Life-Course and Generational Politics

Abstract

This essay first reviews the literature on life-course politics and generational politics. The major contributions and problems inherent in each perspective are identified, and an interactive approach to life-course and generational politics is suggested. Second, the methodological designs employed to study life-course and generational politics are outlined, including the cross-sectional, time series, longitudinal, and aging-cohort-period designs. An evaluation is made of the major shortcomings and suitability of the various research strategies to studying life-course and generational politics. HISTORICAL AND THEORETICAL ORIGINSExplaining political behavior has intrigued Western scholars for centuries, and one of the most enduring explanations has been age. "The truest community to which one can belong ," observed Wohl (1979:203), "is that defined by age and experience. " Age is one of the most basic social categories of human existence and a primary factor in all societies for assigning roles and granting prestige and power. However, age is not a unitary concept and may be used in reference to life-cycle development (young, middle-aged , and old) or in a generational sense (lineage descent or a particular age group in history). Those born around the same period in time share a similarity in both life-cycle development and 205 0360-0572/86/0815-0205$02.00 Annu. Rev. Sociol. 1986.12:205-231. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org Access provided by McMaster University on 02/06/15. For personal use only. Quick links to online content Further ANNUAL REVIEWS

Family Business Research: The Evolution of an Academic Field

“…Norms and laws regarding marriage, divorce, who is parent, and mixed families change with society. Individuals who initiate or participate in family-owned business "come of age" in historical time (Braungart & Braungart, 1984;Mannheim, 1952;Sheehy, 1995) and bring with them age cohort worldviews. There is every reason to believe that the field of family business is dynamic and that earlier findings may need to be replicated in more contemporary settings.…”

Political activism across the life course

“…Research at the intersections of political activism, age, life course and generations can be found in diverse disciplinary endeavours but these projects seldom cross paths and have not coalesced into an area of study (Braungart & Braungart, 1986). Yet, such temporal relationships are becoming increasingly important.…”

Towards a Working Definition and Application of Social Age in International Development Studies

“…These are important and thus retained in this paper, where 'generation' refers to groups of people sharing infancy, childhood, youth, adulthood and old age at any particular time. This is not to reify assumptions of homogeneity implied by group definitions (Bettelheim, 1963;Braungart and Braungart, 1986;Spencer, 1990;Arnaut, 2005). Indeed, many ethnographic studies show hierarchies within generations based on class, gender, birth order, age sets, and so on.…”

“…Just as it is no longer assumed that all women, due to their biology, have the same experiences and roles everywhere, similarly, the application of a 'universal' chronological age definition of childhood should not preclude a social age analysis to determine the differential experiences of children within a particular context. While some studies use 'generation' instead of, or as a synonym for, social age (Schwartz, 1975;Braungart and Braungart, 1986;Alanen, 1998;Mayall, 2000), this can create conceptual confusion. Generation is a concept with many different meanings in everyday practice (Baxter and Almagor, 1978b;Braungart and Braungart, 1986;Eisenstadt, 2003;Loizos, 2007).…”

“…While some studies use 'generation' instead of, or as a synonym for, social age (Schwartz, 1975;Braungart and Braungart, 1986;Alanen, 1998;Mayall, 2000), this can create conceptual confusion. Generation is a concept with many different meanings in everyday practice (Baxter and Almagor, 1978b;Braungart and Braungart, 1986;Eisenstadt, 2003;Loizos, 2007). It refers to: a) the time span between the birth of an individual and the birth of that individual's offspring; and/ or, a group of people: b) at the same genealogical level (for example mothers and aunts) (Baxter and Almagor, 1978a); c) sharing a similar social status (for example initiands) (Baxter and Almagor, 1978a); d) 'who are bound together by a shared agegroup consciousness' (for example 'Great Depression generation') (Braungart and Braungart, 1986: 217); and/or, e) of the same approximate chronological age (that is coevals) (Stewart, 1977).…”