The multi-local, multi-generational family: From neo-local and husband-centered to multi-local and multigenerational family

In the fourties, Rend Konig and Ernest W. Burgess formulated concepts for the family, with the internal coherence being based on the relations and the feelings of the family members. Therefore, Konig feared the disorganization and disintegration of the institution of the family. In contrast, Talcott Parsons developed the model of a co-operative family organization, whose stability is not based on the feelings, but is regulated by the reciprocal functioning of the family members. The thesis of this essay is that Parsons - contrary to Konig and Burgess - developed a valid model of the family of the industrial society. This model is empirically examinable, but furthermore indicates in detail the conditions designating the stability or the decay of the model. Today the fordist family model of Parsons is replaced by the model of the multi-local and multi-generational family.