Heartbreaking times: an analysis of the impact of social policy on young people's experiences of romantic heartbreak

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This proposed thesis looks to examine experiences of heartbreak through young people's relationship breakups. Previously, sociology has considered romantic love in limited ways as argued by Smart (2007) thus, is a relatively new area of study and does not fully consider contexts of the current generation (Gabb, 2010). This thesis attempts to progress and advance the existing literature through examining lived experiences of the current generation and scrutinise significant social and economic change - for example, austerity, Covid-19 and the cost-of-living-crisis and the subsequent impact on young people's romantic lives. The absence of heartbreak in sociological analysis perhaps reflects challenges around capturing such subjective, singular experiences which have also been observed in relation to love (Sarsby, 1983). Nevertheless, due to its personal and cultural significance and potentially profound impacts on young people, it is worthy of sociological investigation and this project seeks to capture complexity and nuance of this phenomenon. This proposed project will examine how young people position romance in their lives during uncertain times; explore how young people respond to and experience heartbreak as a result of these romantic relationships breaking down and analyse this data to decipher how best we can support young people enduring heartbreak. These questions will help to contribute to the sociology of emotions andintimacy, deepen understanding of young people's lived experiences in contemporary life and generate recommendations for policy and practice.