Deprivation and Solidarity in the Soviet Urban Family

Abstract

ONE of the distinguishing features of modern industrial society is a high degree of structural differentiation, that is, the tendency for roles in a given social sub-system to be highly specialized. In describing the social changes accompanying the urbanization-industrialization process, it has become a commonplace to emphasize the segregation of work, protective, recreational, family, and other roles, and to point to the loss of functions of the contemporary urban family. In modern society the activities associated with the lost functions are indeed carried on in a wide assortment of extra-familial social contexts, and their separation from the family is in many respects of undeniable significance. Nevertheless, it is also apparent that activities, statuses, and interpersonal relationships in extra-familial situations are not independent, especially on the informal level, of those features of social structure more narrowly associated with family life. Realization of this fact has led both to a number of attempts to show concretely how extra-familial social structure is dependent on factors associated with family life,' and how the