Conclusion — The Problem of Generations Today

Abstract

This book has investigated how the Baby Boomer generation has become constructed as a social problem in Britain. My approach to this question is based on the understanding that the problem of generations is, following Mannheim (1952), to do with the mediation between past, present and future, where society is preserved, made anew, and at certain points transformed, by the interaction between the new members of society who come into ‘fresh contact’ with the existing cultural heritage. The sociology of knowledge seeks to understand this mediation, by accounting for how generational location interacts with wider social forces to develop ideas in the present day.