Young and Lonely: The Social Conditions of Loneliness

by Janet Batsleer, James Duggan

Overview

Anchored in accounts of young people’s personal experiences of loneliness, this book addresses important questions about tackling today’s epidemic of loneliness among young people.

It explores experiences of loneliness in early life, how it is navigated when first encountered and considers how social conditions of poverty, precarity, inequality and competitive pressures to succeed can dramatically influence these feelings.

Presenting diverse and nuanced social accounts of loneliness, the authors explore ways to harness the creative and positive potential of loneliness and provide evidence-based recommendations for policy makers, practitioners and young people to help tackle the crisis.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781447355359
Publisher:	Bristol University Press
Publication date:	12/09/2020
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Janet Batsleer is a Reader in Youth and Community at Manchester Metropolitan University.

James Duggan is a Research Fellow in Childhood, Youth and Education studies at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Table of Contents

Animate, attune, amplify

Finding oneself a loneliness agenda

I’m new here: creating a new research project and a young person led research agenda

PART I: The social conditions of loneliness

Loneliness and poverty

Being an outsider

The education system, aspiration and loneliness

PART II: The experience of loneliness

Transitions

Loss, grief and loneliness

Being left out

Online spaces and connection

PART III: Building friendship and connection

Asking for help and offering connection

Youth work as a method

Creativity and solidarity as method: the example of Missing and other stories

New ways for thinking and feeling loneliness

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“I loved every page of this book! It is serious and sometimes sad, but it is also playful, critical, thoughtful and grounded in the multiple realities of young people’s lives. Its creative youth-centred methodology and findings challenge deficit-based and individualised understandings of this issue. The book inspired me as a researcher, informed me as a youth worker and nourished me as a person.” Tania de St Croix, King’s College London

"A timely book which questions conventional approaches to the question of youth loneliness and advocates a multi-dimensional approach that incorporates the positive aspects of solitude and being alone." Jean Spence, Independent writer