About the Book
How much ‘joint’ are our joint households? What is the process of adjustment of our family system, particularly in the context of present-day social, political, economic and demographic changes? Are all the segments of the society uniformly affected by these changes? Is the structural jointness of the households being replaced by solidarity at the functional level? Then, what is meant by functional solidarity? How do the nuclear households maintain ties with their families of origin? In the present inquiry an attempt has been made to answer these questions with the help of the evidences culled from the experiences, expectations, opinions and feelings of women living in different types of household structures located in both rural and urban settings.
The analysis of empirical facts and figures has been done in the background of the critical understanding of the conceptual and theoretical issues related to Indian family system. The book will be equally useful for researchers and students of sociology and anthropology.
Contents
1 Introduction
2 Family in the Changing Society: Views of the Western Sociologists
3 Indian Joint Family: Dimensions and Issues
4 Measurement of the Functional Solidarity of the Joint Family and Description of the Sample
5 Functional Solidarity in Households in General
6 Functional Solidarity in Nuclear Households
7 Functional Solidarity in Joint Households
8 Mobility and Joint Family Solidarity
9 Will Joint Family Survive?
10 Summary and Conclusions
About the Author / Editor
Krishna Chakrabortty, Reader in Sociology, University of Calcutta. Her books The Conflicting Worlds of Working Mothers: A Sociological Enquiry; The University Students: Background, Profile and Stance, and Leadership, Factions and Panchayati Raj have earned her reputation both within and outside the country.
