Introduction

There is a growing proportion of adults living alone, at ages that have conventionally been associated with coupledom, marriage and childrearing, as well as among older people and, given differential mortality, particularly older women. To what extent does the increase in people living alone mean a redrawing of boundaries around ‘family’ and ‘household’? Those who live in one person households are not in ‘family households’ but to what extent have they stepped outside of families? If people now move in and out of situations in which they live alone across their adult life, has this reshaped the boundaries between youth and adulthood? If men and women display very different patterns of moving in and out of solo living, what are the implications of this for gender boundaries?

Solo living has been portrayed as removed from conventional family life in both optimistic and pessimistic terms. In Britain, a popular image of the single woman living alone was created in the novel Bridget Jones's Diary. Bridget's diary reveals her preoccupations with her weight, diet, appearance and, above all, her desperation for a boyfriend. This portrayal is somewhat more sympathetic than some stereotypes offered in popular media. Portrayals of ‘laddish culture’ among young and not so young men and ladettes, their female equivalent, suggest that people are too selfish, self-obsessed or otherwise preoccupied with consumption, fun and personal project to sustain relationships with others (for example, as in the novel, Morvern Callar). These portrayals suggest that solo livers are atomistic and, wittingly or unwittingly, place boundaries of selfishness between themselves and others. These negative stereotypes seem to fit with academic accounts that are very pessimistic about the future of personal life (Bellah et al, 1985; Beck, 1992; Bauman, 1995; Putnam, 2000). But in this realm of speculation, it is equally plausible to fit trends in solo living to more optimistic accounts of personal life (Skolnick, 1991; Giddens, 1992). Then, living alone is not about selfishly cutting others off but creating a base from which equal and intimate relationships with others can be sustainedmacFollowing the optimistic account of social change offered by Anthony Giddens (1992, 1998), women would be placed at the vanguard in this interpretation of solo living, seeking to develop more equal and deeper relationships and working to redraw boundaries by demanding more democracy and intimacy in their personal relationships with men.