Generations and Ideological Change: Some Observations

Abstract

THE DECADE of the 1960s was characterized by unusual political activism and challenge to conventional American values. It was the seedbed for many newly spawned movements. Young people and students were very much in the forefront of nearly all of them-the civil rights protests, the peace marches, communal living, women's consciousness raising, or making do with simple ("small is beautiful") technology. While claims made at the time about the "greening" of America (Reich, 1970), about the new consciousness of American youth (Haan, 1971;Slater, 1970; Yankelovich, 1969), or of a postindustrial mentality (Inglehart, 1971) appear, in retrospect, rather exorbitant, they entice questions about the lasting effects of these events and experiences on the outlook and ideology of those who came of age politically during this period.The obvious point of departure for such an inquiry is Karl Mannheim's view of a generation as a population defined by their similar location in Abstract The recollections of 28 cohorts of college graduates-all of them former recipients of Woodrow Wilson Fellowships for graduate study-of historical events between 1945 and 1971 and their participation in activities specifically associated with the peace movement and student activism of the 1960s were brought to bear on Mannheim's theory of generations. The analysis suggests proportionately greater sensitivity to the events of the 1960s among those who reached the age of 20 near the middle of the decade, a finding that bears out generational theory. But despite this apparently heightened sensitivity among those the right age at the right time, the effect of these recollections and experiences on attitudes expressed in 1973 was consistently overshadowed by even stronger attitudinal effects attributable to an early commitment to activism. The latter was more closely related to the family milieu than to having come of age politically in a particular historical period.

Motivation for Collective Action: Group Consciousness as Mediator of Personality, life Experiences, and Women’s Rights Activism

“…Political salience. The tendency to attach personal meaning to the world at large is associated with political activism and responsiveness to social movements (Duncan & Agronick, 1995;Duncan & Stewart, 1995;Jennings & Niemi, 1982;Roberts & Lang, 1985). Women who are attentive to the political environment are more likely to encounter, and perhaps embrace, feminism than women less interested in the political environment; thus, sensitivity to social and historical events may lead indirectly to women's rights activism (paths A and B).…”

Cohort and Prejudice: Whites' Attitudes Toward Blacks, Hispanics, Jews, and Asians

“…According to Mannheim's theory of generations ([1928] 1952), specific historic events hold the potential to influence the character of a generation, producing a distinctive set of attitudes lasting through the generation's life course (Krosnick and Alwin 1989;Schuman and Scott 1989;Weil 1987). The civil rights movement and other events taking place during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s may have promoted favorable racial attitudes among cohorts coming of age during that period (Roberts and Lang 1985;Turner and Singleton 1978). But subsequent events, including the conservative shift associated with the Reagan presidency, may have had the opposite effect on young people coming of age in the 1980s, resulting in levels of prejudice among these most-recent cohorts that equal or perhaps even exceed those of their predecessors (Lowy 1991).…”

Introduction to Narrative Phenomenon Model: A Framework for Mapping War Stories that Travel through Generations

“…As a result, what is a shared experience becomes stratified by multiplicity of perspectives that are, so to speak, generational. Each age group brings its own point of view to bear on these events (Roberts & Lang, 2001). As cultural traumas are built through the narratives of the past events, they can only be retrospective.…”