Family and Social Change: The Household as a Process in an Industrializing Community

Angelique Janssens

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511628696

This book is a quantitative study into the influence of the process of industrialisation on the nature and strength of family relationships in a Dutch community between 1850 and 1920. The study makes use of the unique and unusually rich source of Dutch population registers, which enables the author to trace the history of individual households. The study closely relates aspects of family and household with the social processes characteristic of an industrialising society, such as increasing rates of social and geographical mobility and the shift of production from the home into the factory. Results reveal a striking continuity in the strength of nineteenth-century family relations despite the gradual but profound process of social change surrounding these families. Changes in behavioural patterns did occur, however, under the influence of changes in demographic rates, regional geographical mobility systems and local developments in the housing market. Nevertheless, these changes cannot be taken as a weakening of family relationships.

"Overall, Janssens's book represents a fine example of the value of qualitative historical research....the findings cast powerful doubt upon Parson's static, functional arguments about family." Canadian Journal of Sociology

"The collection and analysis of data in this book are meticulous and painstaking...,Janssens's argument is generally convincing, and this book makes an important contribution to scholarship on household structure." American Historical Review

"Although specialist will find the main results of this study familiar, they will profit by the detailed information provided by the fifteen figures, thirty-two tables, and fifty-five appendixes. Readers will also appreciate the clear exposition of argument and evidence." Journal of Interdisciplinary History

"In this important book, Angélique Janssens provides the first sustained longitudinal investigation of patterns of extended family structure in the past....It deserves to be widely read and is bound to stimulate further research." Steven Ruggles, American Journal of Sociology

"...a well-written challenge to Parsons' claim that industrialization inevitably results in a shift from the extended to the nuclear family. With her longitudinal approach, she demonstrates the value of qualitative analysis for grasping the interaction of individuals and society during social and economic change that intervenes between societal processes such as industrialization, and the family." William M. Cross, European Studies Journal

Family and Social Change

The Household as a Process in an Industrializing Community

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Contents

Frontmatter
pp i-viii

Contents
pp ix-x

List of figures
pp xi-xii

List of tables
pp xiii-xv

List of appendices
pp xvi-xx

Preface
pp xxi-xxii

1 - Family and industrialization
pp 1-30

2 - The industrializing context: continuity and change in nineteenth-century Tilburg
pp 31-49

3 - Sources and methods
pp 50-68

4 - Family structure through time
pp 69-114

5 - Family life and the social structure
pp 115-159

6 - Family structure and geographical mobility
pp 160-192

7 - Family and work: the effect of the family economy on the structural characteristics of the household
pp 193-232

8 - Conclusion
pp 233-246

Appendices
pp 247-299

Bibliography
pp 300-312

Index
pp 313-318

Cambridge Studies in Population, Economy and Society in Past Time
pp 319-319

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