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Baby boomers, consumption and social
change: the bridging generation?
Rebecca Leach a , Chris Phillipson a , Simon Biggs a & Annemarie
Money a
a Research Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Keele
University, Keele, Staffordshire, UK
Version of record first published: 26 Mar 2013.
To cite this article: Rebecca Leach , Chris Phillipson , Simon Biggs & Annemarie Money (2013):
Baby boomers, consumption and social change: the bridging generation? , International Review of
Sociology: Revue Internationale de Sociologie, DOI:10.1080/03906701.2013.771053
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Baby boomers, consumption and social change: the bridging generation?*
Rebecca Leach*, Chris Phillipson, Simon Biggs and Annemarie Money
Research Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire,
UK
(Received March 2012; final version received January 2013)
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.
Keywords: change; consumption; generation; boomers; age
Introduction
The baby boom generation has emerged as a significant group in debates on the
impact of population change. Record numbers over 800,000 celebrated their 65th
birthday in the UK in 2012. Boomers themselves those born in the late 1940s and
early 1950s are seen to be transforming many aspects of middle and early older age.
As a cohort that experienced the birth of mass consumption in the 1950s and 1960s,
boomers are viewed as ‘eager to reap the benefits from consumer society, to travel
and participate in leisure activities as long as their health permits’ (Ogg and Bonvalet
2011, p. 2). Yet such aspirations have divided opinion in the UK and other countries.
Over the course of the 2000s, a ground-swell of concern emerged which targeted
boomers as a ‘selfish generation’, drawing down scarce economic resources to the
detriment of generations below. This attention to boomers has been multilayered,
This research was funded under the ESRC/AHRC Cultures of Consumption programme,
grant number RES154-25-0003, Boomers and Beyond? The mature imagination and inter-
generational consumption. The secondary data from ELSA were made available through the
UK Data Archive. ELSA was developed by a team of researchers based at the National Centre
for Social Research, University College London and the Institute for Fiscal Studies. The data
were collected by the National Centre for Social Research. The funding is provided by the
National Institute of Aging in the United States, and a consortium of UK government
departments co-ordinated by the Office for National Statistics. The developers and funders of
ELSA and the Archive do not bear any responsibility for the analyses or interpretations
presented here.
*Corresponding author. Email: r.leach@keele.ac.uk
International Review of Sociology*Revue Internationale de Sociologie, 2013
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including journalistic accounts (e.g. Beckett 2010, Hutton 2010), political and
academic commentaries (e.g. Harkin and Huber 2004, Jones and O’Donnell 2010,
Willetts 2010), contributions from ‘younger generations’ (e.g. Howker and Malik
2010), memoirs (Diski 2009), and novels (e.g. Buckley 2009, Grant 2011, Kunzru
2007). Boomers appear to have become the new ‘problem’ generation, arousing
resentment from younger groups who seem to be faring much less well.
Making sense of the boomer generation has become an important issue partly
because of the size of the group; partly also because of the journey which they have
taken over the course of their life. Boomers have passed through a number of
political, social, cultural, and economic milestones. Gilleard and Higgs (2002, p. 376)
view first-wave boomers as a ‘mid-century generation’ that has set a ‘new and distinct
course through adult life ...one marked by change, challenge and transformation’.
They argue that: ‘The baby boom generation broke the mould of the modern life
course’. Edmunds and Turner (2005, p. 31) suggest that in the UK the boomers were
a ‘strategic generation in aesthetic, cultural and sexual terms’. Yet the positive
evaluation of boomers in reshaping institutions now appears in a more negative light.
Boomers continue to shape and dominate social life, it is argued, but with the
economic fall-out now being placed onto the shoulders of younger generations
(Hutton 2010, Willetts 2010). However, much of this analysis presumes boomers to
be a distinctive group in social, cultural, as well as economic terms. In this article
we examine the basis for this view, with a particular focus on issues relating to
patterns of consumption and life-styles. Before outlining the research on which this
paper is based, we first explore the nature of the debate about boomers as a ‘problem
generation’.
The rise of the boomer generation
The demography of the baby boom refers to the increase in the birth rate across
industrialized countries from the mid-1940s through to the mid-1960s. This trend
was in reality highly variable. Some countries (e.g. Finland) had a relatively
compressed surge in birth rates following demobilization, this coming to an end at
the beginning of the 1950s (Karisto 2005, 2007). Others (Australia, France, and the
USA) experienced a longer period of increasing birth rates from the mid-1940s
through to the mid-1960s (Ogg and Bonvalet 2011). The UK had a distinctive
pattern of two separate peaks in 1947 and 1964 this creating so-called ‘first-wave’
(roughly 194554) and ‘second-wave’ (19615) boomers. Falkingham (1987) views
the experience of these two peaks as in sharp contrast: the first group born into
austerity but maturing into a period of prosperity, but with the experience of the
second group largely the reverse.
The demographic ‘shape’ of the boomer generation raises a number of complex
issues. On the one side, much has been made of the boomers representing a group
with a shared identity whose resources and life-styles are producing new inequalities.
This is presented in mainly ‘generational’ terms a ‘wealthy’ older generation acting
as a burden on impoverished younger generations. As Hutton (2010) sees it: ‘Having
enjoyed a life of free love, free school meals, free universities ...mainly full
employment and a 40-year-long housing boom, they are bequeathing their children
sky-high house prices, debts and shriveled pensions. A 60 year old ...is a very
privileged and lucky human being an object of resentment as much as admiration’.
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Willetts (2010, p. xxi) echoes this view in highlighting the economic and political
power of the boomer generation: ‘At the moment this generation dominates just
about every important institution in the country: it has the most wealth and power.
