Generation Shift

“Generation Shift” is an edited collection of essays written mainly between 2020 and 2023, most of which were published either in national newspapers or online. The collection starts when the pandemic hit and the consequences of that huge disruption were just beginning to be felt in our workplaces, homes, and communities, but it stretches beyond that crisis and encompasses more recent changes and debates about how we are all changing as workers, consumers, and individuals. The pandemic accelerated and intensified many trends that were already underway, and as I conducted a series of lockdown interviews with various professions, from Uber drivers to wedding planners and from investment managers to accountants, one thing stood out above all; the extent to which many people valued having greater autonomy over their time. That shift is one of the most profound legacies of the Covid crisis. But this is not a book about the pandemic; instead, it shows the evolution of my work during a tumultuous period, and shines a light on the disruption, progress and tension that affects us all as the different generations evolve. The essays look at social, political, and economic change in the twenty-first century, through the prism of age and generational dynamics.