Exploring the idea of a "selfish generation"

Abstract

The social sciences have tended to emphasise society's vertical divisions of class, ethnicity and gender while underplaying the significance of horizontal divisions such as age groups and generations. Over the past few years there have been seen signs of change. In Britain as, well as elsewhere, there have been a number of books and articles reflecting a new interest in intergenerational relations and the idea of generational inequality. Many of these debates have seen the affluent baby boom cohort of the West characterised as a «selfish» generation who by ignoring the needs of future generations, have placed in jeopardy the intergenerational 10 compact upon which society depends. In this paper we explore these assumed generational fault-lines by re-examining Karl Mannheim's idea of generation and the potential links that can be made between his idea of «generational style» and Erikson's concept of «generativity». If generativity provides the key psychosocial axis mediating the critical social divisions between age groups, is it possible to see the current concerns over intergenerational relationships as a crisis in the generational style through which generativity is now expressed? Recent evidence from personality psychology indicating the emergence of a «generation me» might be considered as one potential consequence of such a putative generational shift in generativity.