Beyond Loneliness: Experiences of Individual and Community Social Connection

ISBN-13: 9789819695089 / Angielski / Twarda / 2025 / 95 str.

Tracy De Cotta

Opis

This Open Access book reimagines social connection beyond the crisis narrative of loneliness, presenting an innovative interdisciplinary model that bridges individual experiences with community infrastructure. Drawing on research with urban fringe residents, it reveals how meaningful connections form through complex interactions across physical and digital spaces, shaped by environmental contexts and personal capabilities.Beyond Loneliness offers a strengths-based framework through rich thematic analysis and six powerful, detailed personal narratives that illuminate connection journeys. These storied stories serve multiple purposes as research evidence, therapeutic resources, and self-help tools while demonstrating how people actively navigate their social worlds, investing time and emotional labour in relationships that span from intimate bonds to community belonging. The book examines how contextual factors, including social, built, technological, and institutional, influence connection opportunities.For practitioners, policymakers, and researchers, this accessible work provides practical insights for fostering environments where diverse pathways to social connection can flourish. By moving beyond deficit-focused interventions toward comprehensive strategies that recognise social connection as a dynamic, relational process, Beyond Loneliness offers a transformative approach to building more connected, resilient communities.