How will this generation discharge its obligations to younger generations? So far it
has been one of the luckiest generations. Will boomers be selfish with their luck, or
will they press it on to the next generation? So far the evidence is not good’. And
Willetts (2010, p. xviii) goes on to suggest that much of what we see as social
breakdown is the ‘breakdown of relations between generations ...much of what has
gone wrong in the economy is the failure to get the balance right between
generations’. Howker and Malik (2010) view this as reflecting the struggles faced
by a ‘jilted generation’ (those born between 1979 and 1994), deprived of access to
jobs and housing whilst having to meet the pensions and health care costs of an
ageing population. Set against such pressures, boomers are increasingly presented as
‘powerful and selfish’ (Beckett 2010b), ‘protecting themselves at the expense of
everyone else’ (Inman 2011); a ‘lucky generation’ which has left the ‘country in a
bankrupt state for future generations’ (Broomfield 2010). Harkin and Huber sum up
the enviable condition of the boomer generation as follows:
Many baby boomers are beginning to enjoy a windfall; the combination of wealth,
health and longer life gives them a new phase in life. In this phase they have the chance
to ‘live again’, to focus on being mature but independent, discerning but carefree, and in
which they can revisit their own desire for personal fulfillment free from the pressures of
overwork and childrearing. (Harkin and Huber 2004, p. 13)
Yet many of the above commentaries beg difficult questions about the meaning of
the term ‘generations’ and whether there can be shared economic, social, and cultural
identities within generations or cohorts. Cohort size is important in shaping demands
for resources and creating new life-styles. Alwin et al. (2006, p. 11) makes the point
that ‘...society reflects, at any given time, the sum of its generations. Where one set
of cohorts is especially large like the Baby Boomers its lifestyle dominates the
society as it passes through the life course’. But the nature of such life-styles in part
because of the sheer size of the boomer cohort will themselves be immensely varied.
And trying to define satisfactorily the meaning of the term ‘boomer generation’ (or
indeed any generation) is difficult. Willetts (2010, p. xv), as a representative example,
talks variously of boomers as ‘roughly those born between 1945 and 1965’ (in reality
the American and Australian rather than UK experience) and the ‘mid-point of the
boom as 1955’ (when birth rates had in fact started to decline). But in any event
generalizing about a group born over a 20-year span will be difficult. Philip Abrams
made the point that the cut-off points between generations are often obscure and
may develop only gradually as part of a long historical process. He went on to argue
that age was not in itself ‘a sufficient condition’ for the existence of generations,
rather: ‘Other factors such as class, religion, race, occupation, institutional setting, in
short all the conventional categories of socio-structural analysis, must be introduced
to explain their unique ability to make something of their historical experience. In
other words, the study of generations brings to light consequential differentiations
within generations as well as between them’ (Abrams 1982, p. 2612).
The theme of ‘differentiation’ within the boomer generation is especially
important. Much has been made of their high level of income and housing wealth
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as compared with younger generations (see, especially, Huber and Skidmore 2003,
Howker and Malik 2010, Willetts 2010). But the economic divisions are striking: in
terms of income, among those aged 5564, the top 10% of households have a total
wealth of more than £1.3 million; in contrast, the bottom 10% have a mere £28,000
(Hills 2009). Among these 5564, nearly one-third (31.5%) report too little money to
meet their needs at least some of the time (ELSA, Wave 3, Atkinson and Hayes
2010); just over one-third (37.5%) never experience this problem. Even in the case of
housing, more than 20% of individuals aged 50 or older in England have no (or
negative) housing wealth: 50% of adults aged 50have housing wealth of less than
£150,000 (Curry 2010). Income and wealth divisions are in fact likely to increase over
time, underscoring the range of life-styles and experiences emerging among the
boomer generation.
Aim of the research
How the boomers make use of their generational experience is an important question
from a sociological perspective. For boomers their formative experiences as a
generation have revolved around consumption as a major force shaping identities
and life-styles. Edmunds and Turner (2005, p. 4) view the post-war generation as
‘constitutive of the rise of modern consumerism’. Gilleard and Higgs (2005) also
emphasize the salience of consumption, highlighting continuity between the
consumption-orientated life-styles of teenagers in the late 1950s and 1960s and the
aspirations of people entering retirement. Accordingly, as the generation of the 1960s
have grown older ‘...they have sought to retain the value and status of that ‘‘youth
culture’’. They continue to care about clothing, about fashion, and about
appearance, and they continue to care about having the freedom to spend’ (Gilleard
and Higgs 2005, p. 99; see also Harkin and Huber 2004). What, then, consumption
means to boomers is an important issue: does it create divisions between generations
as boomers seek to retain ‘youth’ and ‘mid-life’ life-styles into retirement? Do
boomers view themselves as a ‘distinctive generation’, separate from the values and
life-styles of generations above and below? Alternatively, do boomers see themselves
with a mix of values drawn from across generations? Very few studies (though see
Ogg and Bonvalet 2011) have addressed these questions to boomers themselves. This
article explores generational narratives emerging among first-wave boomers, situat-
ing these in relation to population change and consumption over the post-war
period. In particular, it explores the idea that rather than boomers being detached
from older or younger generations, in reality they may be more accurately viewed as
a ‘bridging generation’ spanning generations below as well as those above.
Methodology
Research for this article takes the form of secondary data analysis and primary data
collection from first-wave boomers. The former analyses data from the English
Longitudinal Study on Ageing (ELSA), the initial wave of which commenced in 2002
(Marmot et al. 2004). ELSA interviewed people aged 50 and over, which in our study
restricts the relevant group to those aged 5057 (those born between 1945 and 1952).
