McDaniel, S.A., et al (2013). Generationing relations in challenging times: Americans
and Canadians in mid-life in the Great Recession, Current Sociology, 61 (3) 301-321.
Survey of a few individuals in mid-life who are affected by the shock of the 2008
economic crisis – comparing those in US and in Canada
US: greater impact and hardships due to:
home foreclosures, bank and personal bankruptcies, high unemployment and
increasing # of people who fell into poverty.
Canada: Is a contrast to the US due to a different financial system with safeguards:
Fewer home foreclosures, fewer bankruptcies and much less levels of
unemployment.
• Baby boomers born between 1946-1964 :78mill
• Gen X born early1960 to early 1980s: 48mill
• Gen Y also called Millennials: born early 1980s to the early 2000
77mill
Gen y characteristics - diversity- a mix of minorities (ethnicity, race etc.) By 2016
they will be 1 in 3 of the US population
$325 billion in spending power
• Gen Z born mid-2000 to now
Generationing: Generation as a notion is attributed to a process that begins during
the formative years and continues through other stages of life
During one’s formative years, i.e., life’s crucial stages that define historical, social
and biographical experiences, generation building occurs. These experiences
formed during the youthful period become a specific common generational view.
Thus these experiences are the basis of the process called generationing.
(Alanen, L. (2001). Childhood as generational condition: Children’s daily lives in
central Finland town. In L. Alanen & B. Mayal (Eds.), Conceptualizing child-adult
relations (pp. 129–143). London: Routledge.)
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Generationing is used here to study: Multigenerations’ experiences of the
historical and social events and the techno-cultural milieu in which they live
They are expressed in the collective narrative of the generations’ memories
and how they frame their interpretations of the times in which they have
experienced these events
These influence the way they live and would continue to live in the future
One generation’s experiences also become shared experiences of the earlier
and the following generations’ experiences
However, the shared narratives and memories are different for different
generations.
The same decade of history may be narrated or remembered differently
depending on one’s generational belonging. Generationing as a process
produces a generational identity i.e., self definitions are integrated to form
this identity. Identity with one’s own generation and differentiating from
other generations.
McDaniel et al (2013) compares: those in mid-life in working and middle classes in
similar medium-sized cities in the two countries during 2008 -2010
Economic crisis 2008 and it’s shock:
Powerfully shaped and changed the lives of the mid-generations and others
connected to their lives
Also it affected the processes of generationing in both Canada and, more
significantly in US:
Strong impact on their families and the society’s cohesion and order.
How and why: In their midlife, how did the demands of older and younger
generations affected them and why?
Interviews done in 2008 - the housing bubble burst and financial markets in the US
slumped through spring 2010.
It was not just a market crisis but an economic crisis that spread beyond the housing
and financial sectors in the US
It left millions without jobs and threatened entitlements: pensions,
Millions in US and elsewhere, lost their life savings and destroyed the international
confidence in the soundness of the AIC’s economies
US and Canada:
US:
• Steep and unalterable rise in long term chronic unemployment
• Long term persistence of record number of unemployed, still plaguing the US
• Rise of ghost towns and empty neighbourhoods due to housing market
collapse and mortgage defaults and housing foreclosures
• Poverty and inequality: Already high inequality in the US compared to other
OECD countries, now became worse
Life course perspective and structures of social inequality:
• The life course perspective examines and explains people’s and their social
experiences as processes from birth to death
• Life course perspective narratives can be grouped under:
path dependency
gravity
shocks
• We can see Path dependency as one’s early transitions into adult statuses, e.g.
having family, children earlier, finding a job and entering workforce with less
education, confront life-long adverse circumstances.
• Others who delay these experiences of adulthood and enter it when they
have resources, find themselves experience less life course adversity
• Path dependency has adverse impact on one’s early life course transitions
and it is hard to overcome.
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Gravity: Powerful forces of social disadvantage, e.g., unequal access to
resources, living in poverty, marginalization- these impede and arrest the
development of individuals even if they have made sound life choices
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There is a gravity pull of adverse situations they have experienced that clings
to them and are extremely hard to overcome even with education. Inequality
persists and intensifies while other enabling forces are weaker or become
unavailable.
