INsite recommends Generational Intelligence

Generational Intelligence: A Critical Approach to Age Relations by Simon Biggs and Ariela Lowenstein (Routledge, 2011)

Professor Simon Biggs, a keynote speaker at the NZCCSS conference in Wellington earlier this year, has a keen interest in generational awareness, one of his main areas of research.

As part of this research, Biggs produced a video entitled ‘Age Encounters’. Comprised of a series of recorded interviews that reveal people’s differing perceptions of other generations, the video gives a glimpse of Biggs’ interest in the generational gap.

Biggs’ book, Generational Intelligence, co-authored with Ariela Lowenstein, appears to be taking these interviews to the next level, by analysing these perceptions and offering guidance on how we might achieve a better understanding of other generations.

‘It is important that gerontology moves away from exclusively championing the old and that society moves away from championing youth’. This could be considered one of the ‘take home’ messages from the book.

According to the authors, generational intelligence is all about putting yourself in the shoes of the other generation, or as the authors describe, your ‘age-other’. Apparently, our awareness of other generations, built gradually over time, is predisposed to negative connotations about ageing.

The authors, through scrutiny of the literature and interpretation of an array of data, show how a new way of thinking about the generational gap can help dispel such negativity. Through closer inspection of the personal, interpersonal, and social factors that affect our perceptions of other generations, the authors encourage, through a series of steps, better understanding and communication between generational groups.

Generational Intelligence is concerned with the bigger picture, considering how we might address social issues emerging from ageing populations. It is suggestive of policies for age integration that might lead to ‘a society for all ages’. The authors look critically at age relations within the family, workplace, and community, examining relationships between older adults and their parents when the latter need care, between older and younger adults in workplace settings, and the broad relationship between young and old.

Age Encounters can be viewed at http://youtu.be/wdcWZDZ7d-I.