Property inequality in the private sphere: On the institutional and cultural (re-)structuring of ownership arrangements of couples

Outline

The subject of the study is the structural change of and through ownership in cohabiting couples. It explores both the distribution of property among domestic partners and the practices and patterns of interpretation which domestic partners establish in order to facilitate or restrict control over said property. That process of doing property results in individual ownership arrangements that are unique to each couple and reproduce, potentially transform, the hegemonic property and gender structure.

Using a mixed-method study, the project aims to analyse the structural transformation of ownership arrangements empirically. In doing so, it systematically interlinks the micro and macro approaches to ownership as a category of gender studies.

Projekt activities

Events
  • Co-Organisation of Ad-Hoc-Group "Was meins ist, soll auch deins sein!? – Eigentum in ent/polarisierten Paarwelten" at the 41th Congress of the German Sociological Association (DGS), Bielefeld University, Germany. September 27, 2022.

Publications

Lectures
  • Althaber, Agnieszka und Leuze, Kathrin. More money, more power? How wealth and income inequalities in couple households influence partners’ money management in East and West Germany. Talk at the 41th Congress of the German Sociological Association (DGS), Bielefeld University, Germany. September 27, 2022.
  • Saalfeld, Robin K., Scholz, Sylka. Wer das Geld hat, hat die Macht? Verhandlungen des property gap in Paarwelten. Talk at the 41th Congress of the German Sociological Association (DGS), Bielefeld University, Germany. September 27, 2022.

Project Staff