Friendship Matters is a network of experts on friendship, from the fields of philosophy, sociology, education, economics and literature.

Our contention is that friendship has been overlooked by those who study and influence society. The aim is to find answers to these questions. The goal is to provide the foundations upon which to put friendship firmly on the wellbeing agenda.

Addressing friendship is, broadly speaking, possible in two ways. The first is instrumentally, that is by regarding friendship as something that any individual needs for success in life and identifying the tools they need to find it. 

There is value in this approach. But also risks, for friendship, like happiness, arises indirectly. Treating it like a utility can, therefore, be counterproductive. Friendship depends upon the quality of whole of lives and so is arguably not best served by what might be called individualistic, remedial programmes.

Ethics suggests a second way, understanding that friendship depends upon the way people live their lives and the values they express. It is an ethos that gives as well as receives. It is not a problem to be solved but a way of life to be nurtured.  

Further, friendship challenges society inasmuch as modernity priorities the useful above the good, the individual above the relational. There are, to use the language of the ancient Greeks, virtues like honesty, commitment and passion that make for friendship.

This, then, is a call for a new social agenda, one that places friendship - the thing that most people say matters to them more than anything else - at the top of the list. It is the first forum in years to consider how friendship might be studied by researchers, taught in schools, understood by policy-makers and lived by individuals. It will be of vital to anyone concerned not only with how people live, but how they can live well.

Friendship Matters is seeking to be in touch with all who have an interest. We are planning an event in 2007. Please do email!

Facts

Two-thirds of people see or speak to friends at least once a week and have a close friend living nearby.

Individuals are 12 times more likely to find their employment fulfilling if they work with a good friend.

Friendship makes people healthier in life and happier in relationships and marriage.

In a more mobile society, the freedom of friendship appears to come into its own.

Key questions

What is friendship?

How does it function in people's lives?

Where is it flourishing and floundering?

How does it relate to other forms of community?

How can it be nurtured at the level of the personal and the political?

Directors

Professor Ray Pahl believes that friendship is a powerful force in modern society although one that is both easily missed and misunderstood. Written with Dr Liz Spencer, his new book, Rethinking Friendship: Hidden Solidarities Today, reveals the ways they are made and maintained, and the extent to which they suffuse with other relationships. It is this ‘best practice’ that can be examined and brought to the fore.

Dr Mark Vernon believes that friendship has been sidelined by contemporary thinkers and intellectuals: it is often viewed with suspicion in the modern world, variously accused of undermining meritocracy and even the family. In The Philosophy of Friendship he reveals how the writings of the great philosophers on friendship show  not only how friendship works, but how its perils can be negotiated and its promises realised. People can learn how to lead more ‘skillful’ lives that build friendships, thereby promoting personal happiness and the wellbeing of society as a whole.