Generational habitus of youth during the ‘swinging’ sixties : a case study in Malta

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present common attitudes, perceptions and dispositions of youth in the 1960s in Malta. Building on Bourdieu’s habitus theory and Williams’s study on the ‘structure of feeling’, this paper makes sense of the meanings of everyday experiences of these youth in relation to education, employment, the situation of young women and popular culture. This paper presents primary data collected using in-depth, ethnographic interviews with retired participants who experienced their youth in the 1960s in Malta. The presentation of youth’s account cannot be studied divorced from the local and global social, economical and cultural situation. In effect, the intention here is to move towards a greater understanding of the interplay between the historical and socio-economical structural framework in society, as a key factor in the formation of youth generational habitus.