Paper short abstract:

This paper explores sociability practices developed to maintain relationships when everyday life is no longer shared due to work-related mobility. This involves maintaining a presence in local social networks during temporary periods on the territory, but also being present when physically absent.

Paper long abstract:

Based on ethnographic research conducted in rural southwest France, this paper explores sociability practices developed to maintain relationships when everyday life is no longer shared due to work-related mobility. Rather than focusing on relationships in the new place of residence, we aim to examine the maintenance of ties in the place of origin (which consequently affects the new relations).

In this rural area, mobility involves daily commuting, but also longer discontinuities. This is the case of skilled professionals who have moved to distant places (transnationally and nationally) that do not allow for frequent returns, but who have the resources to return several times a year. We focus specifically on those who intend to stay close to local sociability networks that they can no longer frequent daily. The aim is to examine how they symbolize the ties that bridge the discontinuity of their presence.

Maintaining a presence in the associative milieu that traditionally structures local social activity (football team, events committee, etc.) and in major social events (village festivities, weddings, etc.), places them in the same spaces of sociability with those remaining. These practices are a way of demonstrating a collective past, but also of continuing to share a lifestyle with friends and family.

Besides the temporary moments of presence on the territory, it's also possible to observe how bonds are nurtured during their physical absence. This includes being present despite the distance (as in virtual social networks), but also remaining present in conversations, objects, etc., recalled by those who remain.