Moving beyond immobility: Spatial stories of undergraduate mobility at the “local” college

Henderson, Holly

Abstract

In the English higher education context, “going to” university is commonly associated with leaving the familial home at the age of 18 and moving to a new city. This article sets out to problematise dominant narratives of student mobilities, by focusing on the everyday and imagined mobilities of students who stay in place for their degree education. On the basis of data from a case study of undergraduate education in further education colleges in England, the article sets out three challenges to the binary opposition between student mobilities and immobilities. First, the simple association between immobility, disadvantage, and deficit is challenged. The second challenge complicates perceptions of traditionally mobile undergraduates. Finally, the imagined “other lives” of local students challenge their characterisation as unable or unwilling to imagine student mobility. The article both highlights and seeks to resist powerful popular understandings of mobilities and undergraduate education.

Citation

Henderson, H. (2020). Moving beyond immobility: Spatial stories of undergraduate mobility at the “local” college. Population, Space and Place, 26(3), Article e2319. https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2319

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 22, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Feb 5, 2020
• Publication Date: 2020-04
• Deposit Date: Feb 10, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 6, 2022
• Journal: Population, Space and Place
• Print ISSN: 1544-8444
• Electronic ISSN: 1544-8452
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 26
• Issue: 3
• Article Number: e2319
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2319
• Keywords: Geography, Planning and Development; Demography
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3919011
• Publisher URL: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/psp.2319?af=R
• Additional Information: This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Henderson, H. Moving beyond immobility: Spatial stories of undergraduate mobility at the “local” college. Popul Space Place. 2020;e2319, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2319. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.