GENERATIONAL-DIFFERENCES AMONGST NEW-AGE TRAVELERS

Previous studies of 'New Age' travellers have paid no attention to gen erational differences within the travellers' scene. This paper looks a t these differences to reflect upon the new social movement (NSM) lite rature. It is argued that NSM theory only analyses those movements wit h 'post-material' concerns about culture, identity and symbolic challe nges. It thus ignores less privileged movements which are concerned wi th apparently 'traditional' issues, such as survival, political opposi tion and citizenship rights. A number of such movements have emerged d uring the past few years in the wake of economic and social restructur ing under post-Fordist conditions and the dismantling of a Keynesian-s tyle welfare state that is associated with these processes. While the older generation of travellers was tied to the NSM movements and chose to move onto the road, the younger travellers have been forced to do so for lack of any reasonable alternative, having faced unemployment a nd homelessness in a post-Fordist/Keynesian era. They are, therefore, part of the contemporary movement scene to which 'old' issues are seem ingly still applicable. The article concludes by showing how both the older and the younger travellers are now struggling to survive in the face of legislation which effectively criminalises their way of life.