Research on the family has often focused on heterosexual cohabiting couples. During the last few decades however several other forms of 'family' have become increasingly common, due in part to demographical changes, in part to changes in how family is viewed. To increase our understanding of family and intimate relationships in Sweden today, we will study three types of 'new' forms of living: homosexual and LAT (living apart together) couples, and those who are voluntarily single. These are seldom addressed in research on family. The two former forms may conceptualize and practice family, love and gender differently than nuclear family-like constellations. They may also have greater possibilities to find other ways of allocating power and resources and to organize everyday life compared to married/cohabiting heterosexual couples. By illuminating singles' notions about coupledom and their ways of positioning themselves in relation to strong norms of coupledom we can learn more about how they define and practice love, intimacy and family. A broad understanding of family and intimacy allows us to gain sight of how those we study, understand and organize intimate relationships and everyday life. Through interviews, the project studies issues of power, gender equality and conceptualizations of the raised questions, also partly in relation to already existing interviews on heterosexual married/cohabiting couples. Some theoretical points of departure are modernity, power and gender.