The Sociology of Generations

Bristow, Jennie

doi:10.1057/978-1-137-60136-0

Cited by 43 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Academic treatment of the subject also requires explanation, since it all too often rehearses a sociological critique of the generational approach only to accept its logic. Bristow (2016: 7) notes a ‘yearning that the sociology of generations should provide us with a blueprint for the future’. Certainly, the profile of the Millennial outlined above attempts to provide such a blueprint for managers and, to the extent that academic study has adopted the generational model uncritically, it has lent this blueprint legitimacy.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Management Millennialism: Designing the New Generation of Employee

Williams

2019

Work, Employment and Society

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The idea that society can be divided into discrete generations, each with its own essential characteristics, is treated with caution in sociology, but has had considerable influence among human resource management writers and practitioners. ‘Millennials’ – today’s young adults – are said to bring unique attributes to the workplace that may fit uneasily with current management practice. Given the well-documented weakness of generational categories, both in analysis and practice, this article asks how the archetype of the Millennial has taken such a hold. By focusing on recruitment and training within a large company, the article argues that the idea of the Millennial has been validated by repetition and imitation, but that it also serves the more rational purpose of respecifying performance criteria. The Millennial has been constructed as a ‘challenge’, but specifically as a challenge to poor management.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Management Millennialism: Designing the New Generation of Employee

Williams

2019

Work, Employment and Society

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“…Elias's work also addresses what Edmunds and Turner (2002: 6) call 'the question of how culture is transformed and transmitted across generations'. As I mentioned earlier, the issue of cultural transmissionlargely informed by Mannheim -remains a significant element in the work of many contemporary scholars (see Brannen, 2003;Bristow, 2016b). For instance, Brannen (2003) suggests that continuities and discontinuities in the transmission of material and social resources between the generations within individual families may be the outcome of socially ingrained habits and dispositions as much as strategic choices.…”

Section: Contemporary Work On the Sociology Of Generations: Bringing Elias Inmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…What one can certainly conclude from the reviews and analyses provided by Marı´as, Redlich and Spitzer is the complete absence of any mention of Norbert Elias and his work. More contemporary summations of the sociology of generations differ little on that front (see Bristow, 2015Bristow, , 2016bEdmunds and Turner, 2002;Purhonen, 2016;White, 2013). For instance, Bristow (2015: 33-34) suggests that, notwithstanding the prevalence of Mannheim's ideas, 'present-day interest in generations has led to a revival of other theories', including those developed by contemporaries of Mannheim; however, there is no mention of Elias.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Generational Conflict and the Sociology of Generations: Mannheim and Elias Reconsidered

Connolly

2019

Theory, Culture & Society

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Since its publication in the 1920s, Mannheim’s essay, ‘The Problem of Generations’ (1952[1928]), has attained seminal status in marked contrast to Norbert Elias’s theoretical formulations on generations. Despite Elias's close relationship over many years with Mannheim, the symmetries in their sociological programmes, and, crucially, that Elias's work specifically addresses generational conflict, he remains invisible within the sociology of generations literature. Yet Elias’s contributions on this subject are quite extensive, traversing many of his major works. This article begins by reviewing Mannheim’s and Elias’s formulations on generations and goes on to consider the relevance of Elias’s theoretical ideas in relation to contemporary work on generations. The paper contends that Elias's approach is a more empirically employable theoretical frame and also a stronger one for explaining intergenerational conflict.

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“…Turning to novel aspects, there are reasons to suppose that a difference in the quality of generational experiences in Mannheim’s sense (Bristow, 2016; Mannheim, 1970) is relevant here. Many adults will have first encountered social media as a novel supplement to an existing social life, while many children see digital media as an intrinsic aspect of everyday life (Livingstone and Blum-Ross, 2017).…”

Section: Novel Aspects Of Children’s Sextingmentioning

confidence: 99%