Vivre en couple chacun chez soi

Abstract

Villeneuve-Gokalp (Catherine). - Living as a couple but living apart In the mid-1960s, almost nine out of ten marriages were not preceded by a period of cohabitation; thirty years later the situation has been completely reversed, and some couples even forgo permanent cohabitation and a shared residence. The Ined surveys on Family Situations (1986) and the Fertility and Family Survey - FFS, (1994) have identified a disassociation between living as a couple and actually living together. Thus individuals may state in the same interview that they 'live in a couple' and that they 'do not live with their partner permanently ..., that each has kept their own residence'. Living in a couple without abandoning one's residential independence is a relatively common situation at the beginning of a union, but is one which does not usually last and is more often the result of external constraints than of a choice by the partners. This form of union has not increased in the last eight years. This article asks whether non cohabiting partnership was a way of forming a couple comparable to unmarried cohabitation at the time the latter first began to spread, or whether it was just a 'serious' form of a loving relationship. An attempt is made to isolate the characteristics, choices and constraints of those who opt for this way of life.

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