Zeitgeist and Generational Change

Zeitgeist and generational change refers to the interplay between the dominant spirit of an era and the formation of generations, in which formative historical conditions shape cohorts' outlooks while younger generations in turn transform the cultural climate. Karl Mannheim's essay on the problem of generations argued that people who share a location in historical time, especially in youth, may develop a common consciousness, and that generation units respond differently to the same conditions. Norman Ryder treated cohort succession as a mechanism of social change, and Glen Elder showed how historical timing shapes life courses, as in his study of children of the Great Depression. Howard Schuman and Jacqueline Scott found that people most often recall events from adolescence and early adulthood as defining. Ronald Inglehart's theory of value change linked growing up in security to postmaterialist values, and Margaret Mead described prefigurative cultures in which the young lead change. Neil Howe and William Strauss popularized generational cycles, though critics regard such labels as stereotyped and overlook class and race. Zeitgeist and generational change remains central to research on cohorts, values, politics, culture, and social change.