Shocks: Whether these are individual or socioeconomic may occur
unexpectedly and their impacts are severe.
Preparedness, savings, social supports can help to temper shocks.
During the 1929-32 Great Depression – impacts were transformative and
long lasting life course experiences.
The impact of the 2008 economic crisis as a life course shock on those in
mid-life their perception of changes in generationing with those that they are
connected in their lives.
This articles studies the perception of those in midlife of their generational
life changing impacts in a US-Can comparative context
It does not study or compare the effects of shocks on different generations.
In US , among mid-lifers: unemployment seems lower than in Canada
In Canada: Higher labour market participation
US-Can: Contrasts in mortgage arrears and in home foreclosure rates.
39% of American households with somebody unemployed, debt (negative equity)
on their homes, or defaulted or in arrears on house payments.
US: low or no expectations on reliability of their economic performance or stock
market, recovery in housing or job markets
1. Uncertain future: Insecure later years in the Great Recession
• US: Biggest concerns is uncertainty of employment: job loss, esp. those
whose health insurance is linked to their job – will the job lost until
retirement if one has a job?
• US & Can: Classes – middle vs. working classes – distinctly different
retirement concerns between the two classes - middle-class is more
confident but working-class members are uncertain/fearful of jobs and of
any prospects of retirement funds
• Canadian middle-class – more optimistic in their concerns on retirement, but
increasingly they fear that their prospects may decline with a declining
economy.
• Canadian mid-lifers feel concerned about that Increasing cost of living and
declining returns from investments and RRSPs and know that this will have
generationing implications, i.e., their linked family next generation members
will have to be supported.
• US: Middle-class families face housing and real estate price declines,
increasing cost of health care and uncertain future of Social Security
• Can: Working-class is not financially ready or preparing for retirement or
planning for old age – in US and in Canada, working class wishes to continue
working if there is a job for them and to take one day at a time as they live
pay to pay left with nothing to save.
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US: Working-class say that they will will be financially worse off than their
earlier generations. Their parents had good jobs had better and dependable
govt. support programmes – had affordable housing pensions
Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security.
Mid-life middle class US people say that they are more secure when
compared to what the working class counterparts say. They feel that they
would be better off than their parent’s. Middle-class feel more confident than
the working-class that they will be in a better positions in their later years
than the preceding generation.
Canada: Middle-class Canadians, in contrast, doubt whether their security
would continue under the global financial stress – a mixed view compared to
their parent’s generation
If it is an immigrant and their parents are from the III world, Canada feels
like a security-ensuring country even under the fin crisis.
2. Younger generation and their life course expectations:
Both mid-life Canadian and Americans seriously worry about their lack of financial
security of their relatives of the younger generation.
While middle-class persons are concerned, working-class individuals fear how their
children will be able to face their future in such a declining economy.
Working-class Americans are anxious and frustrated that the next generation - their
younger relatives would encounter worsening economic and political contexts that
would be unfavourable to them. Likely economic recession, disappearing or
diminishing social programmes, absence of good jobs and retirement with pension.
Can: Immigrants from poorer countries find Canada as a heaven even under fin
stress. Canadian working-class immigrants say that they expect that their children’s
later years will be better off .
1. US:
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Midlife middle and working class reaction:
Distrust or openly hostile to their government
High in anxiety and sense of insecurity about health care and Social Security
Angry that the govt is worsening the prospects of the next generation- the
youth
• Fear of losing their health insurance
2. Canadian middle class: are concerned about
• Pension value and sustainability
• Changing eligibility to qualify for old age security
• Working-class Canadians fear government’s plan to increase the minimum
age of eligibility, and reduction in benefits.
3. All Canadians are worried about cutbacks in public programme.
4. In contrast to the Americans, Canadians do not see the govt. as the main problem
but the 2008 crisis as the problem particularly for the increasing cost of living and
housing
3. Generationing through difficult transitions
Canadian and Americans in mid-life:
• Support significantly with financial help to younger generations but rarely
get financial support from younger or older generation of relatives.
• deeply worried about their own future years.
• working-class American expect that they would ask for help from their own
and their spouse’s siblings or same-generation relatives if they are in dire
straights.
• In financial difficulties, both Can and American hope to receive support from
family, younger, older and same generation. But few will ask friends or
colleagues.
