Familiar stranger encounters in everyday urban life: Understanding their importance for belonging

Delicately embedded within the hum drum of everyday urban life, social connections can form at a multitude of places. While much focus has traditionally been placed on fostering community within residential neighbourhoods, there is a growing interest in social ties emerging in public spaces. Drawing on the concept of the “familiar stranger” – a term used to refer to individuals we visually recognise but with whom we do not necessarily engage in conversation we discuss how these fleeting encounters, play a critical role in creating a sense of belonging and social identity. Communal spaces such as parks, transit stations, cafés, and shops are ideal settings for the development and sustenance of familiar stranger relationships. We suggest that this form of social connection potentially serve as an important antidote to the global loneliness epidemic.

Our paper draws on a survey of 278 residents in Brisbane, Australia to demonstrate the importance of familiar stranger encounters in communal places. Our results show that individuals who frequently visit communal places and encounter familiar strangers report a stronger sense of belonging and attachment at these places. We suggest that urban design and scheduling that promote repeated, synchronised visitation may be used to nurture and sustain bounded communities of belonging that can exist even outside the residential neighbourhood.

The implications of our findings hold particular importance in the context of loneliness emerging as a global public health concern. By drawing attention to the value of familiar stranger encounters, we can encourage urban planners and policymakers to design public spaces that facilitate social interactions. For example, features such as pedestrian-friendly pathways, public seating, and regular scheduled community events can enhance the frequency of social encounters at communal places.

We conclude by highlighting the benefits of familiar strangers for sense of belonging and suggest these encounters offer great potential to address the emergent loneliness epidemic. We suggest that urban designs that include carefully scheduled social events can operate to facilitate familiar stranger encounters and are essential for more inclusive, connected, and supportive communities.

Familiar strangers are the individuals we regularly see as part of our daily mobility routines. Just think for a moment of the familiar strangers that typically frame ‘your’ day: maybe the barista at your local café, the fellow commuter on your morning bus, or the dog walker you pass in your local park. Despite the lack of verbal interaction, these repeated encounters can foster a sense of familiarity and predictability, transforming public spaces from anonymous landscapes into what we term ‘comfort zones.’

Read the full article on Urban Studies OnlineFirst here.