The Problem of Socio-Technical Generations and Civil Society in Transition

• In Event: Techno-Social Generations and Communication Research

Abstract

Despite attempts to dissolve the generational problem into a demographic one, the social, historical, and cultural problem of what constitutes a generation, how it appears, is transformed, and acts within social life continues to reappear. Since Mannheim (1923) we have understood a generation as a cohort that experiences common historical events in a defined time frame. Yet, one of the major characteristics of the network society according to Castells is the fundamental reorganization of space and time, such that simultaneity across a cohort, even at the national level is unlikely. This paper will challenge the idea that common experience has declined, and outline the common frames that might continue to unify generations embedded within the space-time frame of the network society. However, it will offer a mid-range analytical framework for distinguishing patterns of commonality across socialization, technical usage, and historical experience, on the one hand, and the layers of everyday life in place, nation, and global experience, on the other.

Author

• Lewis A. Friedland, U of Wisconsin-Madison