Beyond millennials v baby boomers: Using kindness to assess generationalism across four age cohorts in Australia

2021 ◽  
pp. 003802612110162
Author(s):  
Nicholas Hookway ◽  
Dan Woodman
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Social Attitudes ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Longitudinal Methods ◽  
Age Cohorts ◽  
The Social ◽  
Youth And Young Adults ◽  
Generation Period ◽  
Life Cycle Effects

Today’s young people (youth and young adults) are routinely understood in generational terms, constructed as narcissistic and selfish in comparison with their predecessors. Despite announcements of a weakening commitment to values of kindness and generosity, there is little empirical research that examines these trends. The Australian Survey of Social Attitudes shows that young people are more likely to be kind but are less likely to think most Australians are kind. This article investigates this tension using focus groups with Australians of different ages (corresponding to major generational groupings) and drawing on the sociology of generations. To differentiate between generation, period and age/life-cycle effects requires longitudinal methods. However, these qualitative data suggest that a ‘generationalist’ discourse of young people as narcissistic is powerful in Australia and that young people are both internalising and challenging this framing. They appear to be responding to common experiences of growing up with the social and economic uncertainties of an ‘until-further-notice’ world and express strong support for values of kindness and openness to difference.

scholarly journals Internet in Social Reality of Russian Youth: Potential Risks and Opportunities

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dmitry Rudenkin
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
Digital Natives ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
The Social ◽  
Everyday Reality

The paper is devoted to an empirical analysis of the role of the Internet in the everyday reality of Russian youth. The author notes that the unusual speed of the Internet spread in the life of Russian society made the circumstances of growing up of modern young Russians very specific. In fact, they became the first generation of Russian “digital natives”. Growing up in the conditions of the rapid spread of the Internet in society, many of them are used to perceiving the Internet as a natural and inalienable attribute of everyday reality. The author uses materials of secondary data analysis and the data of his sociological research among Russian youth to determine the role of the Internet in the social reality of youth and to find out the possible risks and opportunities that it can create. The empirical basis of the study is a questionnaire survey conducted by the author in 2018 among the youth of the city of Ekaterinburg, Russia. The key conclusion of the article is that the Internet is deeply integrated into the social reality of modern Russian youth. The growing importance of the Internet in life is a source of a number of risks, which include the formation of Internet addiction, increasing the vulnerability of young people to destructive content and the formation of a communicative gap between representatives of different generations. The Internet can also be used to broadcast information to a youth audience, to organize cooperation among young people, to popularize good practices and for other purposes. Keywords: youth, Russian youth, Internet, “digital natives”, Russian society

scholarly journals Introduction: Development, Young People, and the Social Production of Aspirations

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roy Huijsmans ◽  
Nicola Ansell ◽  
Peggy Froerer
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Course Development ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Social Production ◽  
The Social ◽  
Life Course Development ◽  
The Life Course

AbstractIn this editorial introduction to the Special Issue Youth, Aspirations and the Life Course: Development and the social production of aspirations in young people’s lives, we put the work presented in this collection in conversation with the wider literature on development, youth and aspirations. Aspiration we define as an orientation towards a desired future. We elaborate on our conceptualisation of aspirations as socially produced and reflect on the methodological challenges in researching young people’s aspirations in development. While mindful of the various critiques of aspiration research we argue that aspirations constitute fertile terrain for theorising the temporal dynamics of being young and growing up in contexts of development.

Teens and Territory in 'Post-Conflict' Belfast

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madeleine Leonard
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
City Centre ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
The Social ◽  
People’S Attitudes ◽  
Insight Into

This book provides a timely and necessary response to the neglect of the perceptions and experiences of young people growing up in ‘post conflict’ societies using Belfast as a case study. Despite a great deal of research on the social, economic and political consequences of sectarianism in Northern Ireland, few studies have examined young people’s attitudes to and experiences of territory. We still know relatively little about how young people relate to concepts such as space, place and territory in divided societies. This book addresses this vacuum. By presenting a detailed rich ethnographic account of how teenagers living in segregated localities in Belfast access and use local and city centre space, the book contributes to knowledge about the role of young people in both sustaining conflict and overcoming divisions. Teenagers’ spatial practices provide insight into how the regenerated, rebranded, repacked, ‘post conflict’ city is experienced, perceived, negotiated and imagined by a group whose voices are often absent or regarded as peripheral. While the book presents a case study of Belfast, its appeal is not limited to those interested in Ireland. Rather, through this detailed case study, the book aims to address wider questions concerning the role of young people in politically contested societies. The book underlines the need to take on board young people’s ways of seeing and contributes to knowledge about appropriate ways to engage young people in research.

