In-between Belonging and Longing

This article explores motivations of young people running away from residential care institutions. Running away from out-of-home care is often viewed as problematic due to its serious consequences for both the runaways, the other residents and the institutions. Drawing on 19 individual interviews and six focus groups with young people living in residential care, this article examines their experiences of running away within a theoretical framework of belonging. Belonging is a multidimensional and dynamic experience of feeling at home in both physical and social contexts. Drawing on this framework, we analyse young people’s experiences of running away as contextual and meaningful actions motivated by experienced tensions between belonging and longing. We argue that these tensions arise from conditions both within and beyond the institutional contexts. We underscore the interlacement of these contextual dimensions, emphasising the dynamic and complex nature of experiencing a sense of belonging.