Multi-generation households in Australian Cities

Abstract

More than half of the world’s population now live in cities, a proportion expected to rise to more than two-thirds by 2050 (UN 2010). The global trend towards city living has precipitated significant economic, social, political and environmental shifts, and more specifically has led to changes in family configurations and living arrangements. Some changes are directly related to family forms, notably delayed childbearing, increasing divorce rates and higher incidences of re-partnering. Other changes are less directly related, shaping the context in which families operate, including improved employment opportunities for women and more complex migration patterns both within and between countries. For many decades, researchers into family sociology argued that urbanisation and ‘modernisation’ led to the emergence of the nuclear family (parents and dependent children) as the key family form (e.g. Parsons 1944); although most recognised the continued role of the extended family as a support system, analysis suggested that such family members had a broader geographical spread and generally did not cohabit (e.g. Bell 1968). Since that time, significant attention has been given to the growth in the proportion of lone person households and childless couples, with this growth in smaller households being used to support planning policy that promotes urban consolidation through the provision of smaller (apartment) dwellings in our major cities (Easthope et al. 2010).