New publication - Baby boomers, consumption and social change: the bridging generation?

A new paper by Rebecca Leach, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, has been published in International Review of Sociology. This is the latest publication from the 'Boomers and beyond project' that studied issues of consumption and generation amongst the post-war baby boomers. This was an ESRC funded project, that formed part of the Cultures of Consumption research programme. The abstract for the paper follows and more details can be accessed here.

Leach, R., Phillipson, C., Biggs, S., and Money, A. (2013) ‘Baby boomers, consumption and social change: the bridging generation?’, International Review of Sociology.
This paper outlines the ways in which the cohort born immediately following the Second World War illustrates changes in consumption patterns within their lives. The paper suggests that this cohort (often known as baby boomers) view themselves to be a ‘bridging’ generation between the ‘old’ ways of their own parents and the radically different views of the next generation. Now nearing or entering retirement and later life, the discussion considers the accounts of boomers themselves having experienced post-war consumer culture and shifting family relations. This paper focuses primarily on qualitative accounts from 150 detailed interviews followed by 30 in-depth interviews, and is framed by analysis of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. It explores central emergent themes in the accounts of respondents which demonstrate evidence for a ‘bridging’ identity maintained by baby boomers in relation to their consumption practices.