The article speaks about the genesis of an interest in the way of life and culture of inhabitants of industrial settlements and towns in Slovene ethnology. The research of these problems gained way in the sixties, causing prominent consequeances within the discipline. Aside from folk culture, the way of life thus became the object of ethnological research as well. From the methodological point of view a genetical/structural approach has gained way. Since, however, the research of industrial settlements and towns had not acquired any specially organized form, but was incorporated in a broader research project instead, the present results are somewhat less evident than they could have been. The gaps within the framework of ethnology, however, cannot be filled in any more. What remains is to cooperate with other sciences, especially with historiography.