Loneliness and the cultural, spatial, temporal and generational bases of belonging
Date
2021
Authors
Franklin, A.
Tranter, B.
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Journal article
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Australian Journal of Psychology, 2021; 73(1):1-13
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Abstract
Sociologists and psychologists now agree on the significance of belonging to the experience of loneliness. Yet to date, this is unevenly reflected in both survey instruments and qualitative inquiry where the focus is mostly on belongingness attributed to social connectivity, social support, intimate social bonds and interpersonal relationships. While these are very important, recent work on belonging itself has stressed the significance of much wider bases of belonging, including place, temporality, memory, mobilities, generation, culture, labour processes, kinship systems, residential arrangements, settlement patterns, the public sphere and more-than-human factors. Drawing on evidence from sociology and other disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, this paper brings these insights together for the first time in order to develop a deeper consideration of belonging for loneliness research, and especially to identify further sources of variation in loneliness. In this article we will concentrate on kinship, cultural, spatial, temporal and generational bases of belonging, which while discrete are also often interrelated and linked to wider social structural developments associated with individualism and neoliberalism. We argue that this research is a necessary foundation for the “all-of-government” strategies on loneliness that are just beginning to gain favour and traction through their consideration of individual and structural solutions.
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Copyright 2020 Australian Psychological Society
Access Condition Notes: Accepted manuscript available after 1 April 2022