The civic culture of an ageing state: inferences from a grounded theory of intergenerational solidarity in Ireland

This paper presents a grounded theory of intergenerational solidarity in the Republic of Ireland. Based on one hundred in-depth interviews with a diverse sample of citizens living in Ireland in 2011-12, the study probes intergenerational solidarity at individual, family and societal levels. Our study reveals much about the fundamental link between attitudes toward own and other generations, and the broader question of age-based resource allocation now and in the future. Passage of time, changing social attitudes and current life stage inform participants’ views. The paper uses the concept of political culture, classically recognised as ‘civic culture’ by Almond and Verba in their seminal 1963 study, to frame these findings. This study of intergenerational solidarity, undertaken in Ireland at a time of national crisis and global recession, reveals much about the values fundamental to maintenance of the social contract in this peripheral, western European state.