For the purpose of these analyses, two major theories are used - an explicit theory of individual mate choice, and the more general relational theory developed by Pierre Bourdieu, which helps to highlight the social structures both underlying and resulting from mating online.
Andreas Schmitz took his doctoral studies of sociology at Otto-Friedrich-Universität, Bamberg, supervised by Prof. Dr. Richard Münch. Since 2013 Andreas Schmitz has been working as Post-Doc in the department of sociology at the University of Bonn. In the summer term of 2015 he is acting as a substitute lecturer for Prof. Dr. Jörg Blasius.
1. Introduction.- 2. Online Dating - A Meeting Point for the Modern Individual and Traditional Individualism.- 3. The Market Character of Online Dating.- 4. Classical Theories of Mate Choice and the Relational Deficit in the Study of Relationship Formation.- 5. A Bourdieusian Approach to Mating Processes.- 6. Methodological Implications.- 7. Empirical Analyses.- 8. Online Dating – A Unified and Unifying Symbolic Good Market.