Revision summary
Developed societies show plural family forms beyond the lifelong conjugal pair. Dual-earner, lone-parent, step, same-sex, cohabiting, and transnational types are central. Goode’s thesis was incomplete; Beck describes negotiated biographies. Class and gendered care still structure the new forms. Choice and instability must not be confused.
Model answer
Introduction
Developed societies still have households of kin, but the conjugal, lifelong, two-parent form is no longer the only recognised type. New forms are legal and statistical facts, not only lifestyles.
Body
What is new
- Dual-earner and dual-career couples, with paid care filling gaps that Ann Oakley made visible as housework.
- Lone-parent families, reconstituted or step-families after divorce, and delayed or child-free partnerships.
- Same-sex marriage and parenting where law has moved.
- Living apart together, cohabitation without marriage, and chosen families of friends.
- Transnational families of migrants who parent by remittance and screen.
Discussion
- William Goode’s conjugal family was a halfway type, not the end of history.
- Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim described the negotiated, individualised biography of love.
- Class still stratifies who can afford these forms. Poor households may look “new” through instability rather than choice.
Continuities
- Gendered care often survives inside the new forms.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD OLD[Conjugal lifelong type] --> NEW[Plural forms] NEW --> DE[Dual earner] NEW --> LP[Lone parent step] NEW --> SS[Same-sex cohabit LAT] NEW --> TN[Transnational]
Conclusion
New forms in developed societies include dual-earner, lone-parent, reconstituted, same-sex, cohabiting, and transnational families. They pluralise the household. They do not abolish care inequality or class.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Is non-positivist methodology scientific? Illustrate.
Next question in the 2018 paper (Q2). View answer →
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Is the family disappearing?
The one legal form is less monopolistic. Kin and care continue in other shapes.
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Are these forms only Western?
They densified in rich welfare and legal regimes. Indian metros show partial echoes.
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