yes / Interpretations of living apart together (LAT) have typically counter-posed 'new family form' versus 'continuist' perspectives. Recent surveys, however, construct LAT as a heterogeneous category that supports a 'qualified continuist' position - most people live apart as a response to practical circumstances or as a modern version of 'boy/girlfriend', although a minority represents something new in preferring to live apart more permanently. This article interrogates this conclusion by examining in depth why people live apart together, using a nationally representative survey from Britain and interview accounts from 2011. Our analysis shows that LAT as a category contains different sorts of relationship, with different needs and desires. While overall coupledom remains pivotal and cohabitation remains the goal for most, LAT allows people flexibility and room to manoeuvre in adapting couple intimacy to the demands of contemporary life. Hence, we suggest, LAT is both 'new' and a 'continuation'. / ESRC / The full text of the published article is open access. Full text of the author's final draft was released to the Repository 09/10/2014 at the end of the publisher's embargo period.

There are very few works not associated with the Western canon to have received as much attention as Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart (Ogbaa 1). However, contrary to the many post-colonial interpretations of this novel, this essay employs a psychoanalytical literary approach to discuss the cause of the protagonist’s eventual demise, based on the premise that human behaviour is driven by an unconscious process. Consequently, this essay argues that following the ego’s inability to repress the infantile demands of the unconscious, the preconscious and the conscious self, ever more compulsive, repetitive and neurotic behaviours are displayed. Furthermore, this essay argues that Okonkwo’s relationship to his mother plays a significant role in explaining the tense relationship with his own father and sons. Subsequently, the protagonist’s self-confidence turns to pride and his masculinity develops into totalitarian rule leading to uncontrollable rage, Okonkwo’s world literally falls apart.

Yes / ‘Living apart together’ – that is being in an intimate relationship with a partner who lives somewhere else – is increasingly recognised and accepted as a specific way of being in a couple. On the face of it, this is a far cry from the ‘traditional’ version of couple relationships, where co-residence in marriage was placed at the centre and where living apart from one's partner would be regarded as abnormal, and understandable only as a reaction to severe external constraints. Some commentators regard living apart together as a historically new family form where LATs can pursue a ‘both/and’ solution to partnership – they can experience both the intimacy of being in a couple, and at the same time continue with pre-existing commitments. LATs may even de-prioritize couple relationships and place more importance on friendship. Alternatively, others see LAT as just a ‘stage’ on the way to cohabitation and marriage, where LATs are not radical pioneers moving beyond the family, but are cautious and conservative, and simply show a lack of commitment. Behind these rival interpretations lies the increasingly tarnished spectre of individualisation theory. Is LAT some sort of index for a developing individualisation in practice? In this paper we take this debate further by using information from the 2006 British Social Attitudes Survey. We find that LATs have quite diverse origins and motivations, and while as a category LATs are often among the more liberal in family matters, as a whole they do not show any marked ‘pioneer’ attitudinal position in the sense of leading a radical new way, especially if age is taken into account. / ESRC

no / Drawing on a 2011 national survey and 50 semi-structured interviews, we explore the differing ways in which those in living apart together (LAT) relationships discuss and experience notions of commitment. We found that sexual exclusivity in LAT relationships is expected by the large majority, regardless of their reasons for living apart. The majority of the interviewees also expressed a high degree of commitment to their partner in terms of love, care and intimacy, alongside an appreciation of the increased freedom and autonomy that living apart has to offer. Respondents were divided into four groups according to their perceived commitment: 1. Autonomous commitment, 2. Contingent commitment, 3. Ambivalent commitment, and 4. Limited commitment. Despite differing degrees of commitment, however, the overall finding was that the importance of relating and making relational decisions was central, even in the lives of those living in such unconventional relationship styles.

Yes / This article explores how people who live apart from their partners in Britain describe and understand ‘family’. It investigates whether, and how far, non-cohabiting partners, friends, ‘blood’ and legal ties are seen as ‘family’, and how practices of care and support, and feelings of closeness are related to these constructions. It suggests that people in LAT relationships creatively draw and re-draw the boundaries of family belonging in ways that involve emotionally subjective understandings of family life, and that also refer to normative constructions of what ‘family’ ought to be, as well as to practical recognitions of lived family ‘realities’. This often involves handling uncertainties about what constitutes ‘family’.

