Opting for elsewhere : lifestyle migration in the american middle class / Brian A. Hoey.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hoey, Brian A., 1968- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Lifestyles--United States.

Lifestyles.

Middle class--United States.

Middle class.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (273 pages) : illustrations, photographs

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Nashville, Tennessee : Vanderbilt University Press, 2014.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

""Opting for Elsewhere examines the stories of everyday Americans who move to new places as a way to redefine themselves through reordering work, family, and personal priorities. Their lifestyle migration expresses longstanding cultural values while also demonstrating developing responses to distinctive contemporary challenges and opportunities"--Provided by publisher"-- Provided by publisher.

""Do you get told what the good life is, or do you figure it out for yourself?" This is the central question of Opting for Elsewhere, as the reader encounters stories of people who chose relocation as a way of redefining themselves and reordering work, family, and personal priorities. This is a book about the impulse to start over. Whether downshifting from stressful careers or being downsized from jobs lost in a surge of economic restructuring, lifestyle migrants seek refuge in places that seem to resonate with an idealized, potential self. Choosing the "option of elsewhere" and moving as a means of remaking self through sheer force of will are basic facets of American character, forged in its history as a developing nation of immigrants with a seemingly ever-expanding frontier. Building off years of interviews and research in the Midwest, including areas of Michigan, Brian Hoey provides an evocative illustration of the ways these sweeping changes impact people and the communities where 'they live and work as well as how both react--devising strategies for either coping with or challenging the status quo. This portrait of starting over in the heartland of America compels the reader to ask where we are going next as an emerging postindustrial society"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Cover

Title Page

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

I. Introductions

1. Reinvent or Die

2. Constructing the Good

3. Moral Horizons

4. Place

II. Patterns of Migration

5. A Story of Lifestyle Migration

6. Locating the "Fifth Migration"

III. Searching for Meaning

7. Place of Work

8. Consumption of Place

9. Place for Personhood

IV. Moving On

10. The Option of Elsewhere

11. Potential Self

12. Making Transitions

V. Conclusions

13. Migrants and Locals

14. Place of Lifestyle Migration

Epilogue: Reinvent the Pie

Appendix 1: Methodological Considerations

Appendix 2: Initial Interview Guide

Notes

Works Cited

Index.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780826502940

0826502946

9780826520074

0826520073

OCLC:

897466968