ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on how age-related factors affect the evolution of cities. The authors argue that a generational lens is important since individuals within a specific age group have common experiences, values, behaviour and societal impacts. The concept of a generation is differentiated from other age-related categories such as cohort and life stage, defined exclusively by demography: Generations define themselves in opposition to previous generations and are influenced by major events that shape their collective experience. Drawing on the experience of cities in the Global North, the chapter makes several arguments. First, a generation’s influence on the city is transitory, because generations succeed one another and often react against the ideals of previous generations. Second, a generation influences urban change through their distinct locational and consumption preferences, leading to changing residential and retail land use patterns. Finally, the relationship between generations and cities is dialectical. As generations play a role in shaping cities, so too do cities shape generations.
