Familiar strangers, individuals who are visually recognisable yet do not engage in verbal conversations, emerge in communal urban places on the way and in between regular daily activities in the home and workplace. Described as invisible social ties and light touch community, familiar strangers represent an understudied and untapped source of sociality that offer promise by way of an antidote to the global increase in reports of loneliness. In this study, we examine the extent to which familiar stranger encounters in communal everyday places might act as an important source of social identity, belonging and perceived attachment. We estimate regression models using data from a 2022 intercept survey of 278 residents in Brisbane, Australia conducted in situ at public parks, transit stations, retail environments, and thoroughfares to estimate the influence of familiar strangers and frequency of visitation on sense of belonging and place attachment. Our results show belonging emerges through familiar stranger encounters in everyday communal places outside of the residential neighbourhood and suggest that coupling urban design features that enhance visible proximity with scheduling that encourages repeated, synchronised visitation can contribute to bounded communities of belonging at everyday communal places.

中文翻译：

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从公共场所到舒适区：日常生活中熟悉的陌生人的相遇是一种归属感


熟悉的陌生人，即那些在视觉上可辨认但不进行口头交谈的人，会在途中以及家庭和工作场所的日常活动之间出现在城市公共场所。熟悉的陌生人被描述为无形的社会联系和轻触的社区，代表着一种未被充分研究和未开发的社交来源，它为全球孤独感报告的增加提供了一种解毒剂。在这项研究中，我们研究了在日常公共场所中熟悉的陌生人相遇在多大程度上可能成为社会认同、归属感和感知依恋的重要来源。我们使用 2022 年对澳大利亚布里斯班 278 名居民在公园、公交站、零售环境和大道进行的截取调查的数据来估计回归模型，以估计熟悉的陌生人和访问频率对归属感和场所的影响依恋。我们的研究结果表明，归属感是通过在住宅区以外的日常公共场所遇到熟悉的陌生人而产生的，并且表明，将增强可见邻近性的城市设计特征与鼓励重复、同步访问的日程安排相结合，可以有助于在日常公共场所建立有界的归属感社区。