Introduction: Anette Fasang
Every affluent country has experienced substantial changes in partnership behavior – delayed and foregone marriage, increased cohabitation, increased divorce and separation, and the formation of new partnerships. Because shifts in partnership behavior often occur in the context of parenthood, they produce increasingly complex families and households where biological ties, coresidence, and legal rights and obligations do not necessarily coincide. This lecture examines the role of cohabitation itself in the formation of complex families.