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'Theorizing family change with the concept of generations' Prof. Jane Gray

Date

FLaG Seminar: All welcome

“Generation” has enjoyed renewed interest both in sociology and in public discourse on contemporary social change.  The definition and application of the concept of generation has been controversial in scholarly circles, including in the field of family sociology, and this presentation reviews some of those debates.  I will argue, however, that a common critique of the concept – that it is ‘temporally incoherent’ – can be reconceived as an analytical strength within a more processual and relational understanding of social change.  Family relationships are latently present, but often theoretically and substantively ignored, across many of the ‘big’ topics addressed by sociologists, including cultural transmission and change, and social mobility and class-formation.  By bringing the concept of generation back in, we can place family change at the theoretical centre of our understanding of societal transformation.