NEIGHBOURS AND FRIENDS: SOCIABILITY, ISOLATION AND LONELI‐NESS AS FACTORS IN THE DIFFERENTIAL PROVISION OF NEIGHBOUR‐HOOD CARE

Limits may be placed on sociability through a sense of social superiority (middle‐class people separating themselves from working‐class on a housing estate), through strength of sociability within the nuclear family limiting outside contacts, or through placing a value on solitude and personal privacy. Inadequate attention has been paid to those who actually “choose” social isolation; in particular, the group formed by those who never marry but choose the single life and its attendant type of social isolation would be worth study, giving consideration to the reasons behind such choices.