The objective of this project is about a kinematic analysis of a shear zone, specifically a graben structure. The surface of the study area has also been investigated, this is to understand if a faulting reactivation has occurred due to glacial impact. The graben structure is exposed along a road cut, next to the E18 highway at Ekolsund, 14km east of Enköping. The results of the report are based on field studies of the geometrical relationship pattern of fracture planes, relative displacement along fracture and a kinematic analysis of movements along fractures. A high resolution terrain model was acquired in the analyzing of the graben structure formation and to create a geometrical 3D brittle deformation model. This model was applied to reconstruct the deformation process. The area contains a more than 1,1km long dextral NE-trending strike-slip fault feature in a polydeformed Precambrian bedrock. The fault is connected NE to one of the regional structure that delimits the bedrock blocks. The fault is visible both as a topographical feature from the ground and from aerial photos. While the project followed through it was clear that the area had been subjected to reactivation. The evidence for this claim stems from an observed semivertical fracture plane with conjugating subhorizontal striations markers that contain an alternating plunge and trend. Other evidence for a reactivation scenario is the fault gouges that contain horizontal striation as well as steep plunging striation, indicating a dip-slip faulting movement. The main zone of faulting displays lower altitude than the surrounding rock. This indicates an asymmetric graben structure that has been subjected to polydeformation. When analyzing the results, it is concluded that a pull-apart basin event has occurred. It’s highly possibly that it has been undergoing modifications during its geological history, resulting in a polydeformed reactivation of the minor faults outlining the graben structure. / Syftet med denna studie är att utföra en kinematisk analys av en förkastningszon, speciellt där en mindre graben struktur utbildats. Ytan för det studerade området är även det viktigt, det är för att förstå ifall en förkastningsreaktivering har skett i och med en glacial påverkan. Graben strukturen är blottad längs en vägskärning, utmed E18 vid Ekolsund, 14km österut om Enköping. Resultatet av rapporten är baserat på fältstudier med fokus på geometriska relationsmönster hos sprickplan, relativa förskjutningar längs sprickor och en kinematisk analys av rörelser längs sprickor. En högupplöst terrängmodell var erhållen vid analys av grabenstrukturens formation och för att skapa en 3D sprödtektonisk deformationsmodell. Modellen var tillämpad vid rekonstruering av deformationsprocessen. Området innefattar en mer än 1,1km lång dextral NO-orienterad strike-slip förkastning i en polydeformerad Prekambrisk berggrund. Förkastningen är ansluten NO till en av de regionala strukturerna som begränsar berggrundsblocken. Förkastningen är synlig både på marknivå och från flygfoton. Medan projektet fortlöpte blev det tydligare att området blivit utsatt för en reaktivering. Beläggen för detta påstående grundar sig i de observerade semi-vertikala sprickplanen med konjugerande subhorisontala striationer som har alternerande stupning och trend. Andra belägg för ett reaktiveringsscenario är de fault gouge strukturerna som innehåller horisontala striationer såväl som stupande striationer, vilket indikerar på en dip-slip förkastningsrörelse. Huvudzonen av förkastningen uppvisar lägre altitud än kringliggande bergyta. Det här indikerar en asymmetrisk graben struktur som har utsatts för polydeformation. Vid analys av resultatet, så kan det sammanfattas att en pull-apart basin förkastning har inträffat. Däremot är det mycket möjligt att zonen har undergått fler modifikationer under dess geologiska historia, vilket har resulterat i en polydeformerad reaktivering av mindre förkastningar som gett kontur dragen åt graben strukturen.

