Finding a Spouse: A Survey of how French Couples Meet

People tend to think they have met their spouses by chance, yet a strong social homogamy exists. By what mechanism or through what set of rules, acting like the invisible hand of Adam Smith, is the behaviour of individuals oriented in a same direction? Michel Bozon and Francois Heran describe social homogamy in present-day France and examine the rules which govern the places where people meet their spouses. Many studies have revealed the existence of spatial homogamy, but the present paper delves more deeply into the subject and shows how the spatial segregation of the different social classes leads to a parallel segregation in their meeting-places, which in turn favours homogamy