1259 | 471 | Temporary residents in German cities: everyday places and emotional attachments | Maya Kretzschmar
Housing is often perceived as permanent, not only in everyday life, but also from an academic perspective. However, in a society characterized by increasing mobility and individualization, temporary living arrangements are no longer a rare phenomenon. Postmodern living and working environments with end-standardized rhythms lead to individualized and flexibilized lifestyles that are not conceived as permanent but often as temporary. _x000D_
Atypical forms of employment have increased in recent years. Both precarious employment, such as temporary work, and fixed-term employment contracts or project work can result in the need for temporary stays in cities. At the same time, the housing market has become tight in many places – in particular, there is a lack of low-cost housing – and in turn constitutes temporary living arrangements (e.g., multilocality with a second residence in a lower-cost place of residence)._x000D_
At this point, my dissertation aims to explore temporary forms of living of a very heterogeneous group that includes both low- and highly-skilled workers with correspondingly different income situations as well as living arrangements of very different durations. Using qualitative methods, I illustrate the everyday places in the city that are frequented by temporary residents, where they live and to what extent the temporary residents can develop feelings of belonging and home that were often previously associated with permanence at a place. In the German cities of Frankfurt am Main and Leipzig, as well as two surrounding municipalities each, I conducted in-depth interviews with a variety of temporary residents, from students and seasonal workers to CEOs of international companies._x000D_
The presentation sheds light on the living situation of temporary residents in German cities. It focuses on the housing and working biography, the places of everyday life, and the emotional attachment to these places and to the city.
Maya Kretzschmar
RWTH Aachen University
ID Abstract: 471