The Problem of Generalizing Generation

Abstract

Research into the religious beliefs and behaviors of children, young people, adults and elderly people prompt questions about the way “generation” is understood in the social scientific study of religion. What seems to the researcher at first to be shared values and beliefs on broad “social code” issues appear, at least to older people, to be lacking amongst the young. Such a different in perception could be an example of a “generation” gap where generation is perceived to be, by theorists such as Mannheim, a shared identity by people sharing a social history. Extensive literature in both anthropology and sociology is explored to find how such concepts are understood and operationalized. Detailed ethnography amongst elderly Anglican women begins to problematize such notions as boundaries of “generation” blur with gender.