Sense of Belonging: Understanding the Emergence and Experience of the Construct, With a Focus on the Country Context

This work is a review of the body of research on the emergence and the experience of sense of belonging. It looks at the various frameworks, concepts, and tools of measurement within the large literature, aiming to understand the complex construct of belonging. Since the late 1960s, the multifaceted concept of belonging has gathered interest from various academic fields. Although the consensus on a definition has yet to be reached, belonging is generally defined as the subjective experience of feeling "at home", connected to, respected, and appreciated by a group, person, or institution. It is considered a basic human need and analyzed as a dynamic contextual experience. This study highlights the contextual nature of the construct, drawing from political, social, and individual aspects within frameworks of belonging, with a particular focus on experiences of belonging in connection to the context of a country.