This material is put alongside findings from interviews with 150 people born between
1945 and 1954 living in and around South Manchester, England (see Methodological
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Appendix); the characteristics of the sample did not differ significantly from the
same age group in the wider UK population. There was also a follow-up interview
with 30 of the original 150 people to develop biographical/life-history data relevant
to the aims of the study. Analysis of these interviews has provided unique insights
into consumption patterns and life-styles among the boomer generation. In each case
trends in the quantitative data from the secondary data and first phase of interviews
were expanded through thematic analysis of qualitative responses and the in-depth
follow-up interviews. The analysis below begins with a brief summary of the
demographic characteristics of first-wave baby boomers.
Demographic change and boomers: contrasts and similarities
To what extent do the demographic characteristics of boomers reflect ‘divisions’ or
‘bridges’ with other generation? Taking marital status first of all, it is clear that the
first baby boom cohort has characteristics similar to preceding birth cohorts but with
evidence of incremental change. First-wave boomers appear as the last cohort to have
lived through what has been viewed as the ‘golden age’ of marriage that prevailed in
Western societies from the 1950s to the 1970s (Kiernan 2004). Among those born in
1946, 96% of women and 92% of men had either been married or been in a
permanent cohabiting union by the time they were 50. This contrasts with those born
in 1964, where the equivalent figures are expected to decline to 90% for women and
84% for men (Evandrou and Falkingham 2000).
In other areas, however, first-wave boomers mark a change from preceding
cohorts. They provide early indicators of the growth of divorce and re-partnering
characteristic of the post-war family, with 35% in a category other than ‘first and
only marriage’ or ‘widowed’; this reducing to 31% for those born 193744 and 23%
for the 192936 cohort (ELSA, Wave 1, our analysis). First-wave boomers also show
a distinct break over preceding cohorts in the proportion who have lived at some
point with a partner without being married, with nearly one in five among those born
194552 compared with an average of less than one in 10 in the preceding cohorts.
On the other hand, evidence for ‘bridging’ between generations is demonstrated in
data on family life, although here the changes are more in the direction of increased
rather than decreased family activity. ELSA data show 43% of those born between
1945 and 1952 having at least one child living at home, varying from 61% for a 50-
year-old to 25% for a 57-year-old. On the other hand, while only 23% have a
grandchild, this rises to nearly one in two (48.9%) of those aged 57. Financial
responsibilities to younger generations are also important here: in our own survey of
boomers, 37% boomers had financial responsibility for another member of the
household children in the majority of cases.
A further change among first-wave boomers, reflecting improvements in life
expectancy over the past 50 years, is the survival of one or both parents: in the ELSA
survey 43% of those aged 507 still had a mother alive (average age 79.8 years); 20%
had a father alive (average age 80.7). This factor, coupled with lower rates of
childlessness among this cohort, may lead to a ‘sandwiched generation’ of boomers
(women especially) caring for grandchildren on the one side and elderly parents on
the other. From a sociological perspective, first-wave boomers appear in fact as the
first ‘pivot generation’, providing (especially in the case of women) a key link in the
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‘chain of solidarity between generations’ (Attias-Donfut and Arber 2000, p. 15; see
also Haavio-Mannila et al. 2007).
Consumption and boomers: ‘make do and mend’
To what extent do boomers’ own narratives confirm demographic linkages between
different generations? A consistent theme from our qualitative interviews was that
boomers conceive of their consumption and value system as somewhere between
what was perceived as the ‘make do and mend’ culture of austerity experienced by
their parents (Diski 2009, Kynaston 2007, p. 19) and the ‘excessive consumerism’ of
younger generations. What appears distinctive for respondents is an awareness of the
changes associated with a consumer-based society, with strong contrasts with their
early years:
My parents’ generation they were ‘make do and mend’ weren’t they, you know, I mean
my mother was a classic one for that, if you wanted something you would make it or
mend it, whereas we’d go out and buy so it’s very much a consumer society, we’ll go out
and buy that, it’s a throwaway society, but they would make do and mend, so I suppose,
we’re sort of, I think we’re very lucky as a generation, far more so than probably your
[interviewer] generation. (Robert, age 56, police officer)
I grew up knowing how many potatoes you need for the week for a family of three. And,
you know, just how much you could afford to leave the light on. Counting the pieces of
toilet paper ...re-using the coal. I grew up with a wartime mentality ...(Marilyn, 55,
market researcher)
Many respondents were critical of the excess materialism of the young, while
recognizing the difficulties (in comparison to themselves) that younger generations
will face. Some see this as a trade-off for the investment and sacrifice they put in
(‘we’ll spend our money rather than give it to them’ was one response), but they also
recognize that their own parents sacrificed a lot more:
I think my Mum’s generation tended to think that they had to save ...my stepfather
died and she had money and she wouldn’t spend it on herself, she felt she had to save it
and leave it to us. With us ...we’re going to spend the money and whatever is left the
kids can have but we’ve earned it so we’re going to spend it. (Norma, 56, pensions
manager)
More common, however, is the notion of spending habits and ethics being
determined by a combination of tough life experiences alongside general social
shifts towards material comfort. These combine to provide a generational justifica-
tion for different attitudes towards materialism. Respondents typically linked their
parents’ frugality with their own concern over materialism while often recognizing
how their expectations had been raised over time:
I’ve seen the changes from my mum’s generation to myself, my mother used to save such
a lot, um, my mum brought us up on her own ...And, err, my mother wouldn’t throw
things away, you know, she stored such a lot ...I am a little bit like that ...I find it very
difficult sometimes about throwing my memories away. Now my son’s wife, if they’re
doing a new room, they’ll just clear out the old stuff and then refurb. Now I find that
very difficult, you know, really difficult to sort of throw things away. So, I can see
differences in that situation. As regards the spending, my mum didn’t sort of spend until
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she was probably really in her 70s. And then she suddenly realized that this money was
sort of going in from her pension, you know, then she had a little bit ...but she found it
hard, you know. (Mary, 60, saleswoman)
As the extract above shows, the boomers in our sample feel they are not as materialist
as younger generations. In particular, they bemoan the apparent attachment of
younger people to heavy expenditure on consumer goods, the insistence on new
products, and the reliance upon debt. Boomers more often view themselves as
balancing between generations neither frugal like their parents, nor as demanding of
consuming goods as in the case of their children. In this respect, their values tend to
link back to their own parents as much as to those forged in the 1960s and 1970s:
My parents both came from poor families really. Like my mother’s father died when she
was young and my father’s mother died and they were Irish and the ...they came from
poor backgrounds really, where they did have to really struggle and they always
managed money very well. But they were very careful what they did with it, and the
value, you know, they have, they knew the value of money really. In fact I’d say they
didn’t waste anything.