Die kumulative Promotion befasst sich mit der Lebensform „Living apart together“ (LAT), worunter Paare verstanden werden, die nach Maßgabe ihre Selbstwahrnehmung in getrennten Haushalten leben. Die Arbeit besteht aus insgesamt vier Beiträgen, die in peer-review-Journals erschienen sind sowie einer zusammenfassenden Synopse. Ein erster Schwerpunkt des Promotionsprojektes besteht darin, die Binnendifferenzierung der partnerschaftlichen Lebensform LAT zu untersuchen. Dazu werden mit Daten des Beziehungs- und Familienpanels (Befragte zwischen 15 und 39 Jahre) verschiedene Typen von LAT-Partnerschaften mithilfe von Clusteranalysen identifiziert. Hierbei erweist sich eine heuristische Einteilung in drei Idealtypen – die LAT als Vorstufe stärker verfestigter Lebensformen, LAT als berufsbedingte Notlösung und LAT als Beziehungsideal – als weitgehend empirisch tragfähig. Gleichzeitig werden neue Typen wie z.B. die „ökonomisch deprivierte LAT“ identifiziert, bei der eine ökonomisch prekäre Lage und eine starke Betroffenheit von Arbeitslosigkeit die weitere Institutionalisierung der Partnerschaft zu hemmen scheinen. Das zweite Ziel der Arbeit besteht darin, die Entwicklung der LAT-Partnerschaften im Längsschnitt, d.h. die Übergänge in den gemeinsamen Haushalt einerseits und in eine Trennung andererseits, zu untersuchen. Hier zeigen sich zum Teil deutlich Unterschiede zwischen den zuvor identifizierten Clustern. Eine niedrige Übergangsrate in die Kohabitation sowie ein hohes Trennungsrisiko können z.B. für jugendliche LAT-Partnerschaften, aber auch für den ökonomisch deprivierten Typ, beobachtet werden. Die Kohabitationsneigung bei berufsbedingten Fernbeziehungen ist dagegen höher und das Trennungsrisiko geringer als theoretisch erwartet. Schließlich wird als dritter Schwerpunkt des Projektes der Frage nachgegangen, welche Rolle Eigenschaften der Herkunftsfamilie im Institutionalisierungsprozess spielen. Es zeigt sich, dass Jugendliche die für sie typische LAT-Partnerschaft insbesondere dann früh verlassen und einen Haushalt mit ihrem Partner gründen, wenn es sich nicht um Kernfamilien, sondern um alleinerziehende Eltern oder Stiefeltern handelt. Im Promotionsprojekt wird der Frage nachgegangen, auf welche Mechanismen diese Zusammenhänge hauptsächlich zurückführbar ist, wobei verschiedene theoretische Ansätze – ökonomische Deprivation, Transmissionseffekte, soziale Kontrolle, Stress – vergleichend gegenübergestellt werden.

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Today, individuals can relatively easily meet and communicate with each other over great distances due to increased mobility and advances in communication technology. This also allows intimate relationships to be maintained over large geographical distances. Despite these developments, long-distance relationships (LDRs), i.e. intimate relationships maintained over geographical distance, remain understudied. The present thesis aims to fill this knowledge gap and investigates how intimate partners who live so far away from each other that they cannot meet every day make their relationship ongoing beyond face-to-face interaction. Theoretically, this study departs from a symbolic interactionist viewpoint that invites us to study phenomena from the actor’s perspective. Conceptually, the thesis builds on the recent development in sociology of intimate lives that sees intimacy as a relational quality that has to be worked on to be sustained, and that focuses on the practices that make a relationship a relationship. Empirically, the thesis is based upon 19 in-depth interviews with individuals from Latvia with long-distance relationship experience. The thesis consists of four articles. Article I studies the context in which LDRs in Latvia are maintained, focusing on the normative constraints that complicate LDR maintenance. Article II analyses how intimacy is practiced over geographical distance. Article III examines how long-distance partners manage the experience of the time they are together and the time they are geographically apart. Article IV explores the aspect of idealization in LDRs. Overall, the thesis argues for the critical role of imagination in relationship maintenance. The relationship maintenance strategies identified within the articles are imagination-based mediated communication (creating sensual/embodied intimacy, emotional intimacy, daily intimacy and imagined individual intimacy); time-work strategies that enable long-distance partners to deal with the spatiotemporal borders of the time together and the time apart; and creating bi-directional idealization. The thesis is also one of the few works in the field of intimate lives in Eastern Europe and analyses the normative complications that long-distance partners face in their relationship maintenance in Latvia.

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