Generations and Turnings
First published: 1997
Brief summary
Fourth Turning overview of generational-cycle theory.
Article
The Fourth Turning framework proposes that modern Anglo-American history is organised into recurring generational periods called turnings. Each turning is described as lasting about twenty years, with a complete sequence extending across a human lifetime of roughly eighty to one hundred years.
The four proposed turnings are a High, an Awakening, an Unravelling and a Crisis. The theory associates each phase with characteristic relationships among institutions, individualism, public confidence and collective action.
Generational cohorts are assigned recurring archetypes according to the social environment of childhood and their later roles as adults. As cohorts age and replace one another, the framework proposes that their interaction helps move society from one turning to the next.
This is a proprietary interpretive theory rather than an established consensus model in sociology or history. Its classifications and historical boundaries are debated, and its broad descriptions make independent testing and falsification difficult.
Source details and credits
- Source / publisher: LifeCourse
- Source type: Theory site
- URL type: WWW
- Credits: LifeCourse
- URL: https://www.lifecourse.com/about/method/the-four-turnings.html