This essay contains of the move from pre-industrial to industrial society and the effect it had on the form, structure and purpose of the family.

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This essay contains of the move from pre-industrial to industrial society and the effect it had on the form, structure and purpose of the family. And also the changes in family form due to industrialisation and urbanisation, and how social identity changed due to historical changes.

In pre-industrial society the classic extended family was found in traditional peasant societies. All together they worked producing goods for the family’s survival.

In industrial society many people went from the rural lands to the town to work in the factories, this caused many extended families to split up, for a time people lived as part of nuclear families isolated from their kin. The effect of industrialisation on the form of the family was that the family decreased in size due to the men of the family going into the town to find work, for example because jobs in agriculture declined and those in factories expanded rapidly, so that people were forced to move into town. (P118-SOCIOLOGY ALIVE-Stephen Moore-2nd edition)

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There was different views about changes in family forms due to industrialisation and urbanisation, these were of Peter Laslett and Michael Anderson, Peter laslett had found that ten percent of households contained kin beyond the nuclear family, he reached the conclusion that the nuclear family was not just typical in Britain alone he had discovered a Western Family in the Netherlands, Belgium and more, he found this family to be nuclear in structure. But Michael Anderson points out that Laslett had contradicted himself, Lasletts studies might have shown average household size to be under five, but he had also stated ...

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