Introduction

In this chapter a proposal to conceptualise the idea of ‘intergenerational policy’ will be submitted for discussion. This is an idea that has recently been referred to in scholarly as well as in political writings, mostly with the reservation that it needs further clarification. It has to be understood that, given their fundamental importance for social and individual development, intergenerational relations are likely to have been institutionalised early in human history. This may have been the case, initially being seen as customs and practices, but then also becoming formulated law as states began to emerge. Thus seen, the phenomenon of intergenerational policy is nothing new. It has existed – at least implicitly – since time immemorial.

At present, however, intergenerational relations receive special attention in the context of current demographic developments and its connections to the labour markets, the welfare state institutions and the educational system. Of particular interest are the linkages between private intergenerational relations and affiliations and those in the public context of social welfare under conditions of demographic transformations. Also, intergenerational dynamics and their potential for conflict have become key themes in the media. This is the breeding ground for the explicit formulation of an intergenerational policy.

On more theoretical grounds, intergenerational policy can be seen as an element of the concern for a contemporary understanding of socio-cultural integration both in theory and in reality. In this way it is an issue at the crossroads between cultural theory and social practice and also, more specifically, between social policy and the theoretical and empirical analysis of intergenerational relationships (as documented in this volume).

A systematic approach can be furthered by addressing three questions and issues, respectively:

• 1. Do intergenerational relationships bear in themselves qualities that provide a rationale for giving them special political attention under the conditions of contemporary social life? This question will be discussed under the label of ‘foundations’, introducing the concept of ‘generative socialisation’ in connection with human development.

• 2. Which are the normative principles that can serve as criteria of such efforts? And in turn, which normative orientations (or values) may be strengthened by the idea of an explicit intergeneration policy? This issue will be examined under the heading ‘normative criteria’, referring especially to the idea of participatory justice and the right of personal development.