Generational inequalities and inter-generational dynamics of lifelong learning

John FieldUniversity of Stirling

2012 LLAKES conference Lifelong learning, crisis and social change

Active aging – a reality check

NALS 2010 Change since 2005 in size of gap with 20-29 cohort

• 50 – 59: gap up 4%

• 60 – 69: gap up 4%

• 70 +: gap up 2%

Active aging – a reality check

NALS 2010 Change since 2005 in size of gap with 20-29 cohort

• 50 – 59: gap up 7%

• 60 – 69: gap up 15%

• 70 +: gap up 13%

Researching transitions

• School-to-work (“The transition”)

• Life stage theories

• Life course theories

• OECD ‘alternance’

• Undifferentiated ‘third age’

Researching transitions

• Focus on ‘front end’

• Linear

• Unidirectional

• Fixed

• Uniform

Researching transitions

• Risk, reflexivity and liquid modernity

• Destandardisation/restandardisation

• Liminality

• Resisting stereotyping and stigmatisation

• Class, gender, ability and region

Generations

• Popular discourse

• Family location

• Cohort group

Educational generations

• A generation consists of a group of people born during the same time period and who are united by similar life experiences and a temporarily coherent cultural background. People belonging to the same generation have the same location in the historical dimension of the social process.

Antikainen at al 1996

Older adults’ life stories: before 1945

• Spatial anchoring (often destroyed)

• Metaphor for ‘community’?

• Gendered domains

• Discipline and control

• Cultural distance

• ‘Common sense’ / ‘airy-fairy stuff’

• Contrasts with younger generations

Older adults’ life stories: 1945-1960

• Spatial anchoring (usually) present

• Discipline and control

• ‘The lucky generation’

• Contested gender roles

• Continuing school friendship networks

• Awareness of HE expansion

• Contrasts with parents’ generation

Conclusions

• Largely consistent with Finnish studies

• Meanings of community

• Broad generational orientations towards school and learning

• Older adults vary by generation

• Relations between (family) generation and (cohort) generation

• Implications for learning in later life

• Analyses based on cohort data vs panel data

Conclusions

• Inter-generational transmission has been widely discussed at family but not cohort level

• Definitional problems are enormous (porous boundaries)

• Generation is only one aspect of older adults’ experiences

• Some aspects of ageing are common to all generations

• Class, gender and ethnicity also affect members of a generation

• Exiting the labour market remains the main determinant of participation