• Generationing might tie multiple generations and drag them all financially
down as they turn to support each other.
• Co-residency of adult children with their parents is a common pattern .
• US: Co-residency of generations can provide temporary shelter at difficult life
course transitions - working-class American, provides support for her son
who is recovering from a serious car accident
• Returning to the parental home during a life transition, such as work
relocation, schooling, or union dissolution, helps adult children financially
and emotionally
Their views on the younger (Next) generation:
• More and lengthy period of education and training before jobs
• Cost of housing rising beyond their ability to get one
• Joblessness or temp jobs
• Little or diminishing access to social support or security, benefits
• The youth will be less independent due to these circumstances
• Live with parents
• Mid-life parents as the only fin support to the transition of their young adults
• Even after they move out of the parental home, parental support is
necessary.
• During the recession, household debt rose to a record high level in both
countries:
• 2009: American household debt-to-income ratio: over 160%
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Canadian household debt over 140% .
• Grandparenting regular childcare (anticipated and actual) for grandchildren
• Both Can and American: Mid-lifers rarely move in with their parents – the
older generation
Their views on the younger (Next) generation:
• More and lengthy period of education and training before jobs
• Cost of housing rising beyond their ability to get one
• Joblessness or temp jobs
• Little or diminishing access to social support or security, benefits
• The youth will be less independent due to these circumstances
• Live with parents
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Mid-life parents as the only fin support to the transition of their young adults
Even after they move out of the parental home, parental support is
necessary.
During the recession, household debt rose to a record high level in both
countries:
2009: American household debt-to-income ratio: over 160%
Canadian household debt over 140% .
Grandparenting regular childcare (anticipated and actual) for grandchildren
Both Can and American: Mid-lifers rarely move in with their parents – the
older generation
Their views on the younger (Next) generation:
• More and lengthy period of education and training before jobs
• Cost of housing rising beyond their ability to get one
• Joblessness or temp jobs
• Little or diminishing access to social support or security, benefits
• The youth will be less independent due to these circumstances
• Live with parents
• Mid-life parents as the only fin support to the transition of their young adults
• Even after they move out of the parental home, parental support is
necessary.
• During the recession, household debt rose to a record high level in both
countries:
• 2009: American household debt-to-income ratio: over 160%
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Canadian household debt over 140% .
• Grandparenting regular childcare (anticipated and actual) for grandchildren
• Both Can and American: Mid-lifers rarely move in with their parents – the
older generation
Conclusion:
1. US & Can: Generations are radically affected during and after the economic
recession. Especially the middle-class youth are insulated by the processes
of generationing as they are being supported by their parental generation. In
contrast, the working-class youth are not insulated by the generationing, and
therefore they fall into further unequal opportunity trap as social inequalities
widen in society.
2. In US: younger middle-class generations who gain from generational transfer
of support of different kinds are at risk. Their support other than
generational is diminishing. Mid-lifers work hard to compensate for the
impact of economic recession on younger generations, even as they
themselves do not feel that there is security in their own future.
3. Canadian mid-lifers are mildly touched by the crisis relative to their
American counterparts – Canadians are less hard hit, but are quite concerned
about their own future as they age. They are worried that they may not be
able to help their younger and older relatives in financial straights as they
themselves may be depleted of resources. The exception is Canadian
immigrants,
US: Deepening crisis in generations’ vulnerability as more reliance is occurring
on the midlifers’ transfers of economic, financial, physical and emotional
support, i.e,. intra-generational transfers
It can be found that Generationing processes occur on two levels
1. From mid-lifers to younger generations- it is more resourceful and generous
in Canada compared to that in the US.
2. Generationing occurs in the form of greater family reliance as a kind of
insurance against risk while the state support is shrinking (esp.in the US). In
Canada, the basic levels of support, i.e., they could rely on as universal health
care and social benefits help mid-life Canadians and their disadvantaged
situation in times of recession. Americans do not have such basic needs filled
and the public is unsure of the minimally existing programmes as a result of the
crisis. This makes intergenerational reliance of Americans on their families and
thus more interdependent.
For immigrants, generationing in both countries refer to their home country in
feeling more secure in their adopted countries.