Intimate relationships

The relationship work that people do and the support services that are provided to sustain these relationships.

There are diverse kinds of relationships that are important to people today, including friends, family, extended-kin, partners and other close forms of meaningful attachment. Notwithstanding these wide ranging networks of intimacies, the couple relationship remains strongly identified as the ideal form of adult relationship, and most people experience at least one long-term couple relationship in their adulthood.

People involved in work in the Intimate Relationships theme include: Meg Barker, Janet Fink, Jacqui Gabb, Martina Klett-Davies, Jane McCarthy, Andreas Vossler.

Alongside and including individual research interests, there are currently 3 projects in this theme:

Enduring Love? Couple relationships in the 21^st century

Investigators: Jacqui Gabb (Senior Lecturer, OU Faculty of Social Sciences), Janet Fink (Senior Lecturer, OU Faculty of Social Sciencces), Jane McCarthy (Reader, OU Faculty of Social Sciences), Martina Klett-Davies (Research Associate, OU Faculty of Social Sciences)

The Enduring Love? is a psycho-social mixed methods study on how couples think about and experience their long-term relationships. We are looking at the emotional and practical ‘relationship work’ that people do to keep their relationships going and the ways that social policies and popular culture shape what it means to be a couple. Findings will tell us about what relationships look like in the 21st century and the different factors that are associated with diverse relationship experience.

The project is funded by the ESRC (RES-062-23-3056) and fieldwork will be completed during 2011-2013.

For more information visit the Enduring Love? website.

What is Sex? (WiSE). Understanding sex, sexuality, intimacy in a contemporary UK context

Investigators: Darren Langdridge (Senior Lecturer, OU Faculty of Social Sciences), Meg Barker (Senior Lecturer, OU Faculty of Social Sciences), Jacqui Gabb (Senior Lecturer, OU Faculty of Social Sciences), Rebecca Jones (Lecturer, OU Faculty of Health and Social Care), Paul Flowers (Professor, Glasgow Caledonian University Department of Psychology)

Writing in 1984 Gayle Rubin argued that 'the time has come to think about sex'. This is arguably even more pertinent now than then and as a consequence this project seeks to think about sex by empirically mapping contemporary understandings and constructions of sex, sexuality and intimacy in the UK. This new large-scale project under development builds on a number of small-scale studies into sexual practices and identities, the work of Enduring Love and Rewriting the Rules that has been conducted by members of CCIG. It brings together work in both the Families, Relationships and Communities and Psycho-Social programmes of CCIG, within a theoretically informed research project with a practical focus on a central aspect of people’s relational lives.

Preventing family breakdown: The role of low-intensity family counselling for parents and children

Investigator: Andreas Vossler (Lecturer, OU Faculty of Social Sciences)

This project under development aims to investigate practices and outcome of family counselling provided by Relate family services. In combining quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, the study aims to capture the perspective of service users (parents and children) as well as Relate family counsellors. The first strand of the project would investigate the process and outcome of family counselling through parent and child questionnaires assessing family functioning and child psychological functioning and counsellor questionnaires. The second strand would generate insight into the experiences of children and adolescents in family counselling sessions, using different qualitative research methods (including interviews and visual methods).

Rewriting the rules: expanding understandings of love, sex and relationships

Investigator: Meg Barker (Senior Lecturer, OU Faculty of Social Sciences)

This project examines dominant understandings of romantic relationships, and explores ways in which the 'rules' of such relationships are being rewritten in various ways.

For example, the sexual imperative is rewritten by both kink and asexual communities, the notion of 'The One' by committed single and polyamorous people, the importance of partner gender by bisexual and queer people, and the privileging of romantic love by various group and individuals who emphasise friendship, logical families, or other relational forms.

Bringing together this work, with experience in relationship therapy theory and practice, Meg has recently completed a book (Routledge 2012) and website entitled Rewriting the Rules. There is scope for future projects exploring different understandings of 'successful' relationships and further examining the perceived role of sex in relationships. The latter will form part of a funding bid in collaboration with Darren Langdridge and others.

For more information visit the Rewriting the rules website.