Generational change and intergenerational relationships in the context of the asset economy

ABSTRACT

The study of youth is central to efforts to understanding continuity and change and the reproduction of inequality. There are longstanding debates about how to account for class in shaping young people’s lives in the context of social change, including recent calls for a greater focus on political economy in the sociological study of youth. This article considers these debates in the context of the rise of the asset economy, developing a generational framework for conceptualizing young adulthood and shifting intergenerational relations in the context of the growing importance of assets to economic stratification. I propose that the shifting interaction of income, assets and family transfers reshapes young lives but not in a way that creates youth as a precarious class position. Instead, access to family assets in young adulthood is of increasing importance for navigating contemporary insecurities and accessing opportunities. The conditions faced by many young people are conditions in which the relative rewards for types of speculation on the future are heightened for some young people. The rise of the asset economy is central to the changing life chances between generations at a societal level (and potentially encourages generational conflict at this level) but simultaneously enhances the importance of intergenerational solidarities and transfers within the family.

KEYWORDS:

• Youth
• generation
• intergenerational relationships
• political economy
• inequality
• asset economy
• speculation
• precarity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council [DE160100333].

Notes on contributors

Dan Woodman

Dan Woodman is TR Ashworth Associate Professor of Sociology at University of Melbourne. Dan's primary research area is the sociology of young adulthood and generations.