Interviewer: Okay, so in terms of yourself, are you more like that generation than the
generation that came after you, would you say?
Yeah I, I think I am more like that because I’m a bit, I’m careful in what I spend.
Although, and I don’t like to waste anything, but I think it’s the way we were brought
up. You know in the 50s and that because there just weren’t things around, you know.
You, you did have to sort of make do with things, you know ...So I wouldn’t, I feel
nervous, I wouldn’t just fling money around, I feel nervous about spending money.
(Helen, 57, public sector administrator)
By contrast, respondents talk of the absence of comforts, in particular in terms of
housing and home objects, when they were growing up, and they link this to the
ethical/pragmatic concerns of their parents, who were often living in austere
conditions with fewer opportunities than themselves. Typical comments are those
from June and Marion:
And we lived in the country in a small house, had a huge allotment at the side of the
house, and my grandfather was blind and, um, four children. But, we had an orchard,
and we had ...we grew our own food and the rest we’d just have to ...my father used to
mend our shoes and, um, times were very, very hard, but they didn’t let us see that ...
you know, your father made you a toy and you ...and it’s not poverty in my sense at all,
I don’t think, but it was incredibly hard physical grind for my father and mother and,
um, she died the day after she retired when she was 65, um, with a huge heart attack,
and I think she just ...people say hard work doesn’t kill you, but it did. (June, age 54,
nurse)
They didn’t turn the heat on upstairs in the house. It was a terraced house in Moston,
you know, backyard and loo in the yard, you know. So the only heating was through the
fire in the living room. They had little fireplaces in the bedrooms ...Yeah, it just might
stop the frost on the inside of the windows, you know. (Marion, 59, dressmaker)
These comments reflect the sense of social mobility and opportunities experienced by
many baby boomers, often expressed in their attachment to comfortable homes as a
key value, made affordable by their education, class, and incomes. Some respondents
reflect this shift in their lifetimes as a raising of expectations for them that was not
extended to older generations:
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I think a lot of the older people are more frugal and economical and certainly I know
quite a few haven’t had improvements done to their house and I’m sure they could
afford it. They tend to live in more austere conditions probably because they were used
to it. Whereas once you have the luxury of central heating and double glazing it’s ...you
take it for granted, don’t you, even though you weren’t brought up with it? (Jacqueline,
59, shop owner)
Overall, therefore, Boomers operate with a ‘modified materialism’ acontingentand
somewhat ambivalent relationship to consumption that provides a moral bridge
between different generations. We have here linked the questioning of materialism to the
experience of social change lived through by this generation born into austerity but
growing up in a period of relative prosperity and affluence. However, this is perhaps also
a feature of the particular engagements in political and ideological movements by those
who actively saw themselves as part of the ‘1960s’ generation something that goes
hand-in-hand with, or in place of, self-identification with the ‘boomer’ label.
This sense of change and engagement is particularly marked in some accounts, in
which the combination of financial, political, and personal freedom embody the
notion of the ‘1960s child’:
Well it would have to be the 60s and 70s ...to grow up at that time, Harold Wilson as the
prime minister, Labour prime minister, and the strength of the unions and, er,...mind
you, I’m saying this, my parents were staunch Conservatives. It was a really good time. I
was educated in one of the first comprehensive schools in the country and money was
poured into that school and I always felt very lucky, very lucky. The fashions were
fantastic, the music was lovely, the freedom that we had, sexual freedom, money wasn’t
particularly tight when we were younger, you know everything’s been possible,
everything’s been possible. ...I felt as if whatever I wanted to do I could have done.
(Alison, 57, adult education tutor)
I was born in ’47, in my adolescence in the mid-60s, I was in America, in San Francisco
and that seemed very different from the sort of experience my brother had and he was
five years older than me, you know, very much a war baby and you know, we were a
much more rebellious generation. I think that ...the 60s were partly idealistic and ...
you could see the changes, they were enormous changes in the way that young people
took control of things or got more power. I think that things, the changes that happened
in the 60s just became normal, I mean, why wouldn’t they, I mean, you know: it’s just
part of life. (James, 58, managing director consultancy)
These extracts highlight the notion of change experienced as both political/ideological
connected to the consumer, and cultural and career freedoms that mark the generational
and historical shift. However, we also suggest that at a finer level of detail, the
generational shifts that took place occurred in the realm of everyday consumer culture as
well as in these broader sweeps of history. In the particular processes of what was
consumed, as well as how consumption itself was configured as moral conduct, we can
see generational bridging and shifting as the baby boomers move through the late
twentieth century. Specifically, this manifests itself in ambivalence about the changes
they span: the first ‘materialist’ generation is not wholly comfortable with its
consequences, contrary to notions that this group is ‘selfish’.
