Academic debate about social isolation and loneliness, and their adverse health and well-being implications, has resulted in many policy and programme interventions directed towards reducing both, especially among older people. However, definitions of the two concepts, their measurement, and the relationship between the two are not clearly articulated. This article redresses this and draws on theoretical constructs adapted from symbolic interactionism, together with the Good Relations Measurement Framework, developed for the Equality and Human Rights Commission in the UK, to challenge the way in which social isolation and loneliness are currently understood. It argues for a need to understand experiences of social relationships, particularly those which facilitate meaningful interaction, suggesting that opportunities and barriers to meaningful interaction are determined by wider societal issues. This is set out in a new conceptual framework which can be applied across the life course and facilitates a new discourse for understanding these challenging concepts.

关于社会孤立和孤独及其对健康和福祉的不利影响的学术辩论已导致许多旨在减少两者的政策和计划干预措施，尤其是在老年人中。然而，这两个概念的定义、它们的衡量标准以及两者之间的关系并没有清晰地表达出来。本文解决了这一问题，并借鉴了从符号互动主义改编的理论结构，以及为英国平等与人权委员会开发的良好关系测量框架，以挑战目前对社会孤立和孤独的理解方式。它主张需要了解社会关系的经验，特别是那些促进有意义的互动的经验，表明有意义的互动的机会和障碍是由更广泛的社会问题决定的。这是在一个新的概念框架中提出的，该框架可以应用于整个生命过程，并促进了一种新的论述，以理解这些具有挑战性的概念。