University of Wales, Bangor University College London

Over the last two years Dr Paul Higgs (UCL) has been leading a team of colleagues from Bangor, London, Reading, Sheffield and Southampton on a project funded by the ESRC/AHRC Cultures of Consumption Programme entitled ‘From Passive to Active Consumers’ (http://www.consume.bbk.ac.uk/). The research team organised an end of project workshop involving invited speakers from North America , Europe and South Asia speaking on the theme of ‘Generations and Consumption’. This proved to be a highly successful day of talks and discussions addressing a wide range of issues that are key to understanding later life and generational change.

The workshop opened with an introduction by Professor Frank Trentman (Birkbeck) who is Director of the ESRC/AHRC Cultures of Consumption Programme. Frank outlined the variety of projects that have been funded under the programme and the importance of the ‘Passive to Active Consumers’ project because of its key focus on later life.

The morning session was chaired by Dr Paul Higgs and addressed the theme of ‘Theoretical perspectives on generations’. Professor Bryan Turner (Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore) presented a paper entitled ‘Religion as lifestyle: generational change and religious consumption’. Bryan noted that despite, or even because of, the large body of work addressing the relationship between religion and production there was very little work addressing religion and consumption. He referred to the growth of religious consumerism which he related to the democratisation of religion. He made strong connections between generational change, the blurring of ageing, death and bodily boundaries and the growth of religiosity in the form of prosperity cults.

The focus then moved from the consequences of an extended lifecourse for religion to the consequences of generational change for the problem of dispossession, that is, the parting of people and their things as outlined by Professor David Ekerdt (University of Kansas) in his paper entitled ‘Dispossession: The Tenacity of Things’. David considered the extent to which there is a generational aspect to the concept of dis-consumption. The idea of distinctions between generational groups was picked up by Dr Chris Gilleard (UCL) in a paper entitled ‘The Third Age: Field, habitus or identity?’ . Chris suggested that the third age might be understood as a cultural field in which actors from various cohorts and life stages participate.

An enthusiastic and fruitful discussion then followed with some workshop participants suggesting the possibility of generational fracture in consumption practices and others suggesting a more general shift from consuming things to consuming experiences (including religious experiences); all within the context of and examples from ageing societies across the globe.

Following lunch the second session of the day addressed the theme of ‘Historical dimensions of generation and consumption’ and was chaired by Professor Dan Cook ( University of Illinois ). Professor Pat Thane ( Institute of Historical Research , University of London ) presented a paper entitled ‘The history of old age, generation and consumption: How much do we know?’ Drawing on a range of historical sources Pat suggested that the changing consumption patterns of older people over the past century mirror those of younger people. This is because older people today have higher incomes, better health and more time for leisure while many items of consumption have become relatively less expensive. However, Pat warned that we should be wary of stereotyping older people at any time in the past as less active, more passive, consumers than younger people. Furthermore, differences among older people continue to be as stark as those between them and people of other age-groups.

Drawing on findings from the project that instigated the workshop, Mr Martin Hyde ( Sheffield Hallam University ) gave further flesh to Pat’s argument in his paper ‘From passive to active consumers’ when he charted the ownership of key consumer goods and expenditure on key items by retired households since the 1960s. Drawing on data from the Family Expenditure Survey taken at 5 year intervals between 1968 and 2001 Martin demonstrated the growing extent of ownership and expenditure across all income groups in retired households suggesting increasing engagement with consumption practices by older people. However, the data also revealed some inequalities between income groups that vary according to the kind of good or area of expenditure considered.

In a related talk entitled ‘Baby Boomers and Beyond’ Dr Rebecca Leach (Keele University) presented data from a qualitative study of ‘Baby Boomers’ in the UK suggesting low levels of identification with the term ‘baby boomers’ among the cohorts under consideration. The papers were again followed by a fascinating discussion, this time addressing the meanings associated with the term ‘baby boomers’ and a debate surrounding the extent to which the ‘baby boomer’ cohorts produced new patterns of differentiation.

The third session of the afternoon was chaired by Professor Ian Rees Jones ( University of Wales, Bangor) and addressed the theme; ‘International comparisons of changes in consumption patterns across generations’. Professor Louis Chauvel and Ms Fanny Bugeja  (Insitute d'Etudes Politiques de Paris, Sciences-Po University) presented two papers addressing ‘French and US experiences of generational fracture’. Drawing on comparative data from North America, France and the UK they highlighted the extent to which French society faces severe generational inequalities, the consequences of which could be the long-term destabilization of the contemporary welfare regime. By contrasting ‘generational fracture’ across these three countries the papers reminded us that generational change may follow different trajectories in different parts of the world.

The US experience was then addressed in more detail by Professor George Moschis (Georgia State University) in a paper entitled ‘Generational marketing’ tracing the evolution of the mature market in the USA. The paper outlined the corporate challenges and responses to the growth in older generations and identified differences in the consumption patterns of generational groups. Finally, the paper addressed the need for understanding consumers of different generations in different parts of the globe.

Once more a lively discussion ensued with workshop participants drawing on their own knowledge and experiences from other countries to add to the rich comparative historical flavour of the debate. The workshop was brought to a close by Paul Higgs who thanked all the participants and speakers and the ESRC/AHRC for their support.

Further details of the workshop, planned outputs, and the work being undertaken by the ‘From Passive to Active Consumers’ project can be found at http://www.culturesofageing.com/