‘Investment’ and rational consuming
‘Taking care’ of over-consumption is seen by respondents as one response to their
ambivalence about materialism. This attachment to ‘looking after things’ had a
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moral tone, respondents commonly believing that respect for people and respect for
things were strongly connected. By extension, the lack of respect for things implied in
the fast-turnover consumer society engaged in by younger generations was also often
seen as a loss of morality:
My parents, they very much inculcated the value of hard work and, erm, of looking after
your ...taking care of your money, looking after your belongings, treating things with
respect, erm, cherishing things, cherishing people, looking after them and...yes, those
sorts of values, taking care of one another and, you know, considering one another and
this sort of thing. I think those are hard values to be passed on, actually. (Alison, 57,
adult education tutor)
This is further supported by typical narratives which include the rejection of fashion
and rapid turnover of items, especially in the home:
This house is full of junk, a lot of it has been here for 20 years. It’s not um...we don’t
um consume or constantly replace things ...I really try just to buy things that I need. I
might spend quite a lot of money on something that I need, but I know that I’ll be using
it for the next x years ...and it will last. Rather than ...I know people who are
constantly changing their three-piece suites and decorating rooms, but I don’t know
what that’s about. I don’t get it. So, I do find that quite disturbing...(Sheila, 51,
archivist)
Boomers stress their own moral code of consumption as reflected in a need for
durability, quality, and value. Typical comments include ‘knowing the value of
things’, or a commitment to buying things that last. Interestingly, this ethic is
consistent with their commitment to having and buying material goods: they often
say they do not mind consumerism but will insist on paying for good quality. They
are keen to stress their ‘betweenness’ bridging older and younger generations,
indicating their belief that their own approach is the one that balances the best and
worst of each: neither the extreme frugality of their parents’ generation, nor the
excessive spending they associate with their children.
This notion of balancing moral consumption between generational values is part
of a ‘rational consumer’ ethic (Aldridge 1994). Aldridge describes the use of
information sources such as Which? (but equally could include the wide range of
online and magazine information consumed by boomers) as a sort of reassuring
ideology which gives the semblance of rationality to what are, ultimately, fairly
irrational and impossible judgements about choice. They are impossible because of the
extensive range of choices in any one product, and the proliferation of competing
information sources available. Yet the Which? guidance gives a notion of ‘control’ over
this proliferating consumption, even though in practice it may just add to the problem.
Nevertheless, the boomer story incorporates this notion of a ‘rational’ engagement
with consumer decision-making, as if it is almost a civic responsibility. Making the
right choice, knowing the meaning of ‘value’ and ‘quality’, and not being duped are
central. For example, respondents commonly invest much time and effort in finding
out about products in order to get the best deal for the best price, often using the
Internet to carry out research. This ‘investment’ partly helps to satisfy this need to
‘take care’ of consumer processes and not treat them lightly. John, for example,
demonstrates a common masculine need to research his technical purchases:
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I am a minor technophile in the sense that the consequences of all this decorating is
going to be new kit, new TV...um, DVD player etc., etc. I’m quite into that, and I enjoy
sort of doing a bit of research around that. And setting it up, and playing with it, and
those sorts of things (John, 53, lecturer)
Some respondents specifically see the use of technology or its ‘early adoption’ as
something which defines them generationally, a key part of what distinguishes them
from their parents’ generation and links them to the next. This is further linked to the
ways in which money and credit are used to ‘achieve something now’:
I think we are more prepared to get on and do things, like buying computers, like
having an iPod. I think whereas my parents’ generation would only buy something
when they could pay for it straight off, the idea of actually using credit to achieve
things. A degree of confidence about the future, that in fact if you run up debts, ...a
sense people are more willing to sort of say, ‘Well, let’s enjoy things now and do that’. I
think that’s a fairly significant change. I think the attitude towards material
possessions has changed. I mean, the idea that you actually buy a product and then
dispose of it, whatever it is. I mean, it goes against the grain for me still to dispose of
things like a computer when it seems to be obsolete now, you don’t do anything, you
just put it in the bin. I struggle with that, but I accept the fact that that’s the way that
the culture and society have sort of gone on and we use technology in that kind of way.
(Anthony, 55, architect)
[My parents] were happy adopting new technologies until they got to 40 and then
they ...It’s as if their brain froze whereas I think my generation seems to be happier
adopting newer technologies to a much older ...Well, I’m 55 and I’m still happy to
adopt new technology. And I can still use the remote control on the television. I’m still
better at it than the kids at the moment. (Alan, 59, IT department head)
Not all of this ‘rational consuming’ can be identified as generational, however: some
respondents clearly identify middle age as a factor influencing their consumer values.
This emergent rational consumer ethic is expressed at length by Ronald who links the
notion of age limiting time and therefore impacting upon consumer decision-making:
As you get older, you have to change how you think about things don’t you really.
When you’re younger, you wouldn’t think about buying a television that has certain
features on it because all you want is a TV that works. Now when I go and buy things,
I tend to look at what’s on it, is it the most ...I mean things change don’t they. You can
buy a laptop one day and the following week the blooming thing’s out of date ...
because it hasn’t got that feature on it. So I’m very wary about things like that. Like
now, I’m thinking of changing that to one of the plasma screens. When I go along and
do it, I want to know is that the most up-to-date version, are they going to bring out
another model around the corner, what’s the features on it, is it user-friendly to use,
because I mean, God almighty, these days it takes you four hours to read the
instructions, doesn’t it, before you’ve even taken the thing out of the box. So I’m very
cautious about that. Is it good value for money? Can I get it cheaper if I go and buy it
somewhere else? I’ll go into things a lot, lot more. I’ll go on the Internet about it. I’ve
felt myself changing. I tend to check out more and I’m more careful what I do now
when it comes to spending money. When I was younger, it was ‘Oh that’ll do’ because
you’re more ...time’s more ...well yeah time’s important now, don’t get me wrong, but
in those days, when you’re younger, you want to do as much as you possibly can don’t
you, do you know what I mean and ...I always remember saying to my dad ‘God, dad
I haven’t got time to do that’, and my dad would sit there and he’d look into it in great
detail and now I know why! Because he wants good value for money, doesn’t he?
