Loneliness among older people as a social problem: the perspectives of medicine, religion and economy

This article offers a theoretical framework for studying loneliness among the elderly from a social problems perspective. The framework is a combination of the constructionist approach to social problems by Spector and Kitsuse and the theory of social systems by Luhmann. With the first we understand the social problem of loneliness among the elderly as the result of claims-making activities by different key actors. These activities are guided by cultural themes, images and causality constructions. With the second, we can explain how these claims-making activities are framed differently within different social systems. Due to their distinctive viewpoints social systems construct loneliness among the elderly in unique ways. Variations of meaning attributed to loneliness depend on the operative logic and the semantic stock of the respective social system. The argument of the article is illustrated with respect to three different social systems: medicine, religion and economy. In terms of underlying morality, causes and consequences, responsibilities and solutions loneliness among the elderly appears as something different from each of these perspectives: as a matter of health and illness, as a matter of spirituality, and a matter of incentives and commodities, respectively. The value added of combining constructionism and systems theory for research on elderly and loneliness is to give justice to the non-objective, observer-dependent nature of social problems. The relevance for both researchers and practitioners working with loneliness