Continuity and change in commuter partnerships

Avoiding or postponing family migration

Datos Bibliográficos

ID11986830
AutoresMarjolijn Van Der Klis (0000-0003-0008-9028)
Año2008
Volumen71
Número4
Páginas233-247
Fecha de publicación2008-04-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaGeoJournal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0343-2521 • E-ISSN: 1572-9893
EditorialSpringer Science+Business Media (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1007/s10708-008-9159-3
OpenAlexW2114159312
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas6
Referencias citadas43

While most people in post-industrial societies, such as The Netherlands, continue to live as nuclear families, new household arrangements have emerged in which couples no longer commit to living in one shared residence. One such household arrangement is the commuter partnership, in which one partner lives near work part of the time. The objective in this article was to gain a better understanding of the sustainability of commuter partnerships and to contribute to uncovering the function that this household arrangement can have in the coordination of parallel careers of different household members over time. The study draws on in-depth interviews with both individual partners in 30 commuter partnerships with at least one residence located in The Netherlands, and a follow-up survey of the same commuter couples several years later. Our findings indicate that, for most couples, the commuter partnership should not be regarded as a prelude to family migration, but rather as a household arrangement by which family migration is avoided altogether, either for a limited period, or as a long-term alternative to the nuclear family. The findings further indicate that, when couples look on their commuter partnership as the result of their individual choice, they generally envision the future duration of their commuter partnership quite accurately. When their choice is guided by the external circumstances of job contracts, couples appear to be less accurate in predicting the future duration of their commuter partnerships

Business · Commit · Demographic economics · Duration (music · Economic geography · Economic growth · Economics · General partnership · Human geography · Residence · Sociology · Sustainability · Work (physics · Engineering · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Rural development and sustainability · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies · Finance