Paper info

'Clandestine Relationships'- What happens when there are restrictions on the choice of partners?

Anna Bengtson and Susanne Aberg

The paper was published at the 25th IMP-conference in Marseille, France in 2009.

 The aim of this paper is to initiate a study regarding the existence of relationships in contexts where relationships can be considered unwanted, or perhaps even illegal. Using IMP literature as a theoretical underpinning, the relationship concept (and its advantages and disadvantages) is presented. Furthermore, a number of contexts where relationships are traditionally seen as non-existent are presented. The results indicate that relationships do emerge even in these contexts, and that different types of relationships exist in different contexts, rather than a certain context fostering a certain kind of relationship.