Revitalising Intimacy Research Through a Focus on Intimate Inequaliites Ruptures and Dissonances

Twamley, Katherine and van Hooff, Jenny van ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8735-8758 (2025) Revitalising Intimacy Research Through a Focus on Intimate Inequaliites Ruptures and Dissonances. Sociological Research Online. 13607804251366733.

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Abstract

This article revisits and reimagines dominant theoretical approaches in the sociology of intimacy. Drawing on empirical research with mixed-sex couples, we use in-depth case studies to illustrate our intervention in this scholarship. We begin with an overview of the prevailing themes in couple intimacy research, noting an overwhelming focus on mutual and agentic processes, driven largely by the legacy of individualisation theory. This has led to a tendency to study how intimacy is practised or achieved but with less attention to how it may be disrupted or impeded. Through two case studies – one exploring couples’ transitions to parenthood and the other examining infidelity in relationships – we argue that relying on individualisation as a frame limits the analytical potential of intimacy research. Our analysis shows how practices of intimacy within couples are not always aligned, as structural conditions shape and constrain individuals’ capacity to sustain intimate connections. We propose a shift in focus to the ruptures and constraints that hinder intimacy, in order to better understand how structural conditions produce inequalities in intimate life, alongside the factors that enable connection.