2.2.4

The Rapoports & Family Diversity

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The Rapoports' Types of Family Diversity

The Rapoports identified that there are different family types emerging in the UK, though the nuclear family type still remains one of the most typical. There are five types of family diversity.

Organisational family diversity

Organisational family diversity

  • Organisational family diversity describes how families are organised.
  • Examples include:
    • Dual-career families.
    • Segregated or integrated conjugal roles.
    • Traditional roles.
Cultural family diversity

Cultural family diversity

  • Cultural family diversity describes a family with different beliefs, lifestyles, norms and values.
    • E.g. Polygamy - having more than one spouse at a time.
    • E.g. Polyandry - a woman having more than one husband at a time.
Class family diversity

Class family diversity

  • Class family diversity occurs when a family’s position in society depicts the way the family is run.
    • E.g. Higher-income families may hire childcare workers to help raise their children.
Life-course family diversity

Life-course family diversity

  • Life-course family diversity occurs when members of the family go through different stages of their lives.
    • E.g. A family member might start life in a nuclear family, then undergo a divorce and become a lone parent family.
Cohort family diversity

Cohort family diversity

  • Cohort family diversity happens when family members have a different experience of life depending on the conditions and time in which they were born.

Emergence of Same-Sex Households

Rhona and Robert Rapoport’s work highlights the fact that there is an emergence of same-sex households and that our society is more open towards them.

Same-sex households

Same-sex households

  • Rhona and Robert Rapoport’s work highlights the fact that there is an emergence of same-sex households and that our society is more open towards them.
Criticism

Criticism

  • Robert Chester argued that family life has largely stayed the same and has criticised the Rapoports for exaggerating how much diversity exists in societies.
Jump to other topics
1

The Sociological Approach

2

Families

3

Education

4

Crime & Deviance

5

Social Stratification

6

Sociological Research Methods

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