Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-25wd4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T03:18:43.893Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

18 - “Don't Trust Anyone over 25”: Youth Centrism, Intergenerational Transmission of Political Orientations, and Cultural Change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Get access

Summary

INTRODUCTION

In his seminal work on generational identity and the intergenerational transmission of ideas, Mannheim (1928) already stated that under “normal” social conditions, the ideas of youth resemble those of adults. Only in times of intense social turmoil is it likely that young people start realizing that the conditions they have to face while growing up have changed drastically from those under which their parents grew up and that their worldview should change accordingly. The culturally most sensitive part of a cohort of young people might voice its opinions and create a consciousness that might become the trademark of a larger group of a youth generation, consciously setting itself apart from the habits and ideas of an older generation.

Mannheim (1928) wrote this part of his work in post–World War I Germany, where a demoralized young-adult generation, wary of war and nationalistic slogans, expressed intense dissent with the optimistic bourgeois outlook that had prevailed in the last decades of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th. The war itself, the socialist revolution attempts of 1918–1919, and the highly unstable social and political climate in the Weimar Republic fostered a generational consciousness among a group of young adults who had left their youth in the trenches of the Great War. To those young men, the future looked bleak and all bourgeois claims of imminent progress and grand visions of Germany's geopolitical prominence, as espoused throughout the countries' educational system, seemed a fraud.

