Deconstructing the Role of Generations in Social Movements: Time, Events, and Legacies

Although questions of how a social group’s shared experiences growing up in particular historical and social contexts shapes their identities, including their political identities, have engaged sociologists of family, youth, citizenship, culture, and political change, few books have so far examined the specific role of generations and generational consciousness in social movement activism. As such, this is the first book to focus exclusively on issues of temporality, events, and generational legacies in social movements. In demonstrating how generational consciousness, and specific frames, narratives, and repertoires of contention are shaped by, and respond to, historical and contemporary meanings of major events and social transformations in different locations, new important questions on race, class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and citizenship are revealed at new, emerging critical junctures in the twenty-first century,

With its high-quality chapters and transnational scope, this book will capture several key trends in the role of generations in social movements and explores topics including contemporary feminism, family, and intergenerational transmission, generationality and political change, rituals and social change, and Black politics and US democracy.

This is an invaluable resource for students and academics with an interest in sociology, political science, and the study of social movements and social change, and for policymakers and readers with a general interest in intergenerational conflict and the challenges of engaging new youth generations in political and democratic structures and processes.

Mark Turner is Senior Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University and the author of ’The Safe Standing Movement in Football: Fan Networks, Tactics, and Mobilizations’ published by Routledge in 2023. He is specifically interested in the application of relational sociology to the study of social networks, social movements, and activism, within different sport and leisure-based contexts. His work has been published the British Journal of Sociology; Sociology; Current Sociology; The Sociological Review; Sociology Compass; and Sociological Research Online.

Jan Andre Lee Ludvigsen is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations and Politics with Sociology at Liverpool John Moores University, UK. Jan’s research focuses on the sociology and politics of sport, particularly security, surveillance, supporter movements, and sport mega-events. He has authored several books, including Sport Mega-Events, Security and Covid-19 (Routledge, 2022) and edited several special issues. Moreover, his research has been published in globally leading journals including the British Journal of Sociology, Sociology Compass, Global Networks, Globalizations, Current Sociology, and Journal of Consumer Culture.

Maria Grasso is a Professor of Political Science and Political Sociology at Queen Mary University of London. Maria’s research focuses on political sociology, social change, social and political inequalities, political generations, social movements, youth politics, gender gaps and the shift from traditional means of political participation to more diffuse and irregular forms of involvement. Her key research interests revolve around understanding the link between economic, social and political inequalities by looking at the political participation and political attitudes of different groups in terms of generation/age, gender, class, relative deprivation, etc. and their intersections as well as the ways in which crises impact on different groups of citizens with respect to their economic conditions and perceptions, social capital, and their political (re)actions.