Industrialisation and the Family
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Industrialisation a number of important changes: -

• Workforce moved from agriculture industry to industrial work producing manufactured goods.
• Powered machinery was used to mass-produce goods so home based family businesses could not compete.
• Population explosion
• Towns and cities grew and most of the population was in large urban areas.

Talcott Parsons (functionalist): industrialisation and decline of kinship: -

• Industrialisation changed transformed social system and significance of kinship.
• Family became more specialised. Family members became wage earners.
• Due to production becoming large scale outside the home.

Change in structure:

With pre-industrial societies extended family was useful so everyone could help out. With industrial societies extended families were a disadvantage because:

• Nuclear family works as a unit of production. Functions of wider kinship have been taken over by specialised agencies such as welfare state.
• Nuclear family is more geographically mobile – able to search for work.
• Young people need to be independent of their families to find their own occupations and social positions. The family is not required to ascribe status.<

Isolated nuclear family is typical of industrial society.

The classic extended family

Extended family is a characteristic of a peasant society. These support the view that they are typical of pre-industrial societies.

   Arensberg and Kimball’s study of rural Ireland (1930) – existence of close knit communities. 

Industrialisation does not automatically lead to kinship systems, theres a trend in this direction.

Talcott Parsons – functions that involve kin beyond the nuclear family have become optional.

William Goode – individuals weigh out cost and benefits of maintaining kinship ties.

The western nuclear family out weighs kinship relationships and offers more freedom.

Other Notes in this Category

1. Industrialisation and the Family
2. Young and Willmott: 4 stages of family life

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