From Life-course Expectations to Societal Concerns: Seeking Young Adults’ Perspectives on Generational Narratives

Abstract

Young adults’ use of individualized explanations for conditions that are structural in origin is well documented. However, recent scholarship has contended that young adults are often more aware of the macro-scale forces that shape their life chances than has previously been acknowledged. We build upon this work by drawing on findings from focus groups conducted with 19 Australian young adults aged 27–28 in which they were called upon to discuss issues and experiences relevant to both their own lives and those of their age cohort more broadly. We find that although the participants co-constructed explanatory narratives that positioned their cohort within a specific socio-historical context, they nevertheless drew chiefly upon individualized explanations and coping strategies to understand these structural changes when the conversation moved to micro-level experiences. We contend that this disjuncture is attributable not to a lack of knowledge or reflexivity but to a perceived lack of social recognition.