ABSTRACT
The most appropriate way to begin summarising the conclusions of this book is by examining the modifications necessary to the ‘general thesis’ contained in occupational and urban community studies. The picture of middle-class sociability presented in this literature would seem to be accurate in its essentials. There is no doubt that primary kin relationships involving middle-class adults remain extant, but these relationships are rarely seen as equivalent to friendships. It is in comparison to middle-class patterns that working-class sociability appears to be kin-dominated. However, this influential image lends itself easily to exaggeration. A basic point to make in comparing kin and non-kin relationships is that typically they occupy distinct and separate sectors of any individual’s sociable life. The assumption that people labelled in a particular way necessarily have a given type of relationship and provide a specific form of service is too rigid. For example, consider first working-class sociability.
