On Drifting Apart: Temporality and Space in the Dissolution of Relationships

Sociologists have written thousands of pages on collective action but surprisingly little on how people and groups drift apart. Following the traditions of interactionist and processual sociology, this article develops a conceptual framework that explains the complex and dynamic social process of relationship dissolution. Our framework underscores three formal aspects of relationship dissolution: relational, temporal, and spatial. Though actors have agency in ending relationships, the physical and social spaces, in which they are located, as well as their varying access to those spaces, shape this process. Duration, frequency, rhythm, and synchronization, which are shaped by a series of events that influence the dynamics of interaction, characterize the temporality of relationship dissolution. The dissolution of relationships entails spatial and eventful changes to actors, their positions, and the nature of their interactions.