Director’s introduction

Two years ago, at the start of the Connecting Generations programme, I was excited to get to work with established colleagues, but also new research teams on this important topic for understanding societal change. The start of any research project can be an uncertain time, but it is testament to the expertise, experience, and dedication of our Connecting Generations members to be able to show you in this report just how much progress we’ve already made. It is a career highlight for me to be leading this esteemed team, and I am thankful to the ESRC for recognising the value of this collaboration and funding this major strategic programme.

In Connecting Generations we are examining inequalities in life experiences, and why this matters for improving our society. And we are already providing research-based evidence to policymakers to address growing concerns around fairness between generations.

Changes in economic, social, and family life are occurring within the broader global context of demographic transitions such as increasingly ageing societies or falling birthrates. We are also seeing more economic uncertainty, environmental degradation, and climate change, as well as recent conflicts in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Intergenerational solidarity is needed more than ever to solve some of society’s greatest challenges, and to create a more equitable world which benefits all generations, now and in the future.

To address this, our research is organised across three interdisciplinary themes: Cohorts, kinship and genetics; Changing flows of support across the life course; and Migration, mobility, communities and social cohesion.

Within each theme, team members are working within and across disciplines and institutions to examine some of our most pressing societal issues. Running throughout the research programme is a focus on inequalities and variation by educational and socio-economic resources, gender, and ethnicity. This enables us to provide evidence on both intra- as well as inter-generational differences to inform public policy discussions, interventions and reforms. Understanding the impacts of Covid-19 across, and within, generations is also a focus of the work, as well as the complex changes to the population, economy and society arising from Brexit.

In the Cohorts, kinship and genetics theme, our work packages are providing insights into how economic, social and population change have affected different cohorts and shaped intergenerational relationships through their influence on the size, structure and location of different generations.

Under the Changing flows of support across the life course theme, our work packages are focusing on the implications of increased family complexity, technological, economic and social changes for intergenerational relations, and flows of support at different stages of the life course.

Our research is also providing an intergenerational lens on migration, social and spatial mobility, and social coherence and resilience, under our Migration mobility, communities and social cohesion theme. We have access to a unique ‘laboratory’ facilitating in-depth investigation of key aspects of change in the context of place.

As you will see within this report, as well as working on this research, our members have been busy sharing their findings through academic conferences and publications, at policy meetings, presenting to businesses and at industry meetings, as well as providing training, mentoring, hosting visitors and sharing their knowledge in our own Thought Leader Talks, seminars and events. Alongside this, our members are continuing to raise the profile of their respective disciplines and expertise by appearing frequently across major media outlets, becoming recognised as a first port of call for journalists requiring comment on the many demographic issues which are frequently making the news headlines.

I look forward to the coming years as we progress with our work packages and are able to share more findings, contributing to the ESRC’s purpose of creating a more prosperous, healthy, sustainable and secure society.

If you have any questions about our research or activities, please do message us cpc@soton.ac.uk.

Professor Jane Falkingham CBE FAcSS, FRS

Director, Connecting Generations University of Southampton