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What our 28-strong household has taught us

Words by Ben Prevezer

I was lucky enough to visit Morocco recently with some friends. It struck me how all the locals we met referred to their fellow Moroccans as ‘brother’ or ‘family’. There seemed to be a mutual understanding of being part of a wider community that looked out for each other – sharing recommendations for each other’s businesses, holding hands physically and metaphorically.

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Obviously there are many more factors at play here, which can’t be over-simplified. Not to mention the huge advantage we enjoy as Londoners, due to the diversity of communities sitting side-by-side in one vibrant cosmopolitan city.

However, we hear more and more about the epidemic of loneliness in this city, with divided communities, exacerbated by the current cost of living crisis and the post-Covid fall-out on our collective mental health.

Marry this with the emergence of a more isolated way of living — the disappearance of the village and the push towards urban efficiency — towers and apartment blocks, nuclear (rather than intergenerational) family homes.

Add to that the decline of religion across the UK — something that historically bound people with a fundamental set of beliefs, and the growth of social media laying bare pop-culture trends of the moment, as opposed to long-standing traditions — and you can see why history and traditions of old don’t feel so relevant.

When you start to paint this picture, you can see why people are feeling more disconnected, more lonely. My question would be how we recreate the village. A sense of intimacy and a neighbourly attitude to those around us. How can we create more social cohesion in cities to help each of us find our own sense of belonging?

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