The Structure of Digital Partner Choice (eBook)

Andreas Schmitz took his doctoral studies of sociology at Otto-Friedrich-Universität, Bamberg, supervised by Prof. Dr. Richard Münch. Since 2013 Andreas Schmitz has been working as Post-Doc in the department of sociology at the University of Bonn. In the summer term of 2015 he is acting as a substitute lecturer for Prof. Dr. Jörg Blasius.

Foreword by Richard Münch 5
Preface 7
Acknowledgments 10
Contents 12
List of Figures 15
List of Tables 16
Chapter 1: Introduction 17
References 25
Chapter 2: Online Dating – A Meeting Point for the Modern Individual and Traditional Individualism 28
Online Dating as Manifestation of Modernity 28
The Societal Prevalence of Online Dating 31
Basic Principles of Online Dating 32
Online Dating Between Euphoria and Dysphoria 34
Analytical Perspectives of Digital Mating 35
The Cult of the Individual 2.0 37
References 39
Chapter 3: The Market Character of Online Dating 44
What Is a Partner Market? 44
Online Dating – An ‘Ideal Type’ Partner Market 47
The User’s Phenomenological Perception 54
Interim Conclusion 55
References 56
Chapter 4: Classical Theories of Mate Choice and the Relational Deficit in the Study of Relationship Formation 58
Classical Theories of Mate Choice 59
Mating Preferences and Mate Choice 59
Mating as Social Exchange 60
‘Erotic Capital’ and Couple Formation 61
Family Economics 62
The Blau Space 63
Mating as Agency in Structures (MAS) – The Paradigmatic Core of Current Research 64
MAS as Variant of Methodological Individualism and Rational Choice 67
Structure as Externality? 69
The Structuration of Mating 71
The Heteronomous Structure of the Partner Market 71
Transverse Structures of the Blau Space 72
Situational Logics of Partner Choice 72
‘External’ Structures of Situation 72
‘Internal’ Structures of Situation 73
Structures of Biography 74
Mating Utility and Mating Preferences 75
Structure of Utilities 75
Structure of Preferences 76
Synchronically Structured Preferences 76
Diachronically Structured Preferences 77
Mating as Decision 78
Structures of Bounded Rationality 78
Normative Structures of Decision 79
Dispositional Structures of Decision 80
Structures of the Actor 82
Structures of Partner Choice 82
Interaction Process 83
Synchronic and Diachronic Structures 83
Interaction and Recursive Structuration 85
Structured Logics of Aggregation 86
From Externalized Structure to Structural Relationism 87
References 91
Chapter 5: A Bourdieusian Approach to Mating Processes 99
The Relational Architecture of Pierre Bourdieu’s Sociology 99
The Partner Market as Social Space 104
The Social Space as Partner Market 106
Mating Utilities and Preferences as (Dis-)positions 108
Mating Rationalities as Dispositions 113
Mate Choice as Classification Practice 116
Mating as Reciprocal Classification 117
Mating as (Symbolic) Domination 121
MAS as Special Case of a Relational Theory of Mating 123
References 130
Chapter 6: Methodological Implications 134
The Relational Methodology of Pierre Bourdieu 134
Methodological Dimensions of Online Dating 136
Surveying the Users’ Perspectives: The Online Questionnaire 137
The Methodological Restrictions of Questionnaire Data 137
Observing the Users’ Practices: Web-Generated Process Data 139
Web-Generated Process Data in the Present Study 140
Profile Data 141
Relational Data Integration 142
Qualitative Interviews 142
Relational Methods 142
The Geometric Construction of Space 144
A Finite-Mixture Model of Dyadic-Classification 146
References 150
Chapter 7: Empirical Analyses 153
The Online Dating Market and the Social Space 153
The Online Space of Lifestyles 153
Erotic Capital as Dimension of the Digital Partner Market? 155
The Structure of Chances for Awareness and Exchange 157
The Relational Structure of Mating Preferences 162
Relational Mating Preferences: The Case of Age Preferences 162
Structured Systems of Mating Preferences 166
The Positional Character of Mating Dispositions 168
The (Dis-) Positional Character of Rationalities in Mating 172
Deceptive Practices and Market Position 172
An OLS Regression of Deceptive Practices 174
A Latent Class Regression Model of Mate Value and Deceptive Practices 176
Rationality Types Within the Social Space 178
Structured Reciprocal Classification in Mating Interactions 182
Lifestyle Homogeneity as a Process 182
A Dyadic Finite Mixture Model of First and Last Observed Contacts 184
A Dyadic Finite Mixture Model of 6th Contacts 185
References 190
Chapter 8: Online Dating – A Unified and Unifying Symbolic Good Market 193
The Ongoing Unification of the Market of Symbolic Goods 194
Digital Classification Practices 195
Equal Opportunity as Illusion and Symbolic Violence 198
Re-Traditionalizing Effects of Modern Technology: The Case of Gender 199
Acquired Digital Space and Physical Space 201
Structuration Trough Neutralization of Structure 202
Areas of Rationality 204
The Structure of Digital Partner Choice 205
The Mate Choice Paradigm as Special Case of Practice Theory 207
References 209
Appendix 211
Bibliography 214