Mobility: Ideological Discourse and Individual Narratives

Abstract

In the context of contemporary university education, young adults can be faced with a dominant discourse in which mobility is both central and highly valued; they therefore experience an increasing pressure towards international mobility. Based on in-depth interviews with European Commission interns, Erasmus students and local students in Brussels, the article examines the interpretations and significations young adults associate with mobility, as well as the extent to which it participates in the understanding of their own life course. It shows that mobility, in the way it is perceived throughout their narratives, can be understood as a form of capital. At the same time, interviewees distance themselves from dominant discourse, insisting on the authenticity of their own motivations, namely “curiosity”, “self-realization” and the discovery of difference. The distinction from both the dominant discourse and from what is considered as illegitimate forms of mobility allows the young adults to justify and interpret their own mobilities and immobilities.