Generations of Changes in Bulgaria
Generations of Changes in Bulgaria

Summary/Abstract: The life experience and values or parents quickly loose value in the eyes of their children who in most cases try to reject completely the experience and authority of their parents as part of their emancipation and achievement of identity. The generations of the so-called socialist society were faced with a number of limited, thus absurd, choices. The totalitarian society, striving for social homogeneity on the surface, the income inequalities were directly related to the power access mechanisms. Because of all this, the life experience of the parents’ generations was heavily burdened with compromise of different types. Age acquires more and more characteristics of a structurally defining factor in the social realization of young people. Sociological research conducted in the last years delineates a stable tendency to re-evaluation of effectiveness and validity of parents’ life experience against the challenges and problems facing their children today. The intergenerational transfer of experience and values defines the quality of social integration. According to the thesis of this analysis, the dialogue between generations was damaged because the parents were faced with the devaluation of their own knowledge and experience, while their children forced to choose their own ‘road map’ in new and unknown environment. The problem of intergenerational transfer of experience and values in Bulgarian society is systematic, but at the same time sociological analysis in the last years show that it does not include to the same extent all young people and their parents. The huge challenge in such circumstances is how to guarantee equal opportunities for social development, while preserving the general criteria for access within circumstances of deep social inequalities.

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