Résumé
This book is about the ongoing strength of the couple-norm and the insidious grip it exerts on our lives as it defines what it is to be a citizen, a fully recognized and rights-bearing member of society. It exposes the construction of coupledom the condition or state of living as a couple as the normal, natural and superior way of being an adult,1 in order to offer an anatomy of the couple-norm an analysis of its structure, organization and internal workings. It explores how the couple-norm is lived and experienced, how it has changed over time and how it varies between places and social groups. Our aim is to make explicit, to literalize (Strathern, 1992), the couple-norm in order to understand its tenacity and ubiquity across changing landscapes of law, policy and everyday life in four contrasting national contexts: the United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Norway and Portugal.