Abstract
Sitting around in a cafÃÆ'Ã"šÃ‚© the other day, one of my former colleagues bemoaned the fact that young people where not as active as him when he was studying. He raised his frustration that each generation is getting more politically lethargic and ranted about the generational changes we are seeing. Apart from reminding him that ââ"šÂ¬Ã‹Å“his generationââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢ had not done such a bang up job in solving the worldââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s problems, and actually delivering some new ones, the whole area of ââ"šÂ¬Ã‹Å“generational researchââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢ is one that is deeply flawed. That is, to clearly define a populationââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s attributes based on their ââ"šÂ¬Ã‹Å“generational statusââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢ tends to homogenise a population by their age ââ"šÂ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å“ despite there always being significant differences within each cluster. Despite this, we see books and papers about Boomers, X-ers and Yââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s ââ"šÂ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å“ all presented as if this is the missing ingredient in understanding the way of the world and what is going on with our society. So is this the case?
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | The Punch |
| Publication status | Published - 2010 |
Keywords
- Australia
- conflict of generations
- dissatisfaction
- political parties
- politics and government
- young adults