Beyond traditional partner relationships? : Social-structural conditions of modern partner relationships

Abstract

"The aim of this article is to use the field of modern partner relationships as a 'test case' for the asserted ubiquity of individualisation tendencies. A possible criterion for this is whether and to what extent - over and above the (old?) barriers between social strata and class - individual consciousness is moving away from traditional concepts in the interpretation of self and the world and individualisation is accordingly being conceived by individuals as an 'being individualised for itself', in reference to the differentiation made by Marx and Hegel between (class) 'in itself' and 'for itself' (Marx 1983). In this case one would expect that the concepts which men and women have of relationships are orientated less on prescriptive traditional (role) models but on the values of personal autonomy and material independence. We wish to pursue this question below and start by reconstructing the typology of modern partner concepts; we will then, in a second step, use survey data to examine whether and to what extent an individualisation of partner concepts over and above social strata is indeed taking place." (text excerpt, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Hirseland, A. & Leuze, K. (2010): Jenseits der traditionellen Paarbeziehung? Sozialstrukturelle Bedingungen moderner Beziehungskonzepte. In: P. A. Berger & R. Hitzler (Hrsg.) (2010): Individualisierungen : ein Vierteljahrhundert "jenseits von Stand und Klasse"?, p. 191-209.