The essay presents the results of an empirical research on a sample of eleven couples of non-married young people. The aim is to understand the concrete possibility of a "pure relationship", as the English sociologist Anthony Giddens calls it. The author understand pure relationships as virtualizations of traditional marital relationships: only this level of non-reality can give the couples the chance of living together without facing the risks that are inherent to the marriage and the breaking up.

Luca Guizzardi, in "SOCIOLOGIA E POLITICHE SOCIALI" 1/2001, pp. , DOI: