Meet the Author
Eric Klinenberg is Professor of Sociology; Public Policy; and Media, Culture, and Communications at New York University. At NYU, Klinenberg teaches courses on “the sociology of cities, culture, and media, as well graduate seminars on research methods, ethnography, and urban design.” His first book, Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago (2003), won six scholarly and literary prizes. In the years since, he has written two additional books and a significant number of scholarly and popular articles.
Book Basics
Going Solo is a must read for anyone who aspires to understand the most significant demographic shift since the baby boom. Since 1950 the percentage of American adults who are single has risen from 22% to more than 50%. Today singletons (Klinenberg’s preferred term for people who live alone) comprise 28% of all households, and are the most common type of domestic unit. Most of the roughly 1 in 7 American adults currently living alone have chosen to do so, and view it as a preference. Additionally, the increased percentage of singletons is a global rather than national trend, and one that appears likely to continue for the foreseeable future since the social changes leading to its development (emergence of the individual, rising status of women, growth of cities, and development of communication technologies) are permanent changes.
In addition to utilizing data from the latest studies and wisdom from scholarly literature from multiple disciplines, Klinenberg tells the story of singleton life today through the eyes of those who live it via excerpts from his interviews with more than three hundred people who live alone. More specifically, Klinenberg and his research team interviewed individuals from four groups: young adult professionals (aged 28-40), middle-age middle-class adults (aged 40-65), poor men in SROs or single room occupancy units (aged 35-65), and the elderly (aged 65 and greater).
Beginning with the social conditions in cities that enabled the transition to increased levels of singleton experiences to the singleton life as it is lived today in varying life stages, Going Solo portrays the real story of singleton life in its many forms. It also debunks many popular myths about living alone, and provides a framework for understanding what this shift means and how relevant this knowledge is to all people:
The rise of living alone has been a transformative social experience. It changes the way we understand ourselves and our most intimate relationships. It shapes the way we build our cities and develop our economies. It alters the way we become adults, as well as how we age and the way we die. It touches every social group and nearly every family, no matter who we are or whether we live with others today (p. 6)
So What?
The shift toward an increasing percentage of singletons in America has implications for almost every industry. Those within the church, especially those who show considerable favoritism to marriage and the nuclear family, must seek to better understand the shift in order to more effectively welcome singletons into all areas of church life. In doing so it will be essential to keep in mind that “the typical American will spend more of his or her adult life unmarried than married, and for much of this time he or she will live alone” (p.4).
Questions to Ponder:
- What percentage of those living in your city and/or those in closest geographic proximity to your church are singletons
- What percentage of your church’s active participants are singletons?
- If there is a significant gap between the two percentages, what obstacles within your congregational culture are likely contributing to this shortcoming in your congregation’s demographic diversity?
Eric Klinenberg. Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone (The Penguin Press, 2012). ISBN: 9781594203220.