{"id":5518,"date":"2020-03-25T18:29:08","date_gmt":"2020-03-25T18:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/?p=5518"},"modified":"2021-06-15T16:19:27","modified_gmt":"2021-06-15T15:19:27","slug":"engaging-with-the-corona-generation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/engaging-with-the-corona-generation\/","title":{"rendered":"Engaging with the Corona Generation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dr Jennie Bristow discusses generational consciousness and the effect of the global Covid-19 pandemic on our young people. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

In recent years, we have become obsessed with generational\nlabels as a way to make sense of tensions within society. Conflicts over\neconomic, social, political and cultural resources are routinely expressed as\nconflicts between generations \u2013 in particular, the Baby Boomers, born in the\ntwo decades after the Second World War, and the Millennials, born in the two\ndecades before \u2013 you\u2019ve guessed it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In challenging this dominant narrative of generational\nconflict, my research<\/a> has\ninvestigated the emergence of generational labels (Baby Boomers, Millennials,\nGeneration X, and so on). On one hand, they are trite and overused \u2013 by\nattempting to explain present-day problems via cultural stereotypes, the labels\npresent \u2018generation\u2019 as a determining identity, which flattens out the\ndifferences between people of the same age and incites conflict between old and\nyoung. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, generational labels express something\nreal: the distinctive experience shared by a group of young people as they come\nof age, during a period of accelerated social change when time suddenly appears\nout of joint. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next label we can expect to emerge is the \u2018Corona\ngeneration\u2019, or some variant of this. Until now, those young people born after\n2000 have been subjected to a barrage of labelling, by media, marketers and\nothers who all want to be the first to come up with \u2018the name\u2019. To date, none\nhave stuck apart from the unimaginative \u2018Generation Z\u2019; a label that has been\nconstructed by commentators and imposed upon young people, in a bid to\nunderstand them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In reality, any generation\u2019s sense of itself comes through\nits own attempt to make sense of its times \u2013 to comprehend its own role in\nhistorical events. And this crisis is likely to prove decisive in bringing\nabout a such a shift in generational consciousness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commentators should be cautious about second-guessing what\nform this will take: generational consciousness is developed by young people themselves,\nover time, in relation to significant and often traumatic social events. But it\nalso develops in relation to other generations \u2013 and that is where we need to\nbe considering our responsibility, as adults and as educators, to the younger\ngeneration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One unfortunate consequence of the measures taken to deal\nwith the Covid-19 pandemic is that they both reinforce age segregation, through\ncorrectly identifying \u2018the elderly\u2019 as being at higher risk of becoming\nseriously ill, and universalise the measures taken to contain transmission of\nthe disease, through locking everyone down. This latter move has meant that young\npeople, who until last week were in school and University, are now isolated\nfrom both their peers and adults other than their parents. The brave, selfless\ninstincts to get out there and help, which we saw early on in community\nresponses, have become neutered by the message that the best thing young people\ncan do is to stay home alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whatever the merits of this approach as a public health\nstrategy, it raises some important questions about how we engage with young\npeople at a time of national, indeed global, emergency. Although teachers are\nvaliantly pursuing ways to \u2018keep school going\u2019 online, there is a risk that we\ncut young people out of the wider discussion about the dimensions of this\ncrisis \u2013 which will clearly extend far beyond strategies for infection control.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insights from every academic discipline, from the Sciences and Social Sciences to the Arts and Humanities, will be vital in giving perspective to the turmoil that we are experiencing. In engaging school and University students in these discussions, we will affirm that we do not regard them primarily as problematic, infectious bodies, but as constructive, curious minds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Jennie Bristow is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology, Politics and Sociology. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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