Keir Milburn

Nov 27, 2024 | znetwork.org | Keir Milburn

Among the shocks of the recent US presidential election, one statistic stood out. Exit polls appeared to show a momentous political shift among young men, with putting Donald Trump leading Kamala Harris by 14 points among men aged 18-29. This led some breathless commentators to declare that the ‘generation left’ thesis has been disproved – or even that an entire generation of men are now lost to the left and progressive ideals. Making post-election snap judgments is a dangerous game.

Jun 1, 2024 | redpepper.org.uk | Keir Milburn

In 1978, the philosopher Bernard Suits used his enigmatic book The Grasshopper to pose the question: what would we do in utopia, in a world freed from necessity? His answer was that we would play games, which he defines as ‘the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles’. Today we live in a world saturated with games and gamified social interactions, yet we seem further from utopia now than when Suits’ book was published.

Aug 29, 2023 | neweconomics.org | Keir Milburn

Blog Young people are turning to the left while the older generations move to the right, well that's how the story goes. So why we might be seeing a political divergence along age lines?

Jul 8, 2023 | thenation.com | Keir Milburn |Adolph Reed Jr. |Eriona Hysolli |Elizabeth A Hadly

Most contemporary arguments on the left about the usefulness of generational analysis are really disagreements about the functioning of class politics. Generational analysis can’t be reduced to class, but in conjunctures such as ours, it can add a useful temporal dimension to our understanding of class divisions. The point of identifying divisions within the working class is, of course, not to exacerbate them but to understand their causes, so that we can better strategize how to overcome them.

Mar 2, 2023 | znetwork.org | Keir Milburn

The culture war stereotypes with which we’re all familiar portray Gen Z – those born between 1997 and 2012 – as frivolous, individualistic, and obsessed with issues of identity. While the Daily Mail tells us “Woke Gen Z take offence at the thumbs up emoji”, the Daily Telegraph worries “Gen Z’s obsession with feelings only makes them more miserable”. Recent polling in both the UK and the US, however, paints a different picture.