Local and transnational everyday practices in four European cities: Are New Barbarians on the road?

Based upon a comparative empirical research, this chapter deals with the dynamics of mobility and rootedness of graduate managers living in neighborhoods with different social composition (mixed and homogeneous) of four European cities: Paris, Madrid, Milan and Lyon. We explore how these people combine transnational mobility, together with their embeddedness in the urban context. Our main hypothesis is that these managers are developing ‘partial exit’ strategies, investing resources outside the city, and developing transnational networks also to defend their interests at the local level. In socially mixed neighbourhoods, where managers live with less privileged social groups, we expect these managers to put into practice ‘partial exit’ strategies to a larger extent than their colleagues in homogeneous neighbourhoods. Results show that managers, although playing at the transnational level, keep a strong attachment to their area of residence, and no great differences emerge between managers living in homogeneous and mixed neighborhoods. Results also suggest that managers living in mixed neighborhoods are putting into practice to a larger extent “partial exit strategies” at the urban level, through its selective use.