Formations of belonging in Australia: The role of nostalgia in experiences of time and place

Although residential mobility has been studied at length, residential immobility has been addressed comparatively rarely. In this article, we draw on interviews conducted with 35 participants aged 38–39 in 2012 in Victoria, Australia, in which they were asked to reflect on their lives over the previous 20 years, focusing specifically on those who have remained in or returned to the areas in which they grew up. We focus on the role of nostalgia in the participants' experiences of and relationships with place, finding that far from signifying a purely, or even predominantly, melancholic experience their expressions of nostalgia held the power to enliven the present, even while anchoring them to the past. We contend that nostalgia can form an integral part of practices that reconcile continuity and change and produce feelings of familiarity and comfort, which buffer individuals against the uncertainties associated with wider contexts shaped by rapid social change.