(Ronald, 51, accounts manager)
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What we have shown in this section is that respondents blend their generic
‘generational’ sense with generation as succession by reflecting on their own parents
and children. However, on the whole, there is a link between the sense of knowing the
value of things which is linked to both a sense of their own and their parents’
generational and period experiences, and to a sense of care and time to plan taken
when people age. This notion of an ethic of consuming that is generationally specific
is strong in the accounts of baby boomers’ sense of themselves, yet it demonstrates a
bridging between two different consumer ethics which address the passage of time in
different ways. The ‘make do and mend’ and ‘ageing’ ethic, in which time is extended
by making good and through carefully researched rational choices; and the speeding
up of time or ‘youthful’ ethic through the adoption of credit, the need for novelty,
and ‘early adoption’ of consumer goods.
The lucky generation and inter-generationality as ‘downward blurring’
This ‘betweenness’ in relation to consumer ethics is also evident in boomers’ attitudes
towards credit and debt. In practice, they adopt credit to a considerable extent: 41%
are still paying a mortgage (our interviewees; in ELSA, Wave 1, the figure is 52%,
authors’ analysis), and 32% of our respondents had remortgaged. However, there is a
strong objection to indebtedness amongst this group, at least in what they say in
public. Most working respondents had credit cards but claimed they pay them off in
full each month, and many interviewees found the idea of being in debt (mortgages
excepted) repugnant. Many were very explicit in their unhappiness with personal
debt and their discomfort with their children’s and the next generation’s apparent
blase´ attitude to credit cards and borrowing. The critical stance on credit, however, is
also often combined with a sense of themselves as the ‘lucky generation’ and their
children as relatively ‘unlucky’. Typical responses are from Robert and Janet:
I’d like to think that we’ve done quite well by all means and our outlook on life is
completely different, you could say we were the lucky generation. (Robert, age 56, police
officer)
I don’t know really. It just seemed to me that our particular generation had everything
going for it really. Just I don’t know. It’s hard to put into words but I think we were
very fortunate, a very fortunate generation. (Janet, 58, pharmacist)
Many respondents with adult children argued that life is harder for their children’s
generation than for themselves in particular, boomers perceive themselves as
having had many opportunities for education and work, as well as disposable
incomes that allowed them to consume just enough without the social pressures
faced by their children of excessive materialism and an unfavourable job/housing
market. In contrast, they portray previous generations as relatively immune from
such pressures since they seemed to expect less:
They were, in some ways, more content with what they had. As long as they could pay
the bills ...that was the achievement. (Patrick, 52, shop owner)
A dominant consumer ethic for boomers, then, is that their parents did not expect
much, but their children are too hedonistic. Some respondents on the other hand do
not share this sense of decline in values linked to younger generations, recognizing
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that ageing itself has brought about a shift. Although there were a number of typical
responses which provided a kind of quick rejection of the moral character of younger
generations as above, there were also significant numbers of respondents reflecting
on the struggles of younger generations, particularly their own children but also
more generically:
Oh, of course you do, as you get older you get different values. Like now, I mean when I
was young, spending, it was still on the spending money, it didn’t bother me. Whereas
now, ‘oh, it sounds a bit dear that, you know, is there one cheaper?’ So you do get different
values and different things. You know, like the young ones, they’re the same as when I was
young, I suppose, just spend it as it comes, don’t they? (Michael, 55, garage owner)
Another typical response, in response to the perceived needs of their children’s
generation, was to joke about ‘spending the kids’ inheritance’, but then to modify
this by acknowledging that in reality they continue to help provide financially for
their (adult) children. Robert jokes, while still ‘seeing them right’ as part of the
reciprocity of inter-generational relations:
Well they’ve changed because financially we’re probably better off now than we have
been for years we had the kids around so, so our spending habits and life-style have
changed, I’m going to become a SKIER now, spending the kids inheritance [laughs]
Interviewer: ...and are they okay with that?
Well I’ve told them if they’re not I’m going to put big pockets in me trousers and be
cremated [laughs] yeah, no they are, I mean we’ve seen them right, we’ve set them all up
and you know, but I always look after them because I always say they’re going to choose
the home I going to go into. (Robert, 56, police officer)
Other manifestations of the sensitivity to inter-generational dependencies is found in
the desire to spend more time with grandchildren following retirement and, quite
commonly, to be seen as financially independent, both in not being a specific burden to
their children, but also not being a generic burden as a generation. However, it is not
financial interdependence that provides the most telling example of inter-generational
values, but more the ‘cultural blurring’, particularly around leisure and consumer
tastes. Respondents believed strongly there was more similarity in cultural values and
life-style pursuits between themselves and their children’s generation (which on the
whole stands in for ‘younger generations’ in their accounts), than between themselves
and their parents’ values. While boomers are careful not completely to eschew the
good parts of the parental legacy, they are also very keen to stress how much they
themselves have moved along with broader social changes. A common theme is both
the cultural similarity between them and successive generations, and their perception
of greater closeness or ‘knowledgeability’:
I’ve only got one child, I think we’re more similar, more like her than like me mother. And
thinking I’m the same generation as me daughter, but me mother’s me mother’s
generation [laughs], as part of my fantasy that I can’t possibly have a 31-year-old child,
because I’m not old enough [laughs]. (Sandra, 57, public sector manager)
I think part of the problem is I don’t feel 51. I think if I was...youknow,sometimesIsee
people and I think God they’re so younger than me, and you know, so ...and I ...and I
think also because I’ve got younger children...that has ...and so I’m very much ...sort
of Jessica she’s 14, she’ll be 15 next month and so you’re in tune with ...with her and her
generation and everything and the same with sort of Tom. (Patricia, 51, teacher)
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There is also some evidence from our study that boomers, particularly women, are
reliant on friendship relations for example, a typical response to questions about
cultural activities from women was ‘oh no, I don’t do that with my husband that’s
one for the girls!’ Moreover, for some (especially those with no children or grown
children), the commitment to friendships assumed a degree of greater importance
than families of origin. A case in point is John who states in response to questioning
about similarities or differences to parental generation:
Massive differences. Um, from everything from popular culture, err, to attitudes to
work, attitudes to money, attitudes to family and friends. Err, my own particular case,
my parents could never understand my attitude to my friends they would ...they would,
I think, accuse me of putting my friends before my family, which to me that wasn’t an
accusation that was quite normal. (John, 53, lecturer)
This feature of boomers’ sense of their own generationality is extensive within the
data: respondents feel that they are much closer in tastes, values, and experiences to
the next generation than to the previous one. David highlights the sense of the
expansion of possibilities once age-limits are removed:
Absolutely none [similarities]. Other than the chronology. My experience is that people
who are, or people who were in their 50s in the previous generation were, were older ...
