Changes in Family Structure in Contemporary Britain

Changes in Family Structure in Contemporary Britain Describe the changes in the family structure since the nineteenth century with reference to appropriate research and the apparent decline of the extended family. Demonstrate knowledge of the diversity of families in contemporary Britain. In order to answer this question it is necessary to address the assumptions regarding the structure of the family pre and post industrialisation, focussing upon the research of historians and social scientists such as Laslett, Anderson, Young and Willmott. Sociologist Talcott Parsons (1902-1979) put forth the view that prior to industrialisation families were extended and lived a rural life with democratic gender relations. After industrialisation, society consisted of nuclear families who lived urbanised lives with women financially depended upon men. He describes post-industrial family units as ‘isolated’ as they are not â€Å"part of a wider system of kinship relationships† (Haralambos at al, 1995, pg335). He states that the decline of the extended family was due to industrialisation, as the requirements of skilled labour demanded geographical mobility (Abercrombie et al, 1995). Parsons’ theorizing has since been proven incorrect. The historian Peter Laslett actually found that between 1564 and 1821, only 10 percent of households contained members beyond their immediate family. He states that when couples married it was only a matter of a few years before both their parents died, which implies that there simply not enough members of a family to create an extended unit. He claims â€Å"There is no sign of the large, extended co-residential family group giving way to the small, nuclear, conjugal, household of modern industrial society† (Haralambos at al, 1995, pg338). Michael Anderson’s research also discredits the assumption of the rise of modern nuclear families during industrialisation and the death of the extended family. Anderson conducted an 1851 census of Preston and found that â€Å"23 percent of households contained kin other than the nuclear family† (Haralambos at al, 1995, pg339). He stated that the families worked as a support network with Grandparents looking after siblings whilst both parents worked. It also meant support during periods of ill health or unemployment and it produced a lower share of rent paid. It was what Haralmbos et al describe as a â€Å"mutual aid organisation† (1995, pg339). In the 1950’s, Young and Willmott’s study of Bethnal Green found that two out of three couples lived within three miles of their parents. They also discovered that close ties existed between female members of the family such as mother and daughter, with a â€Å"constant exchange of services such as washing, shopping and babysitting, between female relatives† (Haralambos at al, 1995, pg341). Young and Willmott described many families as â€Å"a combination of families who to some degree form one domestic unit† (Quoted in Haralambos at al, 1995, pg341). During Willmott and Young’s surveys and historical research, they produced three stages of the family based on their findings. The first stage is Pre-industrial, where the family acted as a ‘unit of production’ with everyone working together, in agriculture for example. This unit is similar to that of Parsons’ pre-industrial family, however it does not appear to be extended. This family structure is still seen in modern society, such as within rural farming areas. The second stage is the Early-industrial family which was extended, and acted as a support network similar to the families studied by Anderson. This is also inclusive of Willmott and Young’s Bethnal Green families in the 1950’s. The third stage is the Symmetrical Family, which is nuclear, home centred, with a shared responsibility concerning housework Willmott went on to carry out research in 1980’s London. He found a nuclear family, which is reliant upon kin for support but i s still an independent family unit. This greatly contradicts Parsons’ view of an isolated nuclear family for modern society (Abercrombie et al, 1995, pg304). Robert and Rhona Rapoport however, state their research illustrates how the family structure is still evolving. Twenty percent of families in 1978 were married parents with one main breadwinner. The number of single-parent households has increased from 2.5 percent in 1961 to 10.1 percent in 1992 (Haralambos at al, 1995, pg348). Many factors could contribute to the cause of such a radical change in family structure. Legislation is one factor, as since the 1960’s it is easier to get a divorce, have an abortion, homosexuality is legal and the contraceptive pill is widely available. Women are much more financially independent, which means financial security is not the only reason for marriage. The fact that people are leaving it later to get married and cohabiting for longer periods suggests a higher expectation of marriage. Burgoyne and Clark found examples of couples in this situation in their study of Sheffield. They state that these individuals often view themselves as ‘ pioneers of an alternative lifestyle’ (Quoted in Haralambos at al, 1995, pg347). Returning to the rise of single parenthood, the General Household Survey in 1990 found that their was not only a rise in single mothers who had divorced, but a rise from 16 percent to 34 percent of mothers who had never married (Haralambos at al, 1995, pg348). There are numerous arguments as to why this is the case, Haralmbos et al suggest many by Politicians such as John Selwyn Gummer, Peter Lilley and John Redwood who all stated a concern regarding the welfare state and the possibility of it encouraging single parent families (1995, pg349). To conclude, changes in family structure since the nineteenth century have been subtle. The assumptions that prior to the Industrial Revolution families were large and lived together as one egalitarian unit has been discredited. Even though it is safe to say that modern society consists of mainly nuclear families and single parent families, these units depend on their extended kin network for support, which live in close proximity. Bibliography: Abercrombie, N. and Alan Warde et al. 1995. Contemporary British Society: A New Introduction to Sociology. Second Edition. Cambridge: Polity Press. Haralambos, M. and Martin Holborn et al, 1995. Sociology Themes and Perspectives. Third Edition. London: Collins Educational. McRae, S. 1999. Changing Britain Families and Households. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Storming of the Bastille :: essays research papers

