Cover	1
	Contents	8
	List of Tables	12
	Series Editors’ Preface	14
	Acknowledgements	16
	1 Introduction	17
	Three sets of reasons for studying and knowing more about people living alone	17
	Definitions: A one-person household, dwelling and conducting domestic life alone	20
	Scope and sources of evidence	23
	Theoretical debate	28
	Part I: Living Alone, Life Course and Life Transitions	39
	Living alone and restructuring of the life course	39
	Globalization as exogenous change, individualization and internal agency	43
	2 Geographies and Biographies of Living Alone	48
	Solo-living and global social change	48
	Gendered biographies of living alone	61
	Concluding remarks	69
	3 Solo-living with and without Partnering and Parenting	72
	Introduction	72
	Solo-living childless ‘Singles’	73
	Relationships without co-residence: Keeping intimacy at a distance?	85
	Solo-living parents	94
	Concluding remarks	99
	Part II: Home, Consumption and Identity	103
	Introduction	103
	Identity and the meaning of home	103
	Consumer culture: Homes and stuff	106
	4 The Meaning of Home Alone	109
	Home alone and pleasing yourself	110
	Home for the self and home for others	112
	Less hospitable homes	117
	My touch, love and the presence and absence of self and others in the meaning of home	122
	Concluding remarks	133
	5 Living Alone, Consuming Alone?	136
	Meals alone, in company and as social events	139
	Holidays and travel	145
	Christmas as the ‘family holiday’	150
	Concluding remarks	155
	Part III: Networks, Community and Place	158
	Introduction	158
	Social capital	160
	Capturing social connectedness	161
	The move to ‘chosen’ relationships?	163
	Place and ‘community’	164
	6 Solo-living and Connectedness	170
	Living alone and well-being in later life	170
	Living alone and social networks at working age	177
	Experiences of social connection: Men and women living alone at working age	179
	Concluding remarks	195
	7 Place, Mobility and Migration	198
	Living alone and residential histories	198
	Living alone and embeddedness in place	202
	Employment mobility, social class and ‘elective belonging’	206
	Concluding remarks	221
	8 The Future of Living Alone	224
	Future trends	224
	Diversity in population characteristics and outcomes	225
	Globalization, individualization and resilience of patriarchy	227
	Everyday lives effecting social change	229
	Identity, individualism, consumption and ‘plenitude’	231
	Disembedding and networked individualism	233
	From living alone to living-alone-together?	235
	Appendix 1: The Rural and Urban Solo Living: Social Integration, Quality of Life and Future Orientations Study	240
	Sampling strategy	240
	Data collection	241
	Sample characteristics	242
	Appendix 2: Characteristics and Circumstances of Working-Age Men and Women Living Alone in Scotland	260
	Section 1: Housing	260
	Section 2: Socio-economic and demographic characteristics	262
	Section 3: Type of locality, transport, Internet access	267
	Notes	273
	Bibliography	280
	Index	307