Now, I just don’t see it like that, the people I knock around with, they’re worse than 20-
year-olds at times, basically they couldn’t give a monkey’s [referring to going out on the
town]. (David, 55, teacher)
In their own accounts, they blend ideas of generation, cohort, and (in the background)
period to provide a convincing notion of ‘downward blurring’ what we have called
elsewhere the ‘age shift’ (Biggs et al.2006a):
I think outlook and attitude is very different now. My generation and the up and coming
generation are more accepting of people and the way that people live and there’s no
stigma now. (Patricia, 52, teacher)
I think my generation were a lot younger than my dad’s generation at the same age.
(Tom, 58, musician)
Well, generally speaking ...the younger generation ...they’re much more throw-away,
but then I think sometimes a lot of the values are the same as ours ...they’re more
tolerant ...I’m more tolerant than I would have been years ago. (Jean, 57, receptionist)
I’ve got daughters in their 30s. I have to say and I think they’d probably agree with this,
the way we think about life is very similar. (Marie, 52, director manufacturing)
To put it bluntly I see no difference. You see the plethora of people under 60 and around
30 as being in my cohort. I see everybody in that age band as clever as me, as well paid
as me or as prejudiced about new technology or not as I am. (Alan, 58, office worker)
Our generation, you’ve got a little bit of the past and a little bit of the future. (Alison,
55, receptionist)
I don’t see myself as old, but neither do I see myself in a way as being young, or in my, as
if I was still in my 30s. Because I think I’ve learned a lot since then. But I like to think I
have something in common with people in their 30s which I feel I do have. (Carol, 52,
NHS senior admin)
What these extracts show is the strong conviction held by baby boomers about their
‘bridging’ generations and ‘downward blurring’ in tastes and values. The notion they
hold is partly that of a cohort that has undergone a particularly dramatic period of
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change reflected in a loosening of barriers in certain areas especially those relating
to age and gender. This makes their sense of themselves very much a ‘vanguard’ of
challenging age categories as well as a variety of other social and demographic shifts.
Further, it suggests that in contrast to the accounts of baby boomers cutting
themselves off from younger generations they have considerable cultural invest-
ment in remaining connected to them. For women in particular, this sense of
generational bridging and family connectedness is further strengthened in shared
fashion choices with their daughters (as distinct from their mothers) since borrowing
and collective shopping is an important part of their relationship:
I think it’s becoming more difficult [to distinguish between the generations] to be quite
honest. ...Yes it’s definitely the way that they present themselves, the things they’re
wearing now, people in their 50s and 60s are wearing things that you think, well, people
in their 30s and 40s are wearing the same thing, but they look fine, it’s not a problem...
So there’s a bridge between generations where they still look OK and I think when I was
growing up, old ladies dressed like old ladies didn’t they and you don’t see that so much
now. (Marie, 52, director manufacturing)
I think of my mother at my age, I think that she was old and I would never borrow her
clothes for instance ...and yet, my daughter would borrow my clothes. (Sandra, 57,
public sector manager)
My daughter will wear my clothes and I don’t often wear hers, but we like similar things
and there’s not that distinct difference in where I would shop and where she would shop.
There is some difference, but it’s not as marked as it would have been with my mother
where she hated going into some of the shops I wanted to go into. (Grace, 51,
psychologist)
Although this lateral ‘bridging’ raises broader questions (such as those identified by
Putnam 2000) about the significance of social networks in the lives of boomers, we
believe that the key finding here is the shift in values between the boomers and their
parents’ generation: from a focus on a relatively nuclear unit, towards a more
expansive set of inter-generational and non-kinship relations and reciprocities,
fuelled partly by shifts in gender and family politics, and partly by a sense of
generational blurring focused on shared cultural and consumer experiences (see
Biggs et al. 2006a).
Discussion
On its own, the notion of ‘bridging’ might be considered unimportant: all
generations have an interest in picking out the strengths and weaknesses of their
elders and juniors in order to locate themselves symbolically as in the best position.
However, boomers are particularly interesting because of the interactions between
their shared cohort experiences of dramatic social change that they both lived
through and to which they contributed. As Jones et al. (2008) propose, boomers rest
somewhere between cohort and generation, between a numerical accident of birth,
and a self-conscious ‘for itself’ social grouping. Here, we argue that the ‘for itself’
notion of the boomer generation is providing a narrative upon which particular
moral cultures of consumption are based and around which narratives of cultural
change, particularly in relation to parental cultures, are still being played out.
