1. USING MOBILITY TO GAIN STABILITY:
HOUSEHOLD STRATEGIES AND RURAL FUTURES
Deatra Walsh
York University
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
deatraw@yahoo.com
Abstract
Current rural studies literature is making the call for more attention to mobilities as a means for
understanding contemporary rurality. Mobility, envisioned broadly and inclusive of the
movement of people, things and ideas, promises to position the rural in a more active stance, as
opposed to passive, reactive and in receivership. Contextualized within a larger research project
conducted with 27 young women (aged 25-34) who returned to a rural area in central
Newfoundland, Canada and drawing specifically upon the narratives of nine returners with
partners who engage in long-distance employment-related travel, I explore how mobility is a
mechanism through which these women, and their households, achieve both economic and
familial stability. As such, my research contributes to a theoretical understanding of mobility that
is inclusive of, rather than juxtaposed to, stability. It also contributes to the literature on long-
distance employment travel suggesting that it is not necessarily detrimental to family life. I argue
here that a household mobility perspective reduces the notion of a static rural and raises new
considerations for rural futures. Policy implications for a mobilities perspective are briefly
discussed.