Housing, Household, and the Family: The 'Ilhas' of Porto at the End of the Nineteenth Century

At the end of the nineteenth century, with the spread of urban growth and industrial activity—mainly the textile sector—the building of housing settlements (‘ilhas’) for the working classes developed in Porto, the most important city in the north of Portugal. These ‘urban communities’ played an important socio-historical role in the socialization of the newly arrived workers, and created family behaviors and strategies grounded in the formation of young couples and neighborhood kin ties. This family structure adjusted to the cottage industry system, in which the simple family embodies the work group, prevailing in Porto at that time.