‘Youthquakes’ and the politicisation of generational identity
‘Youthquakes’ and the politicisation of generational identity
This chapter discusses the politicisation of generational identity. It shows that the script of Boomer-blaming has formed the basis for a new political narrative, which has come to view generational conflict as an alternative frame to the class-based politics that dominated the twentieth century. This latest phase of generationalism overstates the importance of generational characteristics and difference, and threatens to turn them into a brittle form of generational identity, deliberately setting old and young against each other. A set of ideas about the ‘younger generation’ — the kind of people they are, the politics they support, the vision they hold of the future — has been marshalled to narrate political events and promote particular outcomes. Older generations, meanwhile, are positioned as standing in the way of the interests of the present — voting too much, voting the wrong way, daring to have a say on the future of a society in which they will soon be dead.
Keywords: youthquakes, generational identities, generational conflict, class-based politics, generationalism, generational characteristics, younger generations, older generations
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