The «common currency» in couples: some meanings and some tricks

Abstract

Thru the domestic money analysis (its property, management and use) the enormous versatility of the idea of pooled money or the common purse of couples is considered. We select three cases, analyzed as ideal types, where is showed tensions between different normative patterns: the traditional breadwinner ideal, the communitarian one and the individualization related with the second modernity. The conclusions derived from this analysis are both of a methodological and an empirical kind. As for the methodology, we defend an analysis of the relations of couples on the basis of case studies, affirming that the keys of the analysis are provided by the biographical history, not only with respect to the past, but in certain cases also as to the future. The empirical results remain in line with the investigations in this field: reinforcement of resource theory (the one who brings the money in has legitimacy to exercise more power), which should be completed with elements of gender ideology and the «traps» that some crucial decisions entail.