Table Of ContentPalgrave Macmillan Studies in Family and Intimate Life
Titles include:
Graham Allan, Graham Crow and Sheila Hawker
STEPFAMILIES
Harriet Becher
FAMILY PRACTICES IN SOUTH ASIAN MUSLIM FAMILIES
Parenting in a Multi-Faith Britain
Elisa Rose Birch, Anh T. Le and Paul W. Miller
HOUSEHOLD DIVISIONS OF LABOUR
Teamwork, Gender and Time
Ann Buchanan and Anna Rotkirch
FERTILITY RATES AND POPULATION DECLINE
No Time for Children?
Deborah Chambers
SOCIAL MEDIA AND PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS
Online Intimacies and Networked Friendship
Robbie Duschinsky and Leon Antonio Rocha (editors)
FOUCAULT, THE FAMILY AND POLITICS
Jacqui Gabb
RESEARCHING INTIMACY IN FAMILIES
Stephen Hicks
LESBIAN, GAY AND QUEER PARENTING
Families, Intimacies, Genealogies
Clare Holdsworth
FAMILY AND INTIMATE MOBILITIES
Rachel Hurdley
HOME, MATERIALITY, MEMORY AND BELONGING
Keeping Culture
Peter Jackson (editor)
CHANGING FAMILIES, CHANGING FOOD
Riitta Jallinoja and Eric Widmer (editors)
FAMILIES AND KINSHIP IN CONTEMPORARY EUROPE
Rules and Practices of Relatedness
Lynn Jamieson and Roona Simpson
LIVING ALONE
Globalization, Identity and Belonging
Lynn Jamieson, Ruth Lewis and Roona Simpson (editors)
RESEARCHING FAMILIES AND RELATIONSHIPS
Reflections on Process
David Morgan
RETHINKING FAMILY PRACTICES
Eriikka Oinonen
FAMILIES IN CONVERGING EUROPE
A Comparison of Forms, Structures and Ideals
Róisín Ryan-Flood
LESBIAN MOTHERHOOD
Gender, Families and Sexual Citizenship
Sally Sales
ADOPTION, FAMILY AND THE PARADOX OF ORIGINS
A Foucauldian History
Tam Sanger
TRANS PEOPLE’S PARTNERSHIPS
Towards an Ethics of Intimacy
Tam Sanger and Yvette Taylor (editors)
MAPPING INTIMACIES
Relations, Exchanges, Affects
Elizabeth B. Silva
TECHNOLOGY, CULTURE, FAMILY
Influences on Home Life
Lisa Smyth
THE DEMANDS OF MOTHERHOOD
Agents, Roles and Recognitions
Yvette Taylor
EDUCATIONAL DIVERSITY
The Subject of Difference and Different Subjects
Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Family and Intimate Life
Series Standing Order ISBN 978–0–230–51748–6 hardback
978–0–230–24924–0 paperback
(outside North America only)
You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a
standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to
us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and
the ISBN quoted above.
Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England
Living Alone
Globalization, Identity and Belonging
Lynn Jamieson
University of Edinburgh, UK
Roona Simpson
University of Glasgow, UK
© Lynn Jamieson and Roona Simpson 2013
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this
work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2013 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-32291-6 ISBN 978-1-137-31852-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137318527
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing
processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the
country of origin.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
To the memory of generous friends who created hospitable
homes alone, sometimes with others, and were always a
positive force in the lives of those around them: Helen Corr
1955–2013, Christine Redmill 1961–2003 and Anne Witz
1952–2006
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
List of Tables xi
Series Editors’ Preface xiii
Acknowledgements xv
1 Introduction 1
Three sets of reasons for studying and knowing
more about people living alone 1
Popular stereotypes 1
Debate about identity and personal life 2
‘Globalization’ and individualized consumers 3
Definitions: A one-person household, dwelling
and conducting domestic life alone 4
Fuzziness of ‘one-person household’ 5
Solo-living versus going solo, choice versus constraint 6
Scope and sources of evidence 7
Age, generation and gender 8
Locality, regions and globalization 9
Sources 11
Theoretical debate 12
Selves, subjectivity and globalization 12
Individualization, individualism and living alone 15
Part I Living Alone, Life Course and
Life Transitions
Living alone and restructuring of the life course 23
What makes living alone possible? Levels of
‘development’ and material cultures 25
How thinkable is living alone? Family–sex–gender
systems 25
Globalization as exogenous change, individualization
and internal agency 27
Optional partnering and parenting: Resisting
the discourse of love 29
vii
viii Contents
2 Geographies and Biographies of Living Alone 33
Solo-living and global social change 33
South Asia 35
East Asia 38
Europe and North America 41
Gendered biographies of living alone 46
Conventional life course transitions 47
Heterogeneity by social class 51
Recession and transitions 52
Concluding remarks 54
3 Solo-living with and without Partnering
and Parenting 57
Introduction 57
Solo-living childless ‘Singles’ 58
Disavowing choosing to be single 58
Living alone and ‘Normal’ life stages 59
‘Natural progression’ versus seeking 63
Meeting possible partners and Internet
dating 64
Unlikely to partner and unlikely partners? 67
Relationships without co-residence: Keeping intimacy
at a distance? 70
Following a ‘normal’ trajectory of co-residence 73
Considering co-residence but uncertainty or unresolved
obstacles 74
Uncertainty about suitability of ‘partner’ 77
Living apart together: LAT committed to a partner
and to living alone 78
Solo-living parents 79
No contact 81
Intimacy with and without partnering? 82
Concluding remarks 84
Part II Home, Consumption and Identity
Introduction 89
Identity and the meaning of home 89
Consumer culture: Homes and stuff 92
4 The Meaning of Home Alone 95
Home alone and pleasing yourself 96
Home for the self and home for others 98
Hospitality to friends and family 99
Contents ix
Homes from home 100
Holiday visitors and overnight visitors 101
Less hospitable homes 103
Unhomely or uncomfortable homes 103
Home as a site of survival 105
The exclusively personalized home 106
The stigmatized home 107
My touch, love and the presence and absence
of self and others in the meaning of home 108
My touch: Home as materializing the self 108
Presence of absent others 109
Rational security and irrational love? 112
Gender and functional rather than personal homes 115
Concluding remarks 119
5 Living Alone, Consuming Alone? 122
Meals alone, in company and as social events 125
Experiences of cooking for one 125
Cooking for others 128
Eating out alone 130
Holidays and travel 131
Christmas as the ‘family holiday’ 136
Concluding remarks 141
Part III Networks, Community and Place
Introduction 145
Social capital 147
Capturing social connectedness 148
The move to ‘chosen’ relationships? 150
Place and ‘community’ 151
6 Solo-living and Connectedness 157
Living alone and well-being in later life 157
Living alone and social networks at working age 164
Experiences of social connection: Men and women living
alone at working age 166
Gender and social interaction 166
Social suffusion of friends and family 168
Receiving and providing support 171
Community service 174
Partnership and parental status 175
Home alone and social isolation 178
Concluding remarks 182
