What might it mean to think of ‘the single’ as a potentially queer subject and in what ways does singleness pose a challenge to heteronormative conceptualizations of the lifecourse and household formation? In this paper I explore some of the contested meanings of ‘home’ for those who are single; and examine how single people have created new forms of home and new spaces of at-homeness with those with whom they are not biologically (or romantically) related. I conclude by asking how we might help foster, build, and create new forms of dwelling that might better match single people's imaginings and desires for a home outside of heteronormative coupledom. Ultimately the paper argues that the exclusion of the figure of the single is one of the key omissions in the work of those interested in challenging the geographies of exclusion and inequality.
CobbM, 2012Single: Arguments for the Uncoupled (New York University Press, New York)
25.
DorlingDVickersDThomasBPritchardJBallasD, 2008, “The way we live now”, report by the Social and Spatial Inequalities Group, Department of Geography, University of Sheffield
26.
DuncanN, 1996Bodyspace: Destabilizing Geographies of Gender and Sexuality (Routledge, London)
27.
DuncanSPhillipsM, 2012, “People who live apart together (LATs)—new family form or just a stage?”International Review of Sociology22513–352
28.
DuncanSSmithD, 2002, “Geographies of family formations: Spatial differences and gender cultures in Britain”Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers: New Series27471–493
29.
ElwoodS, 2000, “Lesbian living spaces”Journal of Lesbian Studies411–27
30.
FincherR, 2004, “Gender and life course in the narratives of Melbourne's high-rise housing developers”Australian Geographical Studies42325–338
31.
FortierA M, 2001, “‘Coming home’: Queer migrations and multiple evocations of home”European Journal of Cultural Studies4405–424
32.
FolbreN, 2001The Invisible Heart: Economics and Family Values (New Press, New York)
33.
FreemanE, 2002The Wedding Complex: Forms of Belonging in Modern American Culture (Duke University Press, Durham, NC)
34.
GiddensA, 1992The Transformation of Intimacy: Sexuality, Love and Eroticism in Modern Societies (Stanford University Press, Palo Alto, CA)
35.
Gorman-MurrayA, 2006, “Gay and lesbian couples at home: Identity work in domestic space”Home Cultures3145–168
36.
Gorman-MurrayA, 2007, “Contesting domestic ideals: Queering the australian home”Australian Geographer38195–213
37.
Gorman-MurrayA, 2008, “Queering the family home: Narratives from gay, lesbian and bisexual youth coming out in supportive family homes in Australia”Gender, Place and Culture1531–44
38.
Gorman-MurrayA, 2011, “‘It's about time you came out’: Sexualities, mobility and home”Antipode431380–1403
39.
HalberstamJ, 2005In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives (New York University Press, New York)
40.
HalberstamJ, 2012Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender and the End of Normal (Beacon Press)
41.
HarkerCMartinL, 2012, “Familial relations: Spaces, subjects and politics”Environment and Planning A44768–775
42.
HaydenD, 1980, “What would a non-sexist city be like? speculations on housing, urban design, and human work”Signs5170–187
43.
HaydenD, 1982The Grand Domestic Revolution: A History of Feminist Designs for American Homes, Neighborhoods, and Cities (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA)
44.
HeathSCleaverE, 2003Young, Free and Single. Twenty-somethings and Household Change (Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, Hants)
45.
HolsteinJ AGubriumJ F, 2000The Self We Live By: Narrative Identity in a Postmodern World (Oxford University Press, New York)
46.
HopkinsPPainR, 2007, “Geographies of age: Thinking relationally”Area40287–294
47.
HubbardP, 2000, “Desire/disgust: Mapping the moral contours of heterosexuality”Progress in Human Geography24191–203
48.
HubbardP, 2012Cities and Sexualities (Routledge, London)
49.
JacquesM, 2004, “The death of intimacy: A selfish, market-driven society is eroding our very humanity”The Guardian 18 September
50.
JamiesonL, 1997Intimacy: Personal Relationships in Modern Societies (Polity Press, Cambridge)
51.
JamiesonLSimpsonR, 2013Living Alone: Globalization, Identity and Belonging (Palgrave, Basingstoke, Hants)
52.
JohnstonLLonghurstR, 2010Space, Place, and Sex: Geographies of Sexualities (Rowman and Littlefield, New York)
53.
JohnstonLValentineG, 1995, “‘Wherever I lay my girlfriend that's my home’: The performance and surveillance of lesbian identities in domestic environments”, in Mapping Desire: Geographies of Sexualities Eds BellDValentineG, (Routledge, London) pp 88–103
54.
KlinenbergE, 2012Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone (Penguin: New York)
55.
KlockerNGibsonGBorgerE, 2012, “Living together but apart: Material geographies of everyday sustainability in extended family households”Environment and Planning A442240–2259
56.
LittleJ, 2003, “‘Riding the rural love train’: Heterosexuality and the rural community”Sociologia Ruralis43401–417
57.
ListerRBennettF, 2010, “The new ‘champion of progressive ideals?’ Cameron's Conservative Party: Poverty, family policy and welfare reform”Renewal: A Journal of Social Democracy1884–109
58.
