“The nuclear family is the cornerstone of society”.Discuss with reference to three sociological perspectives.

Authors Avatar

         

“The nuclear family is the cornerstone of society”.Discuss with reference to three sociological perspectives.

Robertson (1989:247) defines the family as “a relatively permanent group of people related by ancestry, marriage, or adoption, who live together, form an economic unit, and take care of their young”. It’s a basic social group united through bonds of kinship or marriage, present in all societies. Ideally, the family provides its members with protection, companionship, security, and socialization. The structure of the family and the needs that the family fulfils vary from society to society. The nuclear family two adults and their children is the main unit in some societies. In other swards, it is a subordinate part of an extended family, which also consists of grandparents and other relatives. A third family unit is the single-parent family, in which children live with an unmarried, divorced, or widowed mother or father. The word cornerstone implies fundamental basis. The nuclear family has been up held as a cornerstone of the society. Three sociological perspectives (generally held views) have advanced different conceptions about the relationships of the family to the social structure. In other wards how have they viewed the above assertion that “The nuclear family is the cornerstone of society”? It should be noted however that no single perspective can entirely be used to explain the working of the society. The three perspectives considered are functionalist; Marxists and feminists.The issues looked at include the domestic division of labour, divorce and marital breakdown, family diversity, and the concepts of child hood and old age.

He following is how they view role of the nuclear family the society.

Functionalism assumes that society is a complex system (whole unit) whose parts work together to promote stability.These parts is social institutions: The economy, government, the health care establishment, the family and so on.

It also focuses on the functional requirements, or needs of a social system that must be met if the system is to survive and on the corresponding structures that meet these needs.

This perspective emphasizes three elements: interdependence of the parts. In this case the family members depend upon each other to sustain the society .they for example they produce subsistence food the surplus is sold off to the general public, as such they act as a cornerstone to the society.

They also emphasize a normal state of affairs, or state of equilibrium, comparable to the normal or healthy state of an organism. They argue that the family is a peaceful unit, there is no conflict. The family is responsible for “the achievement of adult satisfaction and social integration (Ross and sawhill, 1975:3).Because peace and normality reigns in the family, the individuals will conform to the norms of society .there will be less inconformity and cohesion in the society .hence confirming to the assertion that the nuclear family is a cornerstone to the stability of the society.

Join now!

 

Another element is that functionalist   view the family as being responsible for the distribution of economic resources from those who earn them in the marketplace to those who depend on those earnings (Ross and saw hill, 1975; Duncan, 1984; thornton and freedman, 1983; Harrington, Murray, 1984).

They argue that the internal transfer system within the family is more efficient than the government in transferring economic resources. Further more the family achieves its efficiency with out a huge bureaucracy. The family also displays the capacity to transfer a much greater volume of resources than the government. In 1970in ...

This is a preview of the whole essay