To what extent, then, can we say that these structures are discernible in urban societies?.
Before examining this issue we should discuss briefly what we understand an "urban society" to be. Put simply, we can say that the term refers to a society in which the population is based in cities and towns rather than in rural areas. The advent of large-scale urban structures is closely tied to the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries. Rapid technological advances led to the mechanisation of production and a switch away from its taking place in domestic settings to its centralisation in factories. The growth of the factory system in turn led to increased demand for raw materials, most especially coal. These advances led to the establishment of industrial towns based around the factories and mines, and an influx of immigrant workers into these towns from rural areas. The pace of change was startling: Pahl (1970:19) points out that in the half century from 1801 the percentage of the British population living in urban areas more than doubled. The culture shock for the newly arrived workers was considerable: they were displaced overnight from the small agricultural settings which were all they had ever known to the stark reality of the noisy and dirty industrial environments. Vast numbers of people were unceremoniously thrust together in ramshackle, unsanitary, overcrowded housing and forced to co-exist. These developments became a matter of concern for social commentators who questioned whether any sense of social cohesion or "community" could form and survive in these urban areas.
One of the earliest writers who addressed this issue was the German sociologist Ferdinand Tonnies. Writing in 1887, Tonnies put forward a resoundingly pessimistic view of the nature of relationships in the newly formed industrial centres. He felt that contact between individuals in these environments was superficial and fleeting.
