Generations, age and life course: towards an integral social policy framework of analysis

This article examines how the relationship between generational processes and social policy has been studied. It identifies three main approaches: social policy’s targeting of different age groups, social policy’s role in shaping the life course and the generational contract that leads social policy to recognise the claims of particular generations. Each of these perspectives has strengths and weaknesses but, if the goal is to understand how the welfare state embodies generational assumptions and affects the distribution of public and private resources and responsibilities across population sectors, then these perspectives need to be better integrated analytically. The article suggests two clarifications towards that end. The first is to recognise that together the concepts of age group, life course and generation capture the set of relationships involved and can therefore be built on and better integrated. Second, the article elaborates a multi-level understanding of generational processes in social policy to encompass both the effect of policy in structuring the life course and the welfare state’s role in shaping obligations, relationships and exchanges associated with familial as well as public life.