Macro Social Influences on Loneliness in Later Life

Marja Aartsen, PhD, is currently research professor and social gerontologist at NOVA – Norwegian Social Research at OsloMet. She is specialized in longitudinal research on social relations, social exclusion, loneliness, and cognitive functioning in the second half of life. She is interested in social issues related to aging in place and active or successful ageing. Resent research projects and collaborations include gendered pathways to exclusion from social relations (GENPATH), reducing old-age social exclusion (ROSENET) and a multidimensional approach to social exclusion and its health consequences (AMASE). She was editor of the European Journal of Ageing from 2017 until summer 2022. Iuliana Precupetu, PhD, is a senior researcher at the Research Institute for Quality of Life, Romanian Academy, and the Research Institute of the University of Bucharest. She is a sociologist specializing in quality of life, health inequalities and social exclusion in later life. Her current interests include the relationship between social exclusion in older age and mental health, as well as the application of life course methods to quality of life research. Most recently, she coordinated the AMASE research project - A multidimensional approach to social exclusion in later life – health consequences for ageing populations. Bianca Suanet, PhD, is a sociologist, specializing in loneliness, social relations, and care use among older adults, especially in relation to the impact of societal and policy changes. She was formerly Professor of Ageing and Social Change at the Linköping University in Sweden and Associate Professor in Sociology and Head of the Social Functioning Group of the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Currently, her research projects encompass studies on the relationship between macro-level factors and loneliness, and optimizing interventions against loneliness based on scientific evidence for older migrants.

• Part 1. Central Theme of the Book.- 1. Introduction. For a Macro-social Perspective on Loneliness (Marja Aartsen, Iuliana Precupetu, Bianca Suanet).- Part 2. Theoretical Perspectives.- 2. Theorizing Loneliness in Later Life - Micro, Meso, and Macro Perspectives (Fredrica Nyqvist, Joanna McHugh Power, Laura Coll-Planas).- 3. Unravelling the Socio-cultural Influence on Loneliness (Theo G. van Tilburg).- 4. Social Exclusion Perspective on Loneliness in Later Life (Sofie Van Regenmortel, Elisa Tiilikainen, Hanna Ristolainen, Vanessa Burholt, Lena Dahlberg).- Part 3. Empirical Dimensions.- 5. Loneliness Prevalence in Different Age Groups in Europe (Marian Vasile and Marja Aartsen).- 6. Understanding Late-Life Loneliness: Micro and Meso-Level Determinants (Sunwoo Lee).- 7. The Social Infrastructure of Loneliness.  A Scoping Review of Societal Influences and their Implications (Laura Tufă).- Part 4. Recent Developments and Loneliness.- 8. Information and Communication Technologies and the Risk to Loneliness (Alexander Seifert).- 9. Climate Change and the Risk of Loneliness (Liat Ayalon).- 10. The Influence of Societal Crises on Social Integration and Loneliness (Lisa J. Klasen, Mareike Bünning, Nadiya Kelle, Clemens Tesch-Römer, Oliver Huxhold).- Part 5. Future Directions (11. Macro-level Influences on Loneliness in Later Life. An fsQCA Analysis (Iuliana Precupetu, Cosmina Pop, Marja Aartsen).- 12. ‘And, You Know: There’s such a thing as Society’: Towards a Clarification of the ‘Loneliness Paradox’ by a Macrofication of Loneliness Studies (Bianca Suanet and George Pavlidis).- 13. Policy Recommendations to Address Loneliness in Later Life (Mihaela Ghența and Aniela Matei).- 14. Linking Life Course Theory to Multi-Level Explanations of Loneliness: Towards a Sociology of Loneliness (Bianca Suanet and Marja Aartsen).- 15. Loneliness Re-examined: Societal influences and Future Research Directions (Marja Aartsen, Bianca Suanet, Thomas Hansen, Iuliana Precupetu).