Couple Relationships in the 21st Century

Jacqui Gabb is Associate Dean of Research in the Faculty of Social Sciences at The Open University, UK.   Janet Fink is Professor of Childhood Studies in the School of Education and Professional Development at the University of Huddersfield, UK.

• 1. Introduction 2. Relationship Work 3. Communication 4. Sex and Intimacy 5. Unsettling Coupledom 6. Conclusions

“Couple Relationships in the 21st Century is an important contribution to the study of intimacy and relationships in general, especially regarding methods, and to the study of couples in particular. It succeeds in being critical towards the popular therapeutic – and sociological – narrative of ‘good couples’, while at the same time also offering the reader a deeply felt sense of why so many people still choose to live in couples.” (Sara Eldén, Acta Sociologica, Vol. 59 (1), 2016)“This insightful and engaging book emerges from a research project called Enduring Love … . It focuses on the everyday social features of loving. What is so brilliant and refreshing about this book is the way it undermines the eteronormative assumptions beneath the idea of ‘the couple’. … This book has a rare quality, for it not only documents sociologically the experience of enduring love; it also offers … tips on how we might live and love differently.” (Les Back, Network, Issue 121, 2015)