offer greater\udemployment opportunities. The case study approach focused on two urban neighbourhoods\udin England, Nearthorpe (Sheffield) and Eastland (Grimsby). The paper draws on repeated,\udin-depth, biographical interviews with 25 individuals across 18 households. The research\udshows that stability of residence was a necessary counterbalance to a low-paid and insecure\udwork context. Immobility facilitated access to a range of informal support networks. However,\udimmobility was not simply a by-product of lack of mobility or a passive state. This research\udconceptualises immobility as an active process in which participants engaged in different\udforms of adaptation and resistance in the face of changing labour market conditions.