Type
Chapter
Information
Cultural Transmission
Psychological, Developmental, Social, and Methodological Aspects
, pp. 419 - 440
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abma, R. (1990). Jeugd en tegencultuur: Een theoretische verkenning [Youth and counterculture: A theoretical explanation]. Nijmegen, the Netherlands: SUN (doctoral dissertation, University of Nijmegen).Google Scholar
Acock, A. C., & Bengtson, V. L. (1980). Socialization and attribution: Actual versus perceived similarity among parents and youth. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 42, 501–515.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arbuckle, J. L. (1999). AMOS 4.01. Chicago: SmallWaters Corp.Google Scholar
Ariès, P. (1960). L'enfant et la vie familiale sous L'Ancien Régime [Centuries of childhood]. Paris: Plon.Google Scholar
Beck, P. A., & Jennings, M. K. (1975). Parents as “middlepersons” in political socialization. Journal of Politics, 37, 83–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, H. (1946/1960). German youth: Bond or free?London: Butler & Tanner.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P., & Passeron, J.-C. (1970). La reproduction: Eléments pour une théorie du système d'enseignement [Reproduction: Elements of a theory on the system of social assignment]. Paris: Editions de Minuit.Google Scholar
Cohen, S. (1972). Moral panics and folk devils. London: MacGibbon & Kee.Google Scholar
Cooney, T. M. (1997). Parent–child relations across adulthood. In Duck, S. (Ed.), Handbook of personal relationships: Theory, research and interventions (pp. 451–468). Chichester, UK: Wiley.Google Scholar
Dalhouse, A. C., & Frideres, J. S. (1996). Intergenerational congruency: The role of the family in political attitudes of youth. Journal of Family Issues, 17, 227–248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, K. (1940). The sociology of parent–youth conflict. American Sociological Review, 5, 523–535.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elsler, A.(1971). Bombs, beards and barricades: 150 years of youth in revolt. New York: Stein & Day.Google Scholar
Felling, A., Peters, J., & Schreuder, O. (1983). Burgerlijk en onburgerlijk Nederland [Middle-class and non-middle-class attitudes in the Netherlands]. Deventer: Van Loghum Slaterus.Google Scholar
Gillis, J. R. (1974). Youth and history: Tradition and change in European age relations, 1770–present. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Glass, J., Bengtson, V. L., & Dunham, C. C. (1986). Attitude similarity in three-generation families: Socialization, status inheritance or reciprocal influence? American Sociological Review, 51, 685–691.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, G. S. (1905). Adolescence: Its psychology and its relations to physiology, anthropology, sociology, sex, crime, religion, and education. New York: Appleton.Google Scholar
Hebdige, D. (1979). Subculture: The meaning of style. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Hunstinx, P. (1998). Milieu, sekse, etniciteit en schoolloopbanen [Social background, gender, ethnicity and school careers]. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Utrecht University, the Netherlands.Google Scholar
Inglehart, R. (1977). The silent revolution: Changing values and political styles among Western publics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Inglehart, R. (1997). Modernization and postmodernization: Cultural, economic, and political change in 43 societies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Jennings, M. K., & Niemi, R. G. (1981). Generations and politics: A panel study of young adults and their parents. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knutsen, O. (1995). The impact of old politics and new politics value orientations on party choice: A comparative study. Journal of Public Policy, 15, 1–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koch, H. W. (1975). The Hitler youth: Origins and development 1922–1945. London: MacDonald & Jane's.Google Scholar
Maassen, G., & Meeus, W. M. J. (1993). De verhouding tussen jongeren en volwassenen [The relationship between adults and adolescents]. In Meeus, W. M. J. & Hart, H. ‘t (Eds.), Jongeren in Nederland [Young people in the Netherlands]. Amersfoort, the Netherlands: Academische Uitgeverij.Google Scholar
Mannheim, K. (1928). Das Problem der Generationen [The problem of generations]. Kölner Vierteljahreshefte für Soziologie, 7, 157–185, 309–330.Google Scholar
Meeus, W. M. J. (1986). De twee gezichten van het jeugdig conservatisme [The two faces of conservatism in youth]. In Matthijssen, M., Meeus, W. M. J., & Wel, F. (Eds.), Beelden van Jeugd [Images of youth] (pp. 109–128). Groningen, the Netherlands: Wolters Noordhof.Google Scholar
Meeus, W. M. J. (1988). Adolescent rebellion and politics. Youth & Society, 19, 426–434.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meeus, W. M. J. (1989). Parental and peer support in adolescence. In Hurrelmann, K. & Engel, U. (Eds.), The social world of adolescents (pp. 167–185). New York: de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Meeus, W. M. J., Helsen, M., & Vollebergh, W. A. M. (1996). Parents and peers in adolescence: From conflict to connectedness. Four studies. In Verhofstadt-Denève, L., Kienhorst, I., & Braet, C. (Eds.), Conflict and development in adolescence (pp. 103–116). Leiden, the Netherlands: DSWO-Press.Google Scholar
Meeus, W. M. J., Raaijmakers, Q., & Vollebergh, W. A. M. (1992). Political intolerance and youth centrism in adolescence: An overview of Dutch research and some recent longitudinal findings. In Breakwell, G. (Ed.), The social psychology of political and economic cognition (pp. 97–120). London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Meeus, W. M. J., & Hart, H. ‘t (1993). Jongeren in Nederland [Youth in the Netherlands]. Amersfoort, the Netherlands: Academische Uitgeverij Amersfoort.Google Scholar