scholarly journals Networked generation growing up or maturing on social media

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 173-187
Author(s):  
V. A. Sushko ◽  
G. B. Pronchev
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Young People ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Social Knowledge ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
The Social

The article analyzes the processes taking place in the youth environment in the context of digitalization of society. The role of social networks is discussed. Since its inception, network analysis has been formed as an interdisciplinary direction in which psychologists, sociologists, communication specialists, anthropologists, mathematicians and statisticians combine their efforts. The social network as a way of organizing social knowledge requires a special methodological approach, different from the traditional methods of analyzing sociological information. “Digital habits” significantly affect the behavior of young people, change the “traditional” way of life. The article is of interest to specialists dealing with problems of sociology of youth, sociology of global processes, methodology of sociological research.

Decomposing the effects of time on the social acceptability of biotechnology using age-period-cohort-country models

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 650-670 ◽  
Author(s):  
Damien Rousselière ◽  
Samira Rousselière
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Social Attitudes ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Entire Population ◽  
Social Acceptability ◽  
Political Affiliation ◽  
Temporal Effect ◽  
The Social ◽  
Life Cycle Effects

The study of European attitudes toward biotechnologies underlines a situation that is relatively contrasting in Europe. However, as different effects of time can influence the social attitudes (a life-cycle effect, a generational effect, and an exogenous temporal effect potentially affecting the entire population), an appropriate methodology should be used. To this end, age-period-cohort-country models have thus been estimated based on Eurobarometer data from 1991 onward. Applied to different data subsets, these models give similar results underlining the importance of the life-cycle effects as well as the heterogeneity of the link between political affiliation and biotechnologies attitudes across the European countries.

Youth and Trailer-Park Life

Singlewide ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonya Salamon ◽  
Katherine MacTavish
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Youth Development ◽  
Neighborhood Effects ◽  
Developmental Trajectories ◽  
Social Stigma ◽  
Children And Youth ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Life Chances ◽  
The Social ◽  
Class Status

This chapter examines the potential neighborhood effects of trailer park residence on child and youth development. Using parents’ aspirations that their children have broader life chances than they themselves had, this chapter documents the range of developmental trajectories among children and youth growing up in a rural trailer park. While a few flourish, most often, young people seem set on a course to reproduce their parents working poor class status. Increasingly in adolescence, as the social stigma of park residence emerges, there are developmental costs of park residence that compromises life chances.

scholarly journals “Body as a Machine”: How Adolescents With Sickle Cell Disease Construct Their Fatigue Experiences

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (9) ◽  
pp. 1431-1444
Author(s):  
Brenda Agyeiwaa Poku ◽  
Ann-Louise Caress ◽  
Susan Kirk
Keyword(s):  
Sickle Cell Disease ◽  
Young People ◽  
Sickle Cell ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Cell Disease ◽  
Social Significance ◽  
Major Threat ◽  
Illness Experiences ◽  
The Social ◽  
Undesirable Feature

Research exploring illness experiences of young people with sickle cell disease (SCD) has, to date, ignored fatigue, despite the distinctive anemic nature of SCD. To examine adolescents with SCD fatigue experiences, we conducted narrative and picture-elicitation interviews with 24 adolescents in Ghana. A grounded theory, “body as a machine,” was constructed from the narratives. Fatigue represented the most restrictive and disruptive aspect of growing up with SCD. Its meaning and significance laid in what it symbolized. Fatigue represented a socially undesirable feature that was stigmatizing, due to the expectations of high physicality in adolescence. Fatigue was therefore a major threat to “normalcy.” The social significance of the physical body and its capacities shaped the adolescents’ fatigue experiences. Managing fatigue to construct/maintain socially acceptable identities dominated the adolescents’ lives. Consequently, there is a need for a recognition of the significance of fatigue to adequately support young people growing up with SCD.

scholarly journals Supporting youth 12–24 during the COVID-19 pandemic: how Foundry is mobilizing to provide information, resources and hope across the province of British Columbia

2021 ◽  
pp. 175797592098419
Author(s):  
Marco Antonio Zenone ◽  
Michelle Cianfrone ◽  
Rebecca Sharma ◽  
Sanaa Majid ◽  
Jasmine Rakhra ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Young People ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
Financial Security ◽  
Advisory Committees ◽  
Topic Identification ◽  
Hard Time ◽  
The Social ◽  
Youth And Young Adults

