De verraderlijke charme van het begrip generatie

The notion of generations is an appealing one. In everyday conversations, in the media as well as in sociology, references to generations can be found. In classic and contemporary social theory alike, the key to understanding how cultural change comes about has been thought to lie in the long-term effect of differential cohort socialization. Cultural change is thought to proceed as differently socialized cohorts replace each other in the course of time. Moreover, distinct generations have been claimed to emerge. This article addresses the impact of cohort replacement, the presence of generations and the extent to which people think in terms of generations. At the outset, the theoretical framework that informs thinking in terms of cohorts and generations is presented. The problem of disentangling the effects of age, period, and cohort is discussed briefly. Analyses of Dutch sui-vey data substantiate that cohort membership matters. Yet no evidence is found in support of the idea that specific generations are discernable. The Dutch population, however, widely uses a generational perspective. The upshot of this article is that the notion of generations is at least as treacherous as it is appealing.