What do we leave behind? Towards a conceptual framework of material and environmental legacies

Abstract: In this paper, I propose that human legacies are more important and influential than ever before because the window of opportunity for generational interaction has been greatly extended due to longer life expectancies, and because legacies assume unprecedented importance in a world marked by inequality and environmental degradation. I suggest that legacies are not only posthumous and concern older people and their children, but rather they are dynamic intergenerational processes comprising material and immaterial dimensions across multiple generations. Material legacies (wealth, assets) that are transferred from one generation to other(s) are greater in volume than ever, in some cases skip generations, and are highly influential in shaping life courses and opportunities. Very little is known about the inheritance practices and intentions of people without children, a major gap in research. In addition to material inheritance, we also leave immaterial legacies (values manifest in actions), the most pressing of these being our environmental legacies. Large numbers of older and younger individuals are concerned about their environmental legacies, but we need to know more about how that concern manifests in practices of consequence for other (family) generations. The material and environmental legacies that pass between co-existing generations - and their interconnectedness - present as promising foci for new empirical research and theorising. 

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