Loneliness and the cultural, spatial, temporal and generational bases of belonging

Abstract

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. KEY POINTS What is already known about this topic: (1) One of the defining aspects of loneliness is where people feel an absence of belonging. (2) We know that most people obtain a sense of belonging from interpersonal relationships. (3) We know that belongingness needs for interpersonal relationships vary considerably, from those individuals satisfied by a very small numbers of relationships, to those with needs for far more. What this topic adds: (1) A discussion of historical, sociological and anthropological research that identifies family and kinship systems (and associated residential and group formation) as key cultural sources of variation in belonginess needs in migrant societies. (2) Identifies other bases of belonging beyond those of interpersonal relationships that have a bearing on loneliness: a sense of belonging to place; a temporal sense of belonging, and belonging to other “more-than-human” sources entities (aesthetics, natures, companion animals, material cultures). (3) A discussion of how other bases of belonging have a bearing on ameliorating loneliness, with implications for new “all-of government” strategies to address it.