Rites de Passage

The Conflict of Generations in Industrial Society

Bibliographic Data

ID10076636
AuthorsPhilip Abrams (corresponding author)
Year1970
Volume5
Issue1
Pages175-190
Publication date1970-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Contemporary History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-0094 • E-ISSN: 1461-7250
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/002200947000500112
OpenAlexW2070552996
LanguageEN
Citations received16

In industrial societies the conflict of generations is a minority phenomenon. Until quite recently, indeed, the study of the social organisation of age in such societies was one of the great neglected themes of modern sociology. The one authoritative attempt to develop a sociology of generations, S.N. Eisenstadt's From Generation to Generation, is based mainly on the study of pre-industrial societies.1 So heavily was most research concentrated on factors of class and occupation that cross-cutting elements of social structure such as age and, again until quite recently, race, were all but ignored. In one or two fields, in the study of delinquency, popular culture and voting for example, research findings so plainly invited interpretation in terms of the sociology of age that a theory of generations was quite frequently called for. But when in the I96os industrial societies found themselves for the third time in the

Criminology · Epistemology · Industrial society · Interpretation (philosophy · Juvenile delinquency · Phenomenon · Race (biology · Social science · Sociology · Anthropology · French Urban and Social Studies · Gender Studies