How to Cite
License (Chapter)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Identifiers (Book)
Published
Landscapes of Loneliness and Interdependence
An Essay on Urban Alienation, Friendship, and the Modalities of Anthropological Fieldwork
Abstract Discussions of singleness contain images of pathological loneliness and stigmas of unbound individualism. As such, they reflect residual ambivalences surrounding the (gendered) consequences of urbanization and globalization. But do such portrayals really capture the subjectivities and lived experiences of single women in cities? Drawing on fieldwork among middle-class single women in Delhi, this essay argues that singleness can rather signify an engagement with different conditions of interdependency. The essay takes the somewhat unusual track of reflecting back on the intersubjective nature of anthropological fieldwork to offer glimpses into the different kinds of sociality that characterized both the lifeworlds of single women and the research process itself. In doing so, it is structured in three parts: The first examines notions of urban alienation in relation to urbanization, arguing that they are limited in what they can tell us about the emplaced social dynamics of urban life. The second part presents some research findings on the subjectivity of female singleness, highlighting different relationalities—to others and the city. The final part confronts the practice of fieldwork itself, including an attempt to think through the implications of friendships to remind researchers of our own multiple dependencies and accountabilities.
Keywords singlehood; urbanization; gender; fieldwork; feminist methodology
