Family and Social Network

Abstract

This is a sociological study of twenty urban families in Greater London and it forms part of a research project shared between the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations and the Family Welfare Association. The families studied were "ordinary families" and this concept was used in clarifying the project to the subjects of the research as they were gradually accumulated. Data was sought about the family as a social system and also about the unconscious components of the husband-wife relationship and their personalities. The book develops a concept of the family not so much as a group, but as part of a network of relationships with kin, non-kin, institutions, social services, etc. This network may vary from "close-knit" to "loose-knit". The central deduction made is that the degree of segregation in the relationship of husband and wife varies directly with the "connectedness" of the families' social networks. In those