Family and Industrialisation

Industrialisation then came by by farming going out-of-business because of factories that came about in cities. The nuclear family had to then break away from the extended family to move out the countryside and into towns and cities where the factories were in order to work in them, and this movement made these towns and cities grow bigger - this process is called urbanisation.

Structure

Parsons (functionalist) - he believes that pre-industrial families were extended because this was the best type of family for agricultural work on farms or in cottage industries, as all the family worked together. Industrialisation then brought about the traditional nuclear family, and this family was geographically mobile as it was a unit that could move around easily fotr the reason of work. This family also became the structurally isolated nuclear family. These aspects mean it was a functional fit for society and so it was perfect for capitalism.

 1) Laslett - his study showed that only 10% of households were extended in pre-industrial society, so nuclear families did exist before industrialisation. However, he looked at households rather than families and kinship networks, and the extended families may just have been spread out over different households.

2) Anderson - in early industrialisation, working-class families were struggling with poverty. He said that as there was no welfare state to help these families, they had to turn to other family members and so he concludes that the extended family existed beyond the start of industrialisation.

3) Willmott and Young (functionalists) - they agree with Parsons that pre-industrial families were extended and that with industrialisation, the structure of the…