Social inequalities attract public attention, but usually in the form of discussions about aggregated distributions and striking overall descriptions of society. In these cases, the necessary institutional interfaces and social processes through which these inequalities are created and reproduced are often overlooked. Social change also frequently manifests first in these micro-processes of social life. The formation of partnerships and families and their functioning in everyday life, central themes in both family research and social structure analysis, are such fundamental processes. Florian Schulz's work connects these two thematic areas and subjects them to a detailed, process-oriented empirical analysis. The first part of this book focuses on the formation of partnerships. How do couples come into being?.