families and the economy

• what did Parsons say about globalisation?

  argued that the process of industrialisation led to huge changes in the structure and the roles of family members
• industrialisation

  where the economy shifted from being based largely around agriculture to being based on manufacturing instead
• urbanisation

  where people move from rural communities into towns and cities and this results in the rapid growth of those cities
• what did parsons say about the functional fit of the pre-industrial society?

  the pre-industrial society was populated with extended families and this meant that there was a functional fit between the extended family and the rural economy
• what did parsons say changed when families moved to cities?

  when people moved to cities families needed to be more geographically mobile and this meant that they could not take large numbers of extended family with them
• how did industrialisation change family types?

  industrialisation and urbanisation led to privatised nuclear families
• what 3 functions did the privatised nuclear family perform?

  geographical mobility

  meritocracy/ social mobility

  specialised roles
• geographical mobility

  families can move to where the work is
• what is an evaluation of parsons functional fit theory?

  it can be criticised for the way he presents the nuclear family as 'ideal
• what are the 4 stages of wilmot and young's march of progress?

  stage 1 - preindustrial society

  stage 2 - early industrial society

  stage 3 - symmetrical family

  stage 4 - asymmetrical family
• asymmetrical family

  more work orientated, spending less leisure time with their partners

  while the women take the major responsibility for the home and children.
• stratified diffusion

  the cultural changes that happen in the family begin with people of a higher social status and they get diffused down and become a norm
• evaluation of the march of progress view

  the modern nuclear family is presented in a idealistic way
• how can the march of progress terminology be criticised?

  march of progress terminology is criticised because some people my be in stage 1 but it doesn't mean they are better or worse it just means they have different family types
• what changes did charles identify from the 1960's?

  greater use of technology

  greater equality of opportunity

  entrance of women into the workplace
• what did charles find from the study?

  he found that men are more geographically mobile than women

  those from a higher social class are also seen as more geographically mobile