Theme 5: Seeing the lifecourse and generations

1
Theme 5 Seeing the life-course and generations

• Life-political interpretation of autobiographies
  through the changes in the social structure

2
Life course as the clue of explaining biographies

• Life-experiences as related to the life-long
  processes the life-cycle or the life-history
• a perspective towards the wholeness of life
• (Individual) life-happenings are described as
  connected to the (social) happenings in society
• Life span (kesto) the continuation, the
  coherence
• the life as a stream which is covered by certain
  bridges (to overcome gaps)
• Life time (structuring periods)
• Life plan orients to the future - an outline to
  follow to look onwards
• Life review (looking backwards)

3
Individual and social life-strategies

• Historical experiences are related to the
  formation of a certain group born at a particular
  time period in a certain social structure
• The significance of cultural experiences in the
  temporal location of a cohort opportunities,
  chances and resources available to people born
  and grown up during certain socio-historical
  period
• A strategic generation an age cohort having its
  social significance by virtue of constituting
  itself as a group with specific cultural identity

4
Social interpretations

• An emphasis on social changes
• shifts, turns, transitions
• Individually experiences life events are compared
  with the experiences of others group dynamics
• Socialisation strategies of social groups
• The experiences of certain age cohorts on
  historical events as evidences of historical
  realities
• Narratives are constructed according to the
  narrative conventions from the ground of typical
  group experiences
• how interpretations are manipulated (and by whom)
• What are the basic aspects when evaluating
  similarities/differences between
  group-categories?
• The spirit of the epoch

5
What is a generation - Karl Mannheims classical
definition

• The generation is a time-connected concept,
  defined in different ways
• 1) the generation means a cohort
• formed by individuals born at a given time
• the chronological location of a generation
• a certain population has a certain demographic
  structure
• 2) the generation as experienced
• historical events are experienced by a certain
  group, born at a particular time period
• the temporal location of a cohort is significant
• by giving opportunities, chances and resources
• available to people born and grown up during a
  certain socio-historical period
• the importance of the cultural experiences
• The generation formed by strategic agents
• an age cohort having social significance by
  virtue of constituting itself as a group with
  specific cultural identity

6
A generation time dimension and activity

• a generation - having (approximately) the same
  age
• a generation - having same cultural key
  experiences
• so-called mobilized or strategic generation
  participated in certain social and intellectual
  movements which are typical for certain era
  (epoch) in a certain society and identified
  themselves by virtue of this participation
• generation positions, generation fractions
• - interpretation of the zeitgeist (the spirit
  of time, ajanhenki)
• - consciousness, intellectualism, identity,
  subjectivity
• see e.g. June Edmunds Bryan S. Turner
  Generations, culture and society, Open University
  Press. Buckingham Philadelphia 2002.

7
A generation as inherited and earned

• age structure, cultural heritage and strategic
  opportunities resulting in generational
  consciousness (generational cultural,
  generational politics)
• a cohort identity of an acting generation
• strategic components of generations age
  structure, cultural heritage and opportunities
  (choices) resulting in generational consciousness
  (generational cultural, generational politics)
• the cohort identity of an active generation
• A distinction active and passive generations as
  strategic components
• (see Edmunds Turner 2002, 116-117)

8
Educational generations - schooling cohorts in
Finland

• - A cohort with little education (born before
  1936)
• the generation of the wartime - insufficient
  possibilities for education
• - A cohort of the educational growth and
  inequality (born 1936-1955)
• the structural change and increasing
  possibilities for education
• A cohort of educational growth and welfare (born
  1956-1965)
• the generation of the social welfare
• A cohort of increasing but selective education
  (born after 1965)
• numerous choices, possibly increasing inequality
• see e.g. Antikainen Kauppila 2002. Educational
  generations and the futures of adult education a
  Nordic experience (in the International Journal
  of Life-Long Education vol. 21, no. 3.2002,
  209-219)

9
Generations and cultural capital

• Education as an ideal, life as a struggle
• Education as a means to the end, work as a
  substance of life
• Education as a commodity, the self as a problem
• Education as self-evident, personal pursuits as
  the substance of life
• The social means for the production of
  generations
• Pierre Bourdieu The intellectual habitus is
  formed by means of how collected cultural capital
  is inherited, collected, possessed and earned
• the cultural field of intergenerational
  communities and conflicts is shaped by means of
  educational credentials, socialization practices
  and individual capacities

10
The historical meaningfulness of
self-actualisation

• The meaningfulness (and opportunities) of
  conscious self-actualisation in the cultural
  interpretation of ones own life
• -Strategic most meaningful/significant
  culminations (changes, turns, stops, borderlines)
  during the individual life-courses
• Unique experiences
• - What is shared in common inside a community
• Universal experiences
• Unique and adopted in individual experiences
• Routines, continuations and taken-as-given
  practices
• Meaningfulness of extraordinary deeds in
  life-historical interpretations (what is
  historical?)