International Conference

“Partner Relationships, Residential Relocations and Housing in the Life Course”

Cologne, Germany, July 27-29, 2017

Partnerships, residential relocations and housing are crucial aspects of people’s well-being. All three life domains are interdependent across the life course. Some partnership events involve immediate residential relocations, for instance the establishment or the dissolution of a co-residential union. Other transitions are sequenced closely together such as marriage and the transition to homeownership. The usual approach is to assume that partnership trajectories influence residential trajectories and housing choices. But the residential careers and the housing situation are likely to also restrict or enable relationship and family development.

The international conference on “Partner Relationships, Residential Relocations and Housing in the Life Course” is organised as part the PartnerLife research project. The conference aims to create a meeting point for researchers who study the interrelationship between partnership trajectories, residential relocations and housing. It will take place in Cologne on July 27-29, 2017 and the program will feature a number of invited talks by internationally renowned scientists. Further contributions on different national contexts as well as comparative work are welcome. We invite papers with a focus on – but not limited to – the following topics:

  • Partnership patterns and housing
  • Living-apart-together partnerships and the transition to co-residential partnerships
  • Residential trajectories, housing and the quality of partnerships
  • Consequences of separation and divorce for housing, relocation careers and family relations
  • Modelling the association between partnership and residential histories