The growing number of singles globally and increased attention that is paid to them within academia, public domain and popular culture has reignited many debates with regard to theory, methodology and practice thereby highlighting multiple contestations and lacunae within structural frameworks that require interrogation from new perspectives and methodologies. In the light of the above, we can ask what does it mean to be non-partnered when viewed from a normative lens that prioritizes cishet families and compulsory coupledom?
The proposed panel attempts to initiate a dialogue on the socio-cultural construction of singlehood and its implications particularly various discriminatory practices (singlism) that singles may have to encounter in any given spatial and temporal context. The myriad kinds of violence that they face in their everyday life needs to be observed, documented and analysed. Such a discussion is directly linked to discourses on social institutions of family, marriage, kinship, law, politics/state and media along with societal/ sociological ideas of home, inheritance, friendship, sexuality, intimacy, desires, solitude, success, career, social and cognitive justice to name a few. Thus, how do we understand family (polycules), partners, communities and solidarities when looked from the perspective of the lived experiences of singles? Is the sisterhood/brotherhood of singles the answer?
These discriminatory practices became even more severe during the covid induced lockdown. Was there a greater persecution of singles because they were assumed to be carriers of infection since they are perceived as having a more active social life? Was there a voluntary/forced return to the parental home to offer or seek support? Did the ‘personal neighbourhood’ that they had forged over the years dissolve during the lockdown? Did the dissolution lead to a reconsideration of their choices and decisions? These are some of the questions the panel proposes to engage with.
