Cohabitation in contemporary Polish society- choice or necessity? Social analysis

Abstract

Intensification of cohabitation phenomenon in Poland is commonly discussed i.a. in sociology and media. The exponent of cohabitation is considered to be births outside of wedlock, and the specific indicator should be the percentage of civil unions in the total number of births (National Census). Therefore, the literature on the subject talks about various conditions of this phenomenon, e.g. socio-cultural, economic, individual (even personal). The main goal of this article is an attempt to answer the question: is living in cohabitation nowadays in the Third Polish Republic the result of free choice of an individual in an individualized, like never before society, or is it a necessitythe result of the economic conditions in which he/she lives, due to the fact that she may not always be the creator of her financial situation, and is determined in this area by the requirements of a free market economy, set by the state as an organization of global society?