Fortifying futures: how older boomerangers in English multigenerational households boost resilience through social capital accumulation and distribution

Angela Maye-Banbury and Martin McNally

Housing Studies, 2020, vol. 35, issue 3, 439-458

Abstract: Multigenerational households (MGHs) are the UK’s fastest growing household type. This paper critically explores the relative influence of ‘Generation X’ in shaping social capital accumulation and distribution strategies within English MGHs. We contend that this cohort, described here as ‘amalgamation generation’, (older ‘boomerangers’) recognize how the quintessential inter/intra generational forms of social capital present in MGHs may be consolidated to boost resilience at a time of economic uncertainty and social instability. We challenge therefore the largely negative discourse surrounding boomerangers which exist in existing scholarship. Our analysis highlights the dialectical relationship between the concepts of resilience and social capital when applied to multigenerational living. In doing so, we highlight the relevance of network centrality, shared family values, an awareness of the natural life cycle and the importance of family ‘social capital bank’ in promoting the overall cohesion of the MGH. The extent to which English MGHs may be construed as a liquid, temporal and fluid asset over space, place and time is explored.

Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1080/02673037.2019.1612037

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