Jon Franklin
Sociology Coursework
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An Investigation Into Kinship Networks In Solihull –
Keeping In Touch With Granny
Rationale
Traditionally in Sociology there is a long established debate about the extent to which the modern
family is isolated and nuclear. Functionalists such as Parsons, Young and Willmott have claimed this
type of family is an ideal fit with industrial society. This has been challenged by writers such as
Litwak who argued that there was a modified extended family, Allen who found the modified
elementary family and even by Young & Willmott in a restudy. I have been intrigued by this topic
because in my own experience my family believe it’s important to keep in touch with our kin yet
many of my fellow students had little or no contact with their family. Therefore my aim is to explore
how gender and social class influences relationships with kin in modern families using a structured
interview with a sample of working and middle class 16-18 year olds. I expect to find little evidence
to support the functionalist claim that the isolated nuclear family is more common amongst middle
class than working class families. Indeed I believe that I will find evidence to support Allen that,
irrespective of class, families today are better described as ‘modified elementary families’.
(194 Words)
Context & Concepts
I will explore the concepts of the Parson’s isolated nuclear family, Litwak’s modified extended family,
Allen’s modified elementary family and kinship networks.
Talcott Parsons argues in an article ‘The Social Structure Of The Family – 1959’ that the isolated
nuclear family is now the typical family form in modern industrial society. He believes that it is
‘structurally isolated’ because it doesn’t form an integral part of a larger system of kinship
relationships. There are of course social relationships between members of nuclear families and their
kin but these relationships are a matter of choice and not binding obligations. Parsons sees the
emergence of the isolated nuclear family in terms of his theory of social evolution. This evolution of
society involves a process of structural differentiation, no longer do the family and kinship groups
perform a wide range of functions instead specialist institutions take care of them. In other words
kin is no longer important.
In order to clear up the confusion surrounding the ‘isolated nuclear family’ Liwak says that the term
‘modified extended family’ should be used instead to describe the typical family in modern industrial
society. Litwak defines the modified extended family as a ‘coalition of nuclear families in a state of
partial dependence’. This dependence means that families exchange services with each other but
still retain ‘considerable autonomy’.
Graham Allen carried out research in East Anglia and found that although significant services were
not usually exchanged as a matter of course, kin frequently recognised an obligation to help each
other in times of difficulty. However this sense of obligation was limited to certain family members
such as the inner ‘elementary’ family consisting of wives, husbands, their parents, children, brothers
and sisters but not extended to aunts, uncles and more distant kin. Allen prefers this concept to
Liwak’s ‘modified extended family’.
Rosser and Harris studied Swansea in the 1960’s and found evidence to support Young and
Willmott’s findings that there was high levels of contact between related kin who were dispersed
widely in an urbvan area. This was facilitated in many cases by ownership of bigger houses that
would allow parents to come and stay, this pattern appeared to be true for both working and middle
class families.
Finch, in her book ‘Obligations and Social Change – 1989’, drew together the findings of previous
research that indicated that there’s still a strong sense of obligation to kin beyond the nuclear
family. This is helped and reinforced by state legislation that gives tax allowances for people
supporting dependent relatives and also by informal social norms that state that family members
have a duty to help each other. The expectations of this social norm depend however on the
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Jon Franklin
Sociology Coursework
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closeness of the relationship and gender. More is expected of female family members and the
strongest obligation is between parents and children (apart from spouses).
Janet Finch conducted a study in 1993 on families in greater Manchester. Her findings supported all
of her previous conclusions from other sociologists work. She also found that 90% of respondents
had given or received financial help from family members and 60% had shared a household with
another adult relative (excluding their parents). Many people responded saying that they both gave
and received practical assistance, emotional support and help with children from a relative.
With emphasis on the way extended family relationships are based on a sense of obligation, Finch
found help wasn’t always automatically given and was sometimes negotiated between relatives. This
leads onto my second concept, Kinship, this involves family relationships based upon the family
network.
(600 Words)
Methodology
My main research method that I will use will be a questionnaire, as it doesn't cost a lot to produce or
consume a lot of time. I'll use this Positivist method to collect quantitative data so that I can
generate statistical evidence. A questionnaire is a good form of research for my coursework because
it's systematic, objective and replicable but it doesn't generate any form of Verstehen. A
questionnaire is a reliable form of research compared to unstructured interviews and participant
observation that collect more qualitative data. Using a simple questionnaire means that I don’t have
any ethical considerations to take into account and confidentiality isn’t a huge issue.
I have chosen to interview 25 males and 25 females from my college. My sampling method is a
stratified random sample. I will choose my quota from a variety of courses and from both year 12
and 13 to develop a good balanced sample. I can hopefully prove that that one gender, ethnic group
or social class doesn't bias my results in any way.
The research technique of using a questionnaire will enable other sociologists and researches to
repeat my experiment and hopefully draw similar results. Every respondent will answer the same set
of questions to remove the problem faced in unstructured interviews where no two are the same and
can never be repeated exactly. There are no practical problems with time and money in the
completion of my questionnaire compared to other research techniques available.
I will be asking two personal questions, gender and the occupation of the family's highest wage
earner so that I can develop any patterns in the results based on sex or social class. Even though
Rosser, Harris, Young and Willmott found that social class was irrelevant I want to see if my
research supports their findings or not. The questions relevant to my investigation will be based
upon how often they see their relatives and under what circumstances.
My first question will ask how approximately how many times they have seen their close family
(consisting of grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles) in the past 3 months. Then I will investigate
Litwaks findings that there is still considerable autonomy by researching the circumstances under
which they meet with their relatives to discover whether they only get together at special events
such as weddings, funerals and festive occasions.
My research will also involve asking them to define the level of support they give to and receive
from family members. Graham Allen found that help and support was only given to family members
in the ‘inner circle’ and I want to see whether my research can disprove his theory.
On completion of my questionnaire I will produce 5 pilot copies to check that the survey is
comprehensible. A pilot is used with most surveys and I will test it out on some classmates. If I find
any problems from my pilot respondents I'll have the opportunity to amend them before my final
questionnaire is issued.
(500 Words)
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Jon Franklin
Sociology Coursework
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Evidence
Before carrying out my research I had a couple of fellow students fill out a copy of my pilot
questionnaire and it became apparent that the layout needed to be altered and another question
added to help me differentiate between the family and the ‘inner circle’. I managed to carry out my
research quite easily because the questionnaire didn’t take much time to fill out so I found that most
of my sample were happy to help. My research was carried out both in college and in Solihull centre
as I didn’t want my whole sample to be students. I found it was people were less prepared to
answer my questionnaire in Solihull than in college but it didn’t cause me many problems.
Evaluation
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