The purpose of this special issue of the Revue Française de Sociologie is to help renew the way intergenerational inequalities are analyzed by
1) getting beyond the traditional focus on economic inequality to explore new dimensions: social, gender-based, regional inequalities;
2) enlarging the time frame in order to get beyond the binary opposition between two generations and better account for generational dynamics.

Since the 1990s many research studies by economists and sociologists have pointed out the importance of taking intergenerational inequalities into account in analyses of the social stratification process. In France, inequalities have been brought to light in the areas of wages, access to management positions, intra-career mobility and intergenerational mobility. These findings are not unique to France. In the United States, for example, similar results have been obtained on the generational dynamic in American society, in connection there with the notion of “the end of the American dream.” A considerable amount of survey data has brought to light inequalities between consecutive generations in North America that are similar to those found in France: the paths of the generations born in the early 1940s and early 1960s diverge considerably.

Twenty years after those founding studies, this special issue of the Revue Française de Sociologie purports to investigate these questions from new perspectives, taking sociological measurement and analysis of the structure of intergenerational social inequalities further through new emphasis on internationalization, for example; also by using multiple methods and enlarging the time frame for measuring inequalities.

Though the above-cited studies analyze distinct dimensions of the social stratification process (wages, intra-career mobility, intergenerational mobility, etc.), all of them found that generations born in the 1960s were at a disadvantageous relative to those born in the 1940s. This special issue will give priority to articles that enlarge the time frame and provide material on post-1960s generations. Are inequalities continuing to deepen for cohorts born in the 1970s, or is there evidence that a movement to catch up is under way? And how are inequalities structured when not two but several generations are compared? Moving beyond the classic, repeatedly measured social and economic dimensions, this issue seeks to explore other dimensions of age-related or generational inequalities: cultural, spatial, numerical, etc. The very use of the term “inequalities” to designate differences between generations may be challenged in connection with foreign research and debates. Lastly, we are interested in papers that help refine measurement of intergenerational financial and material transfers.

2) Interrelations between intra- and intergenerational inequality

Taking into account intergenerational inequalities improves understanding and description of the social stratification process but it should not block out the other inequalities that structure French society. First, how should we approach intergenerational inequalities and inequalities among social groups? Since each of the generations in question is itself socially stratified, how should intergenerational and intra-generational inequalities be reconciled? What effects can we identify of a combination of the two? In addition to inequalities related to “origin” or social condition, it is important to take into account gender-based and regional inequalities. How do these different dimensions interact in the construction of age- or generation-based social identities?
For this special issue we are also particularly interested in readings of intra- and intergenerational inequality trends that embrace the entire life trajectory, either longitudinally or as observed at crucial transition moments, the aim being to bring to light emerging social stratification dynamics.

3) Public policies concerning ages and generations

Fully understanding intergenerational inequalities implies being attentive to public policies that target different age groups or life periods and the ways states regulate intergenerational relations. How public policy and labor market structures “treat” the different generations works to structure their respective trajectories and social and family relations. To this day there have been very few studies that approach public policies in generational terms and thus account transversally for state responses to the combined challenges of youth poverty and elderly poverty. This research field is still primarily segmented into as many independent “ages” or life periods as there are social policy target groups; e.g., young children, young people, seniors, and the like.
In this special issue, texts that dynamically analyze policymakers’ choices with regard to the different generations and that analyze how social policy and labor markets manage the matter of age will be given priority as means of understanding how contemporary intergenerational inequalities develop and are regulated. What specificities and orientations can be observed in social and policy treatment of age in France—treatment which we know is sharply segmented—compared with other societies’ models? How the effects of social policy on the trajectories of individuals and generations be measured? From an international perspective, we are interested in texts that test Esping-Andersen’s renowned age and generation typology. The issue will open with a comparison of this typology with how the generation question is handled in French public debate.

Fully outlined and argued article proposals (one to two pages) should be sent to the two coordinators no later than January 5, 2012.

Authors whose proposals are selected must send in their articles
no later than June 30, 2012.

For additional information, please contact the coordinators directly:

Camille Peugny : camille.peugny@univ-paris8.fr
Cécile Van de Velde :vdv@ehess.fr