BOTT--CLARK

This week I was particularly interested in Bott’s second chapter on factors affecting social networks—particularly the fact that urban families tend to exhibit less family social cohesion than non-urban families. Bott notes, “The institutions and persons with which they are related are not linked up with one another to form an organized group. Although individual members of a family frequently belong to groups, the family as a whole does not” (pg. 98). I found this a bit counter-intuitive; in my head it would seem families living in urban environments would be more likely to have a strong familial network because of several factors, including the fact that things tend to be physically more compact in a city and therefore families presumably share less space and spend more time together. Also, on the opposite side of that argument, because cites are so vast with thousands or millions of people in them, it would make sense for a family to stick together. What are some possible reasons for this lack of family community in urban environments?