Foundry is a province-wide network of integrated health and social service centres for young people aged 12–24 in British Columbia (BC), Canada. Online resources and virtual care broaden Foundry’s reach. Its online platform – foundrybc.ca – offers information and resources on topics such as mental health, sexual wellness, life skills, and other content suggested by youth and young adults. The COVID-19 pandemic has presented significant and unique challenges to the youth and their families/caregivers served by Foundry. Disruptions to school, access to essential healthcare services such as counselling, familial financial security and related consequences has left young people with heightened anxiety. The Foundry team mobilized to respond to these extenuating circumstances and support BC youth and their families/caregivers during this hard time through three goals: (1) to amplify (and translate for young people and their families/caregivers) key messages released by government to support public health responses to the COVID-19 pandemic; (2) to develop content that supports the needs of young people and their families/caregivers that existed before COVID-19 and are likely to be exacerbated as a result of this pandemic; and (3) to develop and host opportunities through social media and website articles to engage young people and their families/caregivers by creating a sense of community and promoting togetherness and social connection during the COVID-19 pandemic. Each goal and plan integrated the leadership, feedback and needs of youth and their families through engagement with Foundry’s provincial youth and family advisory committees. Our study evaluated Foundry’s media response to the COVID-19 pandemic by recording/measuring (1) the website/social content created, including emerged thematic topic areas; (2) the process of topic identification through engagement with youth and young adults; (3) the social and website analytics of the created content; and (4) the constant, critical team-reflection of our response to the pandemic. Following measurement and reflection, our team offers recommendations to health promotion organizations for future preparedness.

scholarly journals SOCIAL RESOURCES OF THE PRIMORSKY KRAI FOR SERVICE UNDER THE CONTRACT IN ARMED FORCES OF RUSSIA

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-187
Author(s):  
Angelina S. VASHCHUK ◽  
Elena N. CHERNOLUTSKAIA
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Military Service ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Social Resources ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Primorsky Krai ◽  
Age Cohorts ◽  
Demographic Dynamics ◽  
The Social ◽  
Qualitative Characteristics

Introduction. The topic of military reform in Russia in the late XX - early XXI centuries is part of the fundamental problem of relations between Russian society and the army. The literature traces different approaches in her research. One of the important areas is the study of the transition to a professional army, which actualizes the problem of the social resources of such a transition, taking into account the characteristics of specific territories. The proposed article discusses the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of social resources of the Primorsky Krai for the formation of contract troops, including the demographic dynamics of the respective age cohorts, attitudes towards this type of professional activity from those who have not yet served youth (for example, students) and those who have experience contract military service.Methods. The empirical basis of the article consists of official documents, statistical data on demographic dynamics, materials of opinion polls of 2017. The study used factor and comparative analysis; in the study of demographic resources - the method of compiling tables, longitudinal and transverse analysis. Conclusions are also obtained on the basis of the application of the questionnaire method.Results. Over the past 10 years after the end of hostilities in Chechnya, a new social and professional group has emerged in the country - peacetime contract servicemen; elements of increased expectations of positive changes in the Russian army are actively forming in Russian society. Nevertheless, the Primorsky Krai remains a territory with a reduced social resource for recruiting young people under contract, which is important to take into account in Russia’s domestic policy. In the foreseeable 20-year term, the reduction in the number of male population suitable for contract service will continue. On the other hand, in Primorye, a low degree of orientation among students towards military service as a form of social mobility remains.Conclusions. Despite the good implementation of recruitment plans for the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation under the contract in recent years, the degree of physical and moral readiness of young people for it was insufficient, which entailed a high “turnover” of contract soldiers in the army, the predominance of insufficiently experienced personnel among them. The policy of increasing the prestige of the social and professional status of a contractor, along with measures of material interest, must be supported by in-depth (and not just “parade”) patriotic education and preliminary moral and psychological training for young people. It is the qualitative characteristics that can increase the importance of a social recruitment resource for a contract service and, to a certain extent, compensate for the demographic restrictions in the territories.

History and Sociology: The Lost Synthesis

1991 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Abbott
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Social Attitudes ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Social

One might have predicted that “as sociology meets history” (Tilly 1981), there would arise a demand for synthesis, for a history-as-social-science that would combine the best of both disciplines. A few voices, chief among them the late Philip Abrams (1982), issued that call. But the synthesis has not arrived. Today the relation between history and sociology is that of parents from differing backgrounds whose adolescent children have contracted a friendship at school. There is a pleasant but empty cordiality between the elders. Although the adolescents have an acrimonious rivalry, they close ranks against parental orthodoxies of either sort. One hopes that the young people will cooperatively transform the social attitudes of their parents, but unthinking loyalties ultimately prevent this transformation. So the synthesis of history and sociology, or more broadly of history and social science, has not arrived. Today, the most synthetic call we hear is for each (sub)discipline to keep the other honest (e.g., Roy 1987b).

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