Middendorp, C. P. (1978). Progressiveness and conservatism: The fundamental dimensions of ideological controversy and their relationship to social class. The Hague/Paris/New York: Mouton.Google Scholar
Middendorp, C. P. (1991). Ideology in Dutch politics: The democratic system reconsidered 1970–1985. Assen/Maastricht, the Netherlands: van Gorcum.Google Scholar
Miller, R. B., & Glass, J. (1989). Parent–child attitude similarity across the life course. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 51, 991–997.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moen, P., Erickson, M. A., & Dempster-McClain, D. (1997). Their mother's daughters? The intergenerational transmission of gender attitudes in a world of changing roles. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 59, 281–293.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parsons, T. (1942). Age and sex in the social structure of the United States. American Sociological Review, 7, 604–616.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petit, G. S., Clawson, M. A., Dodge, K. A., & Bates, J. E. (1996). Stability and change in peer-rejected status: The role of child behavior, parenting and family ecology. Merrill Palmer Quarterly, 42, 267–294.Google Scholar
Raaijmakers, Q. A. W. (1993). Opvattingen over politiek en maatschappij [Beliefs on politics and society]. In Meeus, W. M. J. & Hart, H. ‘t (Eds.), Jongeren in Nederland [Youth in the Netherlands] (pp. 106–132). Amersfoort, the Netherlands: Academische Uitgeverij Amersfoort.Google Scholar
Raaijmakers, Q. A. W. (1999). Effectiveness of different missing data treatments in surveys with Likert-type data: Introducing the relative mean substitution approach. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 59, 725–748.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rabbie, J. M., & Horwitz, M. (1969). The arousal of ingroup–outgroup bias by a chance win or loss. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 223–228.Google Scholar
Righart, H. (1995). De eindeloze jaren zestig: Geschiedenis van een generatieconflict [The sixties: History of a generation conflict]. Amsterdam, the Netherlands: Arbeiderspers.Google Scholar
Rokeach, M. (1973). The nature of human values. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Schofield, M. (1965). The sexual behaviour of young people. London: Longmans.Google Scholar
Springhall, J. (1998). Youth culture and moral panics: Penny gaffs to gangsta rap 1830–1996. London: Macmillan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stachura, P. D (1981). The German youth movement 1900–1945. London: Macmillan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tajfel, H. (1978). Social categorization, social identity and social comparison. In Tajfel, H. (Ed.), Differentiation between social groups (pp. 61–76). London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Bogt, T. F. M. (2000). De geschiedenis van jeugdcultuur en popmuziek [The history of youth culture and pop music]. In Bogt, T. F. M., and Hibbel, B. (Eds.), Wilde jaren: Een eeuw jeugdcultuur [Wild years: A century of youth culture] (pp. 11–168). Utrecht, the Netherlands: Lemma.Google Scholar
Bogt, T. F. M., & Meeus, W. M. J. (1994). Adolescentie: Historische achtergrond en theorievorming [Adolescence: Historical background and theory]. In Meeus, W. M. J. (Ed.) Adolescentie: Een psychosociale benadering [Adolescence: A psychosocial approach] (pp. 10–55). Groningen, the Netherlands: Wolters-Noordhoff.Google Scholar
Dam, B. (1993). Een generatie met verschillende gezichten [A generation with different faces]. Nijmegen, the Netherlands: ITS.Google Scholar
Avort, A. M, J. P.. (1988). Vrijzinnigheid in relaties, hedendaagse attitudes in de primaire levenssfeer [Freedom in relations, recent attitudes on primary relationships]. Nijmegen, the Netherlands: ITS.Google Scholar
Vinken, H. (1997). Political values and youth centrism. Doctoral dissertation. The Netherlands: Tilburg University.Google Scholar
Vinken, H. (1999). Youth centrism and conservatism: The political value of resisting the adult world. Zeitschrift für Soziologie der Erziehung und Sozialisation, 19, 405–420.Google Scholar
Vollebergh, W. A. M. (1991). The limits of tolerance. Doctoral dissertation. The Netherlands: Utrecht University.Google Scholar
Vollebergh, W. A. M., Iedema, J., & Meeus, W. M. J. (1999). The emerging gender gap: Cultural and economic conservatism in the Netherlands 1970–1992. Political Psychology, 20, 291–327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vollebergh, W. A. M., Iedema, J., & Raaijmakers, Q. A. W. (2001). The formation of cultural orientations in adolescence: Status inheritance, intergenerational transmission and internalization of attitudes. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 63, 1185–1198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watts, M. W., & Zinnecker, J. (1988). Youth culture and politics among German youth: Effects of youth centrism. In Hazekamp, J., Meeus, W. M. J., & Poel, Y. te (Eds.), European contributions to youth research (pp. 93–101). Amsterdam, the Netherlands: Free University Press.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, P. (1981). The new fascists. London: Grant McIntyre.Google Scholar
Willis, P. E. (1978). Profane culture. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Zinnecker, J. (1982). Die Gesellschaft der Altersgleichen [The society of peers]. In Fischer, A. (Hrsg.), Jugend '81 [Youth '81] (pp. 422–673). Opladen: Leske+Budrich.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×