Changing social contexts

At the turn of the millennium, relations between generations continue to evolve, shift or even be reinforced in order to cope with the increasing domestic and global pressures which individuals and families are now facing in a globalising world. Relationships between generations have never been static, but the dynamic nature of such social ties within families has always attracted ample research interests. In Western academic circles, the 1990s was a recent period in social gerontology when a substantial and influential body of work on intergenerational relations involving older people was produced, making a significant contribution to the knowledge and understanding of contemporary adult relationships within families (see for example Kendig et al, 1992; Bengtson and Harootyan, 1994; Bengtson et al, 1995; Walker, 1996; Arber and Attias-Donfut, 1999). More than a decade later, when pressures on family and public resources have continued to rise nationally and globally, intergenerational relations now require new scrutiny.

There are a number of explanations for such general shifts occurring in relationships between generations. First and foremost, however, it must be emphasised that generalising on the shifts in intergenerational relations is deceptive with conceptual and empirical difficulties, since the pace and shape of relationships per se, let alone the speed and direction of such shifts, varies enormously in a global context. The conventional arrangements that had existed previously, from which such shifts were made, could also be very different. Nevertheless, in many societies there are shared driving forces contributing to the processes of change in family systems and support. Especially since the mid- to late 1980s, for example, the speed of economic, societal and demographic shifts appears to have accelerated in combination with a pervasive ideological shift, which is often referred to in terms such as ‘globalisation’, ‘neoliberalisation’ and ‘social fragmentation’ (see Sassen, 1998; Held and McGrew, 2003; Vincent et al, 2006). The development of public policy has also contributed to this transformation.

Economic restructuring, demographic changes and shifting social norms have put greater strains on family life, and have helped produce a greater diversity in family and household structures, which in turn has led to varied attitudes, functions as well as relations between generations. Some of the common opportunities and pressures shaping the current trends are identified here. First, changing economic cycles are a distinctive driver for leading intergenerational relations to change.