‘Gen Z Rules!’ Understanding the riots sweeping Europe

Joanna Williams reviews Growing Up in the Culture Wars: Identity and Generational Conflict. Williams writes:

‘The authors are careful not to suggest that young people today have it harder than those in the past. Clearly, having to stay at home during the Covid pandemic was not more dangerous than fighting on the front line in World War II, and the prevalence of smartphones is in stark contrast to the absolute poverty some groups experienced in previous decades. Nonetheless, as Bristow and Lee point out, some things are quite distinct about coming of age today.

‘Rather than analysing the specific contours of any of the frequently changing ‘culture war’ issues that briefly dominate public debate (#MeToo, Black Lives Matter, Trans Women Are Women, Free Palestine…), Bristow and Lee consider how children growing up in this context make sense of the world. As they note, culture war issues: are the product of a much wider conflict over meaning, which relates to the most basic and intimate aspects of our lives. What it means to be male or female, a child or an adult, sick or well, privileged or victimised, is constantly held in question, and the answer is often assumed to position you on a particular, pre-­determined political side…’

Read the full review here.