Young and Lonely The Social Conditions of Loneliness gathers evidence of young people’s experience of loneliness and connection from a youth co-produced research project and locates these within longstanding cultural and historical discussions of loneliness and solitude, friendship and belonging. The study explores loneliness and the experiences of connection/disconnection and inclusion/exclusion with a particular focus on the experience of loneliness in young lives and on how it is navigated when it is first encountered. It proposes that loneliness should not be considered only or even primar ... More

Young and Lonely The Social Conditions of Loneliness gathers evidence of young people’s experience of loneliness and connection from a youth co-produced research project and locates these within longstanding cultural and historical discussions of loneliness and solitude, friendship and belonging. The study explores loneliness and the experiences of connection/disconnection and inclusion/exclusion with a particular focus on the experience of loneliness in young lives and on how it is navigated when it is first encountered. It proposes that loneliness should not be considered only or even primarily as another psychological disorder or contagion, whilst recognising that severe loneliness may be an aspect of and connected to severe forms of psychological and emotional distress. The ways that young people encounter loneliness have resonance across the age spectrum and for questions of social organisation more generally. In three subsections, The social conditions of loneliness, The experience of loneliness, and Building friendship and connection, which focuses on the innovative critical and creative co-research used methods (which built on youth work practice) which enabled the conditions in which from the transient to the more enduring loneliness is experienced to be explored are explored. An accompanying attention to the range of methods of finding friendship and connection allows the complexity of young people’s experience to be foregrounded. The creative research methods used in the ‘Loneliness Connects Us’ collaborative research give a sense of some of the ways this sensitive topic might be approached and enhance understanding of friendship and solidarity.