The characteristics of a group are determined by its elements. The mob that stormed the Bastille on July 14th, 1789 was a group of citizens that were fierce, enraged, and blood-thirsty. To the people of Paris, the Bastille was a symbol of brutality and totalitarian power. It was hated because of the many stories that had emerged from its walls of horrible torture and brutality. To the people of Paris who stormed the Bastille, the prison which was the symbol of the absolute monarchy which France had been suffering under for so long. They were tired of being treated unfairly and not having a voice in most of the political affairs during the time period. They wanted "life, liberty, fraternity" and were determined to fulfill their wishes of a fair ruling system by means of force or agreement. Unfortunately, citizens had to resort to the use of force to gain what the felt lacked. Later on that day, a delegation was invited into the prison by the Governor of the Bastille, Bernard de Launay. DeLaunay then invited the delegation to lunch with him. When they did not return the mob became angry, fearing that they had been detained. A second delegation was sent forth. These soon came out again with the message that the Governor had adamantly refused to surrender. The delegates also had the information that the cannon were unloaded. This piece of news was all that the mob needed to urge them on. "...But the fury of the crowd continued to increase and their blind wrath did not spare de Launay's escort...Exhausted by his efforts to defend his prisoner...he had to seperate from M. de Launay...Hardly had he sat down when, looking after the procession, he saw the head of M. de Launay stuck on the point of a pike...The people, fearing that their victim might be snatched away from them, hastened to cut his throat on the steps of the Hotel de Ville..." The mob rushed into the prison’s courtyard. Some individuals were not as ruthless as others. "...Those who came in first treated the conquered enemy humanely and embraced the staff officers to show there was no ill-feeling..." However, several of the protestors were hurt as they attacked soldiers from the army. "....The people, transformed with rage, threw themselves on the sodiers..." Fierce fighting followed and carried on into the evening. Finally the mob got their hands on some cannons.

