How can design games be used to help vulnerable young people to talk about their loneliness? What do these conversations tell us about their understanding of loneliness and the means for coping with it? These are central questions for Mads Bährenholdt from the Social Design Unit, who has developed design games that young adults have been invited to explore in a series of workshops. This has resulted in a rich collection of small stories in which they tell about their feelings of being lonely and the longing for friendship and social relations.

On November 6, Mads’ interesting work was presented at a research seminar where Prof. Michael Bamberg from Clark University (US) was invited as an expert on small stories and identity formation among youth. The seminar took place at NORDKRAFT in Aalborg and was arranged by one of our good colleagues Ann Starbæk Bager.