Call for papers: From Matrimonial Ads to Dating Apps: Unraveling the Partnering Market
Abstract: Partner selection is often seen as a private decision, but its implications stretch far beyond the individual and couple, affecting families, communities, and society at large. It shapes and reflects social inequalities, with the potential to either challenge or reinforce existing structures. Understanding how partnering markets work—and why and how they evolve over time—is vital for scholars from a wide range of disciplines, including demographers, historians, sociologists, biologists, and geneticists.
While much of the research on partner selection has focused on couple data, new data sources—from historical matrimonial advertisements to contemporary dating apps—provide exciting opportunities to explore the underlying dynamics of mate choice. These insights have the potential to illuminate patterns of assortative mating, gender imbalances, and other structural inequalities within relationships and society.
This call for papers invites scholars from all disciplines to explore how partnering markets operate across diverse contexts and the far-reaching consequences of these dynamics, including their impact on relationship stability, social mobility, health, and family structures.
Dates of the workshop: 4 – 5 June 2026
Location: Center for Demographic Studies, Barcelona: https://ced.cat/en/about-ced/contacte-i-localitzacio/
Scholars are invited to participate in the workshop by submitting a paper proposal aligned with the workshop’s objectives. Proposals should consist of a title and an abstract of 300–350 words and must be submitted by 15 April 2026 via email to:
– Paul Puschmann: paul.puschmann@ru.nl
– Joana Maria Pujadas Mora: jpujadasmo@uoc.edu
Registration is free of charge. Notification of acceptance will be communicated by 22 April 2026.
Organizers:
Joana Maria Pujadas Mora – Department of Arts and Humanities at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain and Center for Demographic Studies, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain
Paul Puschmann, Economic, Social and Demographic History, Radboud Institute for Culture and History, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands
Funding: The Workshop will be funded by HiDo, the international network for historical demography, the Asociación de Demografía Histórica and the Center for Demographic Studies.