MODERNIZATION, GENERATIONAL RELATIONS AND THE ECONOMY OF LIFE TIME

Abstract

A classic study of generation‐specific life situations and life worlds under conditions of high speed modernization, and of the resulting changes in generational relations, life courses and biographies is Thomas and Znaniecki's The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (Thomas/Znaniecki, 1918–1920). In that volume, letters dating from the beginning of this century exchanged between young Polish emigrants to the USA and their parents who remained in Poland are reprinted and interpreted. Re‐analysing materials from their study, the theoretical usefulness of the concepts of “generation” and of “economy of life time” for understanding the relationship between socio‐structural, institutional, and biographical change will be shown.

Citation

Weymann, A. (1996), "MODERNIZATION, GENERATIONAL RELATIONS AND THE ECONOMY OF LIFE TIME", International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 16 No. 4, pp. 37-57. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb013249