LonghurstR, 1999, “Gendering place” in Explorations in Human Geography: Encountering Place Eds Le HeronRMurphyLForerPGoldstoneM, (Oxford University Press, Auckland) pp 151–172
MitchellB A, 2007The Boomerang Age: Transitions to Adulthood in Families (Transaction Books, New Brunswick, NJ)
61.
MorrisonC A, 2012, “Heterosexuality and home: Intimacies of space and spaces of touch”Emotion, Space and Society510–18
62.
MorrisonC A, 2013, “Homemaking in New Zealand: Thinking through the mutually constitutive relationship between domestic material objects, heterosexuality and home”Gender Place and Culture20413–431
63.
MossP, 1997, “Negotiating space in home environments: Older women living with arthritis”Social Science and Medicine4523–33
64.
NashC, 2005, “Geographies of relatedness”Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers: New Series30449–462
OswinN, 2008, “Critical geographies and the uses of sexuality: Deconstructing queer space”Progress in Human Geography3289–103
67.
OswinN, 2010, “The modern model family at home in Singapore: A queer geography”Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers: New Series35256–268
68.
PalmerG, 2006Single Person Households: Issues that JRF Should be Thinking About (Joseph Rowntree Foundation, York)
69.
PilkeyB, 2012, “LGBT homemaking in London, UK: The embodiment of mobile homemaking imaginaries”Geographical Research51159–165
70.
PlummerK, 1994Telling Sexual Stories: Power Change and Social Worlds (Routledge, London)
71.
PlummerK, 2003Intimate Citizenship: Private Decisions and Public Dialogues (University of Washington Press, Washington, DC)
72.
PovinelliE, 2006The Empire of Love: Toward a Theory of Intimacy, Genealogy, and Carnality (Duke University Press, Durham, NC)
73.
PutmanR D, 2000Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (Simon and Schuster, New York)
RamdasK, 2012, “Women in waiting? Singlehood, marriage, and family in Singapore”Environment and Planning A44832–848
76.
RamdasK, 2014, “Is blood thicker than water?: Single Indian Singaporean women and the geographies of ‘being’ family”Gender, Place and Culture doi:10.1080/0966369X.2013.879098
77.
ReynoldsJ, 2008The Single Woman: A Discursive Investigation (Taylor and Francis, London)
78.
RichA, 1980, “Compulsory heterosexuality and lesbian existence”Signs5631–660
79.
RiesmannC K, 2008Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences (Sage, London)
80.
RolandRNakanoL, 2013, “Single women and housing choices in urban Japan”Gender Place and Culture20451–469
81.
RoseneilS, 2010, “Intimate citizenship: A pragmatic, yet radical, proposal for a politics of personal life”European Journal of Women's Studies1777–84
82.
RoseneilSBudgeonS, 2004, “Cultures of intimacy and care beyond ‘the family’: Personal life and social change in the early 21st century”Current Sociology52135–149
83.
SandfieldAPercyC, 2003, “Accounting for single status: Heterosexism and ageism in heterosexual women's talk about marriage”Feminism & Psychology13475–482
SmartCShipmanB, 2004, “Visions in monochrome: Families, marriage and the individualization thesis”The British Journal of Sociology55491–509
88.
StevenNVan TilburgT, 2000, “Stimulating friendship in later life: A strategy for reducing loneliness among older women”Educational Gerontology2615–35
89.
TuanY F, 2004, “Home”, in Patterned Ground: The Entanglements of Nature and Culture Eds HarrisonSPileSThriftN, (Reaktion Books, London) pp 164–165
90.
ValentineG, 2008, “The ties that bind: Towards geographies of intimacy”Geography Compass22097–2110
91.
ValentineGSkeltonTButlerR, 2003, “Coming out and outcomes: Negotiating lesbian and gay identities with, and in, the family”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space21479–500
92.
Van EveryJ, 1995Heterosexual Women Changing the Family: Refusing to be a ‘Wife’! (Taylor and Francis, London)
93.
WalshK, 2007, “‘It got very debauched, very Dubai!’ Heterosexual intimacy amongst single British expatriates”Social and Cultural Geography8507–533
94.
WeeksJHeaphyBDonovanC, 2001Same Sex Intimacies: Families of Choice and Other Life Experiments (Routledge, London)
95.
WestonK, 1997Families We Choose: Lesbians, Gays, Kinship (Columbia University Press, New York)
96.
WiegmanRWilsonE A, 2014, ‘Queer theory without normativity’Differences forthcoming
97.
WilkinsonE, 2012, “The romantic imaginary: Compulsory coupledom and single existence”, in Sexualities: Past Reflections, Future Directions Eds HinesSTaylorY, (Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, Hants) pp 130–148
98.
WilkinsonE, 2013, “Learning to love again: ‘Broken families’, citizenship and the state promotion of coupledom”Geoforum49206–213
99.
WilkinsonEBellD, 2012, “Ties that blind: On not seeing (or looking) beyond ‘the family’”Families, Relationships and Societies: 423–439
