The approach presents the family as a family isolated from wider kinships because of the mobility required by labour markets in industrial societies. The image that functionalists create of the family involves the support for the nuclear family from the wider welfare state. It also suggests that any childcare for the family would be provided by non-family agencies, for example; playgroups. The usefulness of this ‘privatised nuclear family’ is that it gives closure within the family, allowing stability and support. It’s beneficial as there are male and female role models available for the children, and it gives the parents more control of how their children are brought up.
The stabilisation of adult personalities – the family offers adults the emotional support to cope with the everyday stresses of life. Parsons also stated that there were four changes to the family that industrialisation borught, which include; geographical mobility – nuclear family move to different parts of the country as they aren’t as attached to other family relatives than the extended family. Isolated nuclear family- as the nuclear family were geographically mobile they felt isolated. Structural differentiation – this is where the nuclear family became a unit of consumption, instead of a unit of production. Husband & wife roles – the male was the ‘instrumental leader’.
Using the material from item 2B and elsewhere assess the view that the growth of family diversity has led to the decline of the traditional nuclear family in the past, traditionally families have mostly been the ‘traditional nuclear family’ made up of a married man and woman and children. However there has recently been a decline in the amount of traditional nuclear families, and an increase in diverse family types. There are now less people following the traditional view that the nuclear family is the ‘normal’ way to live. The diverse families now include families such as, lone parent families, reconstituted family, extended family, lone person households, cohabiting couples and same sex couples. New right believe that the incline in family diversity and a decline in the nuclear family is a cause of many social problems.
The view that industrialization led to the decline of the extended family and the rise of the nuclear family is seen to be a functionalist view because this focuses mostly on the social structure and what effects it has to parts of the society, but not directly the people within it. The extended family fits the needs of the pre-industrial society because the extended family consists of extended kin networks who aided each other in mostly agricultural labor with the rest of the family. The nuclear family on the other hand benefits from industrialization because physical labor is not necessarily needed because people would rely on machinery to do things that the extended family would do by hand, therefore meaning that extra family members are not required to live together to get work done. On one hand, you could say that industrialization did not lead to the decline of the extended family and revive the nuclear family. For example, the sociologist Peter Laslett had explored the myth that the family was normal in pre-industrial Britain.
However, Murdock’s view of the nuclear family eliminate any other family structures, which too are able to supply these functions, and also neglects the conflict and exploitation of family. Parsons evaluated how the family provides solutions to the needs of modern industrial society and pre-industry society. Geographical Mobility is a need of modern industrial society as jobs now require people to move nationally or internationally for jobs. In today’s society, they’re are less extended families, making it easier for families to
The diversity of families has increased over these following years, due to the changes in society and values. New right hold the view that the there is only one correct or normal family type which is the nuclear family. Conservative government which traditionally follows the new right traditions support the nuclear family. Same as functionalist who have similar views ; parsons 1995 still recognise that there are a number of diversity families rising, nevertheless, functionalists 2000 argues that these changes are exaggerated and still sees the cereal packet nuclear family as the norm. Whereas on the other hand, feminist see the nuclear family still as the norm as they live under an oppressed government who follow the traditions of the new right where they believe in the nuclear family as the norm.
Assess the view that there is greater diversity of family types and lifestyles today. There has been a recent increase of family diversity such as homosexual partnerships, single parent families, inter racial and inter faith partnerships for a number of reasons. Over the last century the nuclear family has been vastly dominant in the United Kingdom and it is still dominant however this is changing as more diverse family structures are becoming common. Functionalists and New right sociologists believe that the nuclear family is the best option as it performs all the functions that society requires. Functionalist Parsons believes that instability is created with diversity and the nuclear family is a lot more predictable and therefore practical family structure.
This essay aims to explain and evaluate the view that there is greater diversity of family types and lifestyle today in contemporary British society. The first reason, which shows that there is a greater family diversity, is the classic extended family that still survives in contemporary British society; even functionalists assumed that the privatized nuclear family is replacing it as the most common type of family today. The classic extended family is divided in two communities; the traditional working-class communities, in which there is a little need for socially and geographically mobility, as individuals remain in the same area for long period of time because there are availability of industrial works e.g. fishing or mining in north of England, and this
To a certain extent that is true and we give the employees many benefits as well as a portion of the sales of the month. The better and more sales we make, the more money goes into the employee’s pocket on top of that the benefits we offer. Interest groups such as self-proclaimed Maoists, Marxist, red neck revolt, New Anticapitalistic party, Roots of resistance believe that the lower class is being eliminated and treated unfairly. Many newspapers such as “the guardian” report that robots will eventually take over these menial jobs by 2030. NBC reports that the middle class is disappearing and will cause a mass shift of people from the middle class to the lower class by 60% in 2021.
The post industrial revolution has contributed to economic change which is associated with changes found in demographics, work and education. These, in turn, link to changes in families (Starbuck, 2010). Following World War II, childbearing rates increased dramatically. As a result of the baby boom, this partially increased divorce rates and crime as the majority of teenagers and young adults were most likely to get divorced and involve themselves in delinquent acts. Both skills and industrial habits, such as punctuality and discipline were stressed as being important in order to prepare the young to live in a democratic, industrializing nation (Starbuck, 2010).