Industrialization and the Family in Sociological Theory

Abstract

When the hypothesis that the small nuclear family of western Europe and the United States is a functional consequence of the urban-industrial revolution is examined cross-culturally, it is established that urbanization and industrialization may exist without the small nuclear family and fragmented kindred, and that the small nuclear family exists without industrialization and urbanization. An alternative hypothesis, hence, is that the specific social system that grew up around machine technology in Western civilization may result from the fact that the small nuclear family existed in Europe and the United States before the industrial revolution.

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