Multilocal-living - the approaches of Rational Choice Theory, Sociology of Everyday Life and Actor-Network-Theory

Abstract

There is no 'supra-theory', which might synthesise potential theoretical approaches for the study of multi-local living. Three selected theoretical perspectives are discussed: according to rational choice theory (RCT), multiple localisations represent just one of a number of choices, selected on the basis of individual preferences and given restrictions. Sociology of everyday life (SEL) addresses the reproduction of social life by focusing on practices of actors within the various social frameworks of multi-local everyday life. Actor-network theory (ANT) provides a 'toolkit' to 'de-scribe' the hybrid enactment of multi-local households. Materiality, processes, and multiplicity are emphasised. Each perspective reflects partial realities of the multiplicity of multi-local living. It is argued that the modelling of residential multi-locality pursued by the three approaches is highly productive if their results are compared with one another and interpreted as versions of reality differently shaped, which are partly congruent, partly incongruent due to incommensurable ontological and theoretical positions.