Decisions under uncertainty. Planned institutionalization processes among young pairs under the influence of precarious employment

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Paul B. Hill
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: from 2011 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 196469282

This project seeks to explore the institutionalization process in intimate relationships under the influence of precarious work in Germany. It focuses on the crucial decisions made in a couple´s relationship, which contribute to an intensified level of their partnership. Those decisions include not only the intention to marry or have children but also high-cost situations, as for instance the investment in real estate. The central thesis is that precarious work, which must affect at least one partner, has an impact on high-cost decisions made within a relationship. Those decisions can only be made under a high risk of material and immaterial costs.Thus, a delay of a regular life course is being expected. This leads to a structural deviation in the institutionalization process within the partnership in comparison to couples of which both partners are employed conventionally. For those couples where at least one partner ist employed under precarious work conditions, this development leads to a deviation from a "regular biography" in partnership. Also, another consequence would be ambivalence between the desire for insitutionalization in partnership and the actual opportunity to do so. With the growing number of atypical forms of employment, we expect an increasing divergence in private decisions made by standard employees and economic instable employees. The sample of the main survey includes 1.083 people, who are currently living in a relationship and are sharing the same household, i.e. living together, sharing a common budget, et cetera. For financial and practical reasons, only one partner shall be interviewed, which means that the other one will be excluded from the survey.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Person: Professor Dr. Johannes Kopp