Turbulences résidentielles et parcours de vie

Abstract

The Covid-19 epidemic and the measures taken to contain it have provoked a crisis that is reflected in the disturbances of many life courses. Using data from the Life in confinement (Vico) survey, this article analyses these disturbances by focusing on residential configurations, understood as the association between a dwelling (the space it provides, its location, its environment) and the composition of the household (considering all its occupants). The data allow to document the containment of spring 2020, as well as the continuation of the crisis until the end of 2020. By combining statistical descriptions and an analysis of the free comments written by the respondents, we show the importance of the “residential turbulence” (change of dwelling, hosting somebody, departure of cohabitants) and their links with biographical disturbances at the family and professional levels. The long-term nature of the crisis and the lack of temporal perspectives also lead people to reconsider their residential project and to readjust their temporal horizons in terms of housing, in anticipation of the crisis and its temporality, to adapt to the contingencies and uncertainties linked to the property market. Finally, the analysis of “residential turbulence” reveals the great diversity of the socio-economic profiles of individuals affected by the crisis without, however, neglecting the unequal dynamics that structure French society, as the crisis has reinforced situations of vulnerability experienced by poorly endowed individuals.

Keywords

• family
• Covid-19
• housing
• bifurcations
• life cycle
• residential projects