Post-Brexit Boomer blaming: The contradictions of generational grievance. Issue 4 (July 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bristow, Jennie
• Is Part Of: Sociological review. Volume 69:Issue 4(2021)
• Page Start: 759
• Page End: 774
• Publication Date: 2021-07
• Subjects: Baby Boomer -- Brexit -- European Union -- generation -- Millennial; Sociology -- Periodicals; 301
• DOI: 10.1177/0038026119899882
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0038-0261

Abstract

Following the UK's 2016 Referendum on membership of the European Union (EU), a narrative emerged positioning Baby Boomers as 'to blame' for the result, which drew largely on a pre-existing claim that this generation is responsible for a range of contemporary social problems. Using cultural script analyses of the 'Baby Boomer problem', this article considers the development of this narrative and its implications for the sociology of knowledge. A study of newspaper articles published around the time of the EU Referendum finds that the Baby Boomer motif is employed as a metaphorical shorthand for a range of 'troubling conditions', including economic crises, cultural conflicts and political divisions. The escalating rhetoric of 'Boomer blaming' pursued by claimsmaking organisations has sought to consolidate and extend a sentiment of generational grievance, which informs wider claims about a political divide between old and young. One consequence has been the weaponisation of the concept of generation: a development that threatens to undermine the value of this concept as a way of understanding social and historical change.