Class, Culture and Generation

Amixture of wonder, contempt, fear and romanticism is evident in adult responses to the activities of young people. Sociologists have so far portrayed in varying degrees these attitudes. They are a long way from attaining a reasoned conception which would provide both the tools for collecting pertinent empirical data and a framework for analysing the causes and consequences of young people's activities. Without this the 'data' remain bewildering, their relevance questionable and our understanding of the relations between the young and adult members of societies one of the more nebulous areas of sociolc^. To discuss only some of the recent observations on youth as a factor in social change and to attempt some assessment of the contribution which these have made to our understanding of change in the third quarter of the twentieth century, is a very large subject. On the whole the influence of new generations in bringing about social change has not been as systematically analysed as some other aspects of social development. The currently popular focus on youth has grown, I would suggest, out of the spectacular events involving your^ people in many parts of the world. While certainly not ignoring them or prejudging their relevance, we should beware of automatically defining our central problems in terms of temporary exigencies, including the interests and world views of those who select and report particular activities. In order to clarify the kinds of questions which researchers could usefully pursue, it is necessary to look at the problems of conceptualisation which we face, the divisions in terms of theoretical models which exist, and the difficulties of obtaining relevant material about groups of which most, if not all of the researchers are not members. Before discussing the specific problems involved in a systematic analysis of youth and social change I shall consider some relevant aspects of the present status of theories of change.