Families in transition

Social change, family formation and kin relationships

Charles, Nickie, Davies, Charlotte, Nickie Charles, Charlotte Davies

• Publisher: Policy Press
• Year: 2008
• Print ISBN: 9781861347893
• eBook ISBN: 9781847423603
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Marriage & Family Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

This book addresses the complexity of family change. It draws on evidence from two linked studies, one carried out in the 1960s and the other in the early years of the 21st century, to analyse the specific ways in which family lives have changed and how they have been affected by the major structural and cultural changes of the second half of the twentieth century.

The book shows that, while there has undeniably been change, there is a surprising degree of continuity in family practices. It casts doubt on claims that families have been subject to a process of dramatic change and provides an alternative account which is based on careful analysis of empirical data.

The book presents a unique opportunity to chart the nature of social change in a particular locality over the last 50 years; includes discussions of social and cultural variations in family life, focusing on younger as well as older generations;explores not only what happens within family-households but also what happens within networks of kin across different households and shows the way changing patterns of employment affect kinship networks and how geographical mobility co-exists with the maintenance of strong kinship ties.

The findings will be of interest to students of sociology, social anthropology, social policy, women's studies, gender studies and human geography at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Table of contents

• Preface and acknowledgements
• one
• two
• three
• four
• five
• six
• seven
• eight
• nine
• Appendix I
• Appendix II
• Table 2.1: Distribution of occupations between industries, Censuses 1961 and 2001
• Table 2.1A: Summary data 1961, 1981-2001
• Table 2.2: The structure of the Swansea labour force (Census 2001)
• Table 2.3: Swansea’s occupational structure: socioeconomic groups as percentages of the economically active
• Table 2.4: Characteristics of the survey sample
• Table 2.5: Unemployment and economic activity rates in ethnographic areas
• Table 2.6: Lone-parent households as percentage of all households in ethnographic areas
• Table 2.7: Occupational class structure of ethnographic areas (%)
• Table 2.8: Collapsed occupational class structure of ethnographic areas (%)
• Table 3.1: Marital status of 2002 survey respondents
• Table 3.2: Household composition (%)
• Table 3.3: Proximity of parents and children (respondent as parent) (%)
• Table 3.4: Proximity of parents to respondent (respondent as child) (%)
• Table 3.5: Proximity of parents to partnered respondents (%)
• Table 3.6: Frequency of contact between partnered respondents and parents (respondent as child) (%)
• Table 3.7: Household composition after marriage/cohabitation (%)
• Table 3.8: Household composition after marriage/cohabitation by generation, 2002 sample (%)
• Table 3.9: Frequency of contact with parents by social class of subject, 1960 and 2002
• Table 4.1: Self-assessment of social class by survey respondents (%)
• Table 4.2: Self-assessment of social class by ethnographic interviewees1 (number, % in brackets) by area, age group and gende
• Table 4.3: Changing proportion of cross-language marriages
• Table 6.1: Contact with family members not living in household within the last week, women and men in employment 2002 (%)
• Table 6.2: Economic activity rates by age and sex
• Table 7.1: Place where respondents have spent most of their lives by social class (%) (N=808)
• Table 7.2a: Geographical dispersion of first-mentioned child (%)
• Table 7.2b: Geographical dispersion of last-seen child (%)
• Table A1.1:1960 and 2002 surveys, Registrar General’s Social Classes collapsed into three categories following Rosser and Harris (1965:100-1) (%)
• Table A1.2: Rosser & Harris’s Social Class (modified) 2002 compared with Rosser and Harris’s Social Class (original) 1962 (1965, 105) (%)
• Table A2.1: Full Registrar General Social Class data for 1960 and 2002 surveys and census data for 1991 for the area corresponding to 1960 Swansea