In Karisto’s (2007) formulation, bridging refers to a cultural life-history, in which
Finnish baby boomers negotiate rapid social and economic change by demonstrating
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both social mobility and attachments to ideals of ‘the more traditional ethos of rural
society’ (p. 98). In the Finnish context, the self-consciousness of the boomer
generation is allied to key changes, such as the mass migration from rural to urban
settings in the twentieth century. As such, the use of ‘bridging’ here is used clearly in
the sense of straddling the cultural values represented by different generations, but
also rapid social changes. Gilleard and Higgs, and Edmunds and Turner share this
notion of a generational ‘break’ in culture and history, although they frame the
protagonists in slightly different ways. While Gilleard and Higgs prefer a broader
‘Third Age’ vocabulary couched in terms of consumption and identity roles,
Edmunds and Turner argue that the boomers were ‘strategic’ in their pressing for
social and cultural changes. In all these cases, however, there is a sense of this
particular generational group moving between two very different societies they
themselves are the bridge between eras.
In addition to this bridging of cultural ideals over time and generation, social and
cultural practices are also providing a bridge: Finnish boomers both reject the
cultural practices of older generations, while adopting some of their preferences. In
the UK context, as we have shown, this is also the case, but UK boomers, in
addition, identify themselves as somewhat bridging the gap with younger genera-
tions. We have discussed this notion of the boomer generation representing a
‘downward blurring’ between themselves and successive generations in Biggs et al.
(2006a, b), alongside Gilleard and Higgs (2005, 2007) and Edmunds and Turner
(2005) who argue that it is this major generational breach in cultural values between
boomers and their parents that allows this blurring to occur. However, we find, in
some respects, the boomer generation maintains some additional continuity with
preceding generations, in spite of the cultural dislocations that have occurred. In the
sense that they straddle two very different sets of values, emergent over the course of
the twentieth century, they act as a ‘bridge’ for cultural transmission of ideas and
practices.
Culturally, ‘bridging’ is evident in the self-narrations found in our interviews in
which values are moderated according to both position in succession lineages (‘I’m
more like my children than my mother’ is a typical response) and in terms of broader
generational assumptions (‘Our generation still knows the value of things’ is also
typical). The narratives used indicate a strong commitment to straddling perceived
generational values. In this respect, our research has demonstrated empirically that
inter-generationality as a cultural commitment in itself is part of the generational
habitus of the boomer generation.
This bridging is played out in more direct interpersonal ways also. For example,
Haavio-Mannila et al. (2007) and Roos et al. (2006) focus on inter-generational
transfers surrounding baby boomers in Europe, demonstrating that they provide
financial and obligatory transfers to younger generations in particular. In our
interview data above, we also found that considerable financial and housing support
was given to children, and the self-narratives of boomers expressed this with pride as
well as an awareness of their own ‘lucky’ position. Moreover, in terms of actual
demographic shifts, and the reported values invested in peer and friendship relations,
we have shown that the boomer generation use a flexible notion of (familial and
filial) obligation (Finch and Mason 1993) such that obligations/transfers and
cultural practices operate well beyond the confines of strict nuclear families or
parental lineages.
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Conclusions
This article has argued that boomers use narratives of continuity and difference as a
strategy for seeing themselves as a bridge between successive generations, and
between notions of past, present, and future. In particular, this is expressed in terms
of consumption as marking out differences in materialist ethics, notably a sense of
themselves as morally invested in ‘good’ and rational consumption baby boomers
are keen to demonstrate the continuity of values related to their parents’ ‘make do
and mend’ culture expressed in their sense of investment in quality and good
decision-making. The baby boom cohort demonstrate both a marked ‘generation
gap’ in values between themselves and their parents, particularly when they identify
their experiences as part of the ‘1960s’ as the point when ‘everything changed’, but
they also demonstrate attachment to continuity and identification with their parental
values, as well as identification with younger generations in the realms of technology,
fashion, and social life.
The implications of these findings are still emerging, as boomers age in different
ways and with different priorities. Notably, their consumption ambitions are
considerably curtailed by the recent and on-going (200811) recession and the
shrinkage of property values and pension funds. Many of the retirement plans and
decisions discussed by our respondents were reliant on presumed equity release, and
further research is necessary to explore the outcomes of the economic recession.
Indeed, the variability of outcomes between those boomers who had already sold
properties and realized capital elsewhere, and those forced into further hardship
(including large numbers of divorced women with very little financial protection) is
likely to produce further differentiation within the boomer generation.
However, in direct contrast to accounts stressing their ‘selfishness’, this research
demonstrates that boomers have a highly contextual awareness of the impact of
social change on their own fortunes and that of the next generation. Boomers are a
diverse group, but where they do show evidence of thinking or acting ‘as a
generation’, they do not particularly reflect the ‘selfish giant’ (Willetts 2010, p. xxi)
caricature. Instead, they are highly attuned to the advantages but also the varied
experiences within their cohort.
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Methodological Appendix
Respondents were selected from postcodes in the South Manchester area using ACORN
classifications fulfilling a good spread at the top/bottom ends of the socio-economic spectrum.
Outlying rural postcodes were also included. Acxiom provided a random sampling frame of
4000 individuals within the over-50 age group in target postcodes (and was representative to B
0.1% variability in age, gender, and occupation). These 4000 were sent a screening
questionnaire to return by prepaid post; 275 responses were received within the allotted
18 R. Leach et al.
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period, of which there were 234 suitable respondents within age range. All were contacted, and
interviews were completed with 150 respondents (numbers of men boosted towards the end of
recruitment to correct gender bias). South Manchester was chosen partly for convenience (a
large number of face-to-face interviews to be completed by a sole researcher; and partly to
make use of the mobility of middle-class members of the cohort who, because of the expansion
of educational provision, entered universities in large numbers. A local university town was
therefore an obvious choice. The achieved sample demonstrates good consistency with
national profiles, though with some minor bias towards higher levels of educational
attainment. The second phase of interviewing was based on further open-ended questions
derived from initial analysis of structured interviews. Thirty respondents, with equal numbers
of men/women, were theoretically sampled from within the main group of 150, and in-depth
interviews were completed.
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