Analyzing life spaces

Research Objectives Instead of assigning 1 person  1 place only acknowledging that 1 person  several places i.e. taking into account, measuring the portion of people’s territory comprising a diversity of locations with which they interact: throughout their life through their activities through the members of their social network  Ultimately create synthetic quantitative indicators which can be integrated in the analyses

The life space at any point in time ‘constructed with all the places with which individuals are interacting simultaneously, directly or through the people who live there’ (Courgeau, 1975) place of residence and place of work (activity space) the respondents’ parents’ place of residence, their children’s and sibs’ places of residence i.e. their network space (social space) the space with which people identify, holiday places and others quoted by the respondents (awareness space) At the time of the survey…

The question of the data The “Biographies et entourage” survey conducted by INED in 2001, it collected 2,830 life histories of individuals’ contact circle (entourage), retracing the family, residential and occupational event histories along four generations through interviews with people born between 1930 and 1950 and living in Île-de-France. provides an extensive range of locations used here as a testing ground

What dimensions for measurement ? Size:  number of distinct locations Composition:  respective weights of the different types of location Dispersion:  momentum  centrality ratio index Shape:  from the momemtum to the notion of hub

Diagram of the notion of hub

Defining hubs: implementation I) HCA : Hierarchical Cluster Analysis on the spatial coordinates of all locations for each respondent set of locations  clusters made up of locations II) 2 criteria (applied to select the clusters) : the clusters distance from the place of residence of the individuals a minimal concentration of locations in the clusters location clusters  hubs

Paul 1

Paul 2

 The two criteria: a) the distance from the respondent’s place of residence: => all places in a radius of less than 50 km from the respondents’ residence are aggregated to the cluster containing the place of residence b) locations concentration: => the clusters made of at least 3 different locations qualify as hubs  

Paul 2bis

Paul 3 

Paul 4

Typology of current life spaces

Composition of current life spaces Hubs where ego resides: Place of residence Place of work Children's places of residence Hubs where ego doesn’t resides: Parents' places of residence Residual locations: Second homes, holiday homes Other visited locations (resorts, …) Siblings' places are scattered in life space

The current life space: a point of the history PAST: Reference space Reference space (places of the family origins) = ressource 41% for 41% of the respondents FUTURE: 36% at least one place where they would intend to move 36% of the respondents who have a hub where they don’t reside and who intend to move quote at least one place where they would intend to move and which is located within the hub

Possible avenues of research Observe the evolution of the life spaces all along the life course Introduce others definitions of the life spaces: Change temporality (everyday life places space,…) Change delimitation (family network space,…)