Adderall – Essay

Police use Taser on 10-year-old at school career day, lawsuit alleges By  Ron Recinto  |  The Lookout  Ã¢â‚¬â€œÃ‚  11 hrs ago An Albuquerque, N. M. , police officer stunned a 10-year-old boy with a Taser after he refused to wash the officer's car. Officer Christopher Webb was visiting the boy's elementary school for a career day on May 4 when the incident occurred. During the presentation, Webb asked a group of students if they wanted to wash his patrol car. When the boy, identified as R. D. jokingly refused, Webb pointed the stun gun at him and said, â€Å"Let me show you what happens to people who do not listen to the police. † Then R.D. , who weighs about 100 pounds, was hit in the chest with two barbs and 50,000 volts of electricity. Webb  told the Albuquerque Journal  the Taser was accidentally discharged. The boy blacked out. The officer removed the barbs, which left marks that â€Å"looked like cigarette burns† on R. D. ‘s chest, the lawsuit all eges. The lawsuit claims Webb acted in a â€Å"reckless manner. † R. D. , who now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, has â€Å"woken up in the middle of the night holding his chest, afraid he is never going to wake up again. Webb was suspended for three days without pay, the Albuquerque Journal reports.He did not return calls from the newspaper seeking a comment. * My personal opinion on this is that this cop, however the situation he might have found himself, had no right to tell that little boy that. He might have been just joking but after that little incident kids are going to be afraid of cops. Which is a growing issue since everyone puts a bad image on cops. For example a little kid does something wrong and his mother tells him I’m going to tell the cops to come and get you. They grow up thinking cops are bad when in reality they’re there to help us. How are those kids going to feel about cops now?These types of reckless people are the ones who affect the image of a good organization. * This is world related in that these types of incidents†¦well I suppose I already answered that in my first answer and this has really been all over the world people are scared of the police when they shouldn’t be. * This relates to me because I remember how my parents would tell me things that if I was bad the police would take me to jail. Obviously this was never true but I thought for the longest time that cops were bad but I grew out of it. The man who sued his wife for birthing an ugly baby By  The Week's Editorial Staff  |  The Week  Ã¢â‚¬â€œÃ‚  16 hrs agoApparently in  China, bad genes are grounds for divorce — and six-figure fines The story starts out conventionally enough:  Feng, a resident of  northern China, met and married a beautiful woman, and they had a baby girl. Feng was â€Å"so sure of his own good looks, so crushed by the wrinkly ugly mess that was handed to him in a swaddle, that he deci ded to sue his wife because the awful looking baby was totally her fault, He won. the wife came clean on her little secret: Before they had met, she had undergone about $100,000 worth of cosmetic surgery in South Korea. â€Å"Our daughter was incredibly ugly, to the point where it horrified me. A judge agreed, and ordered the wife to fork over $120,000. The wife obviously has to pay a huge amount of money, and got publicly humiliated in the process, but at least she's free of an obviously odious husband. * My personal opinion about this article is that if looks is all he cared about then be glad that you are getting a divorce. But it’s too bad that she had to go through all of this to find out what a total self-absorbed jerk her husband is. * This relates to the world in the sense that it’s been proved that beauty all over the world has been taken a bit too far.People go to extremes to look beautiful or what is now a day’s considered beautiful. They put high st andards and expectations on beauty and end up disappointed on the reality. All the magazines and posters and any propaganda shows a fake image of what the people look like. * This relates to me because well not to me but I knew a couple who broke up because the girl really let go of herself and the guy broke up with her. Sad but true, if someone likes you they’re going to like you the way you are. http://news. yahoo. com/man-sued-wife-birthing-ugly-baby-110500995. htmlSCIENTISTS IN WALES HAVE BEEN SEWING KITTENS' EYES SHUT By  Matt Shea It seems that Cardiff University have been going to extreme lengths to rebuff the old stereotype that the Welsh love  animals more than the Scottish love violence. Their tactic? Conducting a series of experiments in which they sew kitten's eyes shut from birth. It turns out that they weren't just doing it for a bit of horribly sadistic fun (who knew? ). Instead,  the research is being used to develop a cure for amblyopic—or lazy e ye—which impairs the vision of the world’s population and is really distracting when you're trying to have a conversation with someone who has it. Hello, you monster. What exactly is the goal of this gruesome experiment? Lazy eye affects two to four percent of all children and leads to extremely poor vision, or even clinical blindness in one eye. To date, no treatment is available to restore normal vision in an amblyopic eye after the age of around eight years old, which is the end of the critical period of visual brain development. * Is there not a way to deprive their sight without sewing their eyes shut? No.The research was done under anesthetic without causing undue distress or discomfort, to the same standard as it would be done by vets, who frequently carry out the same procedure as therapy for eye conditions in cats and dogs. * What happens to the kittens afterwards? As required by the terms of the Home Office license, the cats were humanely killed at the end of the experiment. By  Matt Shea 15 hours agoTags:  Kittens,  cats,  Cardiff University,  eyes,  eyes sewn shut,  Amblyopia http://www. vice. com/read/scientists-at-cardiff-university-have-been-sewing-kittens-eyes-shut? utm_source=vicefbus

Effects Of Loans On Students By Suzanne Mettler - 1410 Words

Effects of Loans on Students a. Sabotaging the American Dream Nowadays, the detriment in higher education has reached alarming levels. According to Suzanne Mettler, a political scientist at Cornell University, while students work hard on the side to be able to afford an education, they receive an inferior education because education has evolved into a caste system that doesn’t give them a chance to succeed. Mettler addresses this topic in her book, â€Å"Degrees of Inequality: How the Politics of Higher Education Sabotaged the American Dream.† She analyzes the relationship between money and politics, greed, and misplaced priorities, and how education produces more inequality amongst students from different economic levels (HU, 2015). In a dysfunctional system, something is wrong because eleven countries surpass the United States in the number of students graduating from college. Contrary to the belief that a college degree is not worth, Mettler states that we do need more people obtaining a degree as a means to improve their lives . Unfortunately, the wealthy have more changes at getting an education than the less affluent. The main issues that students face on this endeavor are rising tuition rates, which have gone from 42 percent of the income of a family in 1971 to 114 percent in 2011 (HU, 2015). In addition, Mettler attributes the following factors as the main causes for this problem. First, federal aid has not kept up with tuition rates, the state doesn’t support colleges,Show MoreRelatedImproving Decisions About Health, Wealth, And Happiness2063 Words   |  9 Pagesinterest. Usually open competition as well as free market normally tends to be exacerbating instead of mitigating the human frailty effects. This therefore makes it pointless to ask the government to stand aside as there is no way for presenting decisions is neutral. The Submerged State: How Invisible Government Policies Undermine American Democracy In her book, Mettler tries to describe how various public policies have overtime become resistant to the reforms and also damaging the American democracy