Solo-living age 25-44 : subjectivities and social change

This paper draws on research comparing the experiences of men and women aged 25-44 living alone in the UK. It asks how the different experiences, approaches and styles of solo living reported by those living alone fit with current claims and assumptions about increased individualism and social change and the causes of demographic change and trends in personal life. Increasing numbers of people are living alone, or solo living, at ages more conventionally associated with being partnered and raising children. This trend is sometimes used to make claims about decline in social cohesion and community. In most Western countries more men in this age group are solo-living than women, although discussions of the causes of ‘demographic transition’ and change in personal life typically assume that women are in the vanguard