{ "model": { "rank": 3736, "code": "thing-q213381", "model_id": "vr.tr.generation", "name": "generation", "purpose": "Let an agent explain the concept of generation in its genealogical, demographic, social and literary senses, describe named generations and generational theories with attribution, support use of generational data, and address limits of generational generalisation.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Society, people and institutions", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "SOC", "domain": "SOC.ORG", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q213381/", "tier": 2, "score": 82, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "literary generation", "1950 literary generation", "genealogical generation", "Millennial Saeculum", "Great Power Saeculum", "Civil War Saeculum", "Revolutionary Saeculum", "New World Saeculum", "Reformation Saeculum", "Late Medieval Saeculum", "wiki generation", "cusper", "sandwich generation", "generation by century", "future generation" ], "aliasCount": 15, "merged": 16, "knownIn": 82, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": "vr.tr.generation-act", "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q213381", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q213381", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-12T03:14:16Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 2, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q213381", "registryId": "vr.tr.generation", "name": "generation", "version": "0.2.0-wave.2", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "SOC.ORG" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q213381/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.generation", "name": "generation", "purpose": "Let an agent explain the concept of generation in its genealogical, demographic, social and literary senses, describe named generations and generational theories with attribution, support use of generational data, and address limits of generational generalisation.", "definition": "A group of people born and living at about the same time, regarded collectively, whether as a genealogical generation in a family line, a cohort in demography, a social generation sharing formative experiences and often given names such as baby boomers or millennials, a literary or artistic generation such as those named after a decade, or a period in cyclical theories of history such as the saeculum; generational analysis is used in sociology, marketing and history and is debated for its rigour.", "what_it_is_for": "People born around the same time regarded collectively.", "affordances": [ "explain senses", "describe named generations and theories", "support use of data", "address limits" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Birth-period grouping", "Shared experiences", "Named generations", "Contested rigour" ], "appearance": "Not physical; a social grouping.", "visual_identification": [ "Group born at about the same time", "Genealogical, demographic, social or literary", "A cohort is a statistical group; an age group is defined by current age" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "genealogical generations", "demographic birth cohorts", "named social generations", "literary and artistic generations", "generations in cyclical theories such as saecula" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "group of humans", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "popular culture", "why": "generational culture" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "motherhood", "why": "genealogical succession" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "historiography", "why": "generational theories of history" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Statistical cohort definitions", "Research standards for generational studies", "No regulation" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Stereotyping people by generation", "Presenting generational theories as settled", "Inconsistent boundaries between named generations" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "What a generation is.", "rationale": "Sociology.", "layers": [ { "id": "senses", "name": "Senses", "description": "Senses.", "findings": [ { "id": "senses-finding", "name": "Senses", "description": "Senses.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do genealogical, demographic, social and literary senses of generation differ?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which sense is meant?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "named", "name": "Named", "description": "Named generations.", "findings": [ { "id": "named-finding", "name": "Named", "description": "Named.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are the commonly named social generations, who defines their boundaries, and how consistent are they?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits a specific generation?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "use", "name": "Use", "description": "Using generational analysis.", "rationale": "Practice.", "layers": [ { "id": "data", "name": "Data", "description": "Data and cohorts.", "findings": [ { "id": "data-finding", "name": "Data", "description": "Data.", "questions": [ { "text": "How are birth cohorts used in demography and research, and how do they differ from marketing categories?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits demography?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "limits", "name": "Limits", "description": "Limits.", "findings": [ { "id": "limits-finding", "name": "Limits", "description": "Limits.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are the limits of generational generalisations, according to critics?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation free of stereotyping?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "theory", "name": "Theory", "description": "Theories.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "sociology", "name": "Sociology", "description": "Sociological theories.", "findings": [ { "id": "sociology-finding", "name": "Sociology", "description": "Sociology.", "questions": [ { "text": "How have Mannheim and later sociologists theorised generations, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits sociology?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "cycles", "name": "Cycles", "description": "Cyclical theories.", "findings": [ { "id": "cycles-finding", "name": "Cycles", "description": "Cycles.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are generational cycle theories such as the saeculum model, and how do scholars assess them?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which findings are contested?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "learn", "name": "Learn", "description": "History and culture.", "rationale": "Education.", "layers": [ { "id": "literary", "name": "Literary", "description": "Literary generations.", "findings": [ { "id": "literary-finding", "name": "Literary", "description": "Literary.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are literary and artistic generations, such as those named after decades in Spanish literature?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "teach", "name": "Teach", "description": "Teaching.", "findings": [ { "id": "teach-finding", "name": "Teach", "description": "Teaching.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can the concept of generation be taught critically?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which misconceptions arise?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should each named generation be a separate entry?", "How should demographic data be linked?", "How should critiques be attributed?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "organisation or institution", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a generation, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain the concept of generation in its genealogical, demographic, social and literary senses, describe named generations and generational theories with attribution, support use of generational data, and address limits of generational generalisation.", "characteristics": { "substance": "social", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "collective" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: literary generation, 1950 literary generation, genealogical generation, Millennial Saeculum, Great Power Saeculum, Civil War Saeculum, Revolutionary Saeculum, New World Saeculum, Reformation Saeculum, Late Medieval Saeculum, wiki generation, cusper.", "16 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 82 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a generation, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "a social arrangement between people", "physicalCharacter": [ "Acts through people, and only through them.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. Recognised by name, register entry and the people acting in its name, and those change while it stays the same body." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "literary generation", "1950 literary generation", "genealogical generation", "Millennial Saeculum", "Great Power Saeculum", "Civil War Saeculum", "Revolutionary Saeculum", "New World Saeculum", "Reformation Saeculum", "Late Medieval Saeculum", "wiki generation", "cusper" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 82 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 16 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one generation from another, and a generation from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a generation, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a generation, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a generation is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a generation, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a generation, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a generation is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a generation sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a generation, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a generation, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a generation is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a generation from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a generation, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a generation, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a generation is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a generation passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a generation between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a generation, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a generation, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a generation is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a generation, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a generation is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a generation, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a generation, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a generation is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "people-and-responsibility", "name": "People, roles and responsibility", "description": "Who stands in what relation to a generation.", "rationale": "Social things are defined by the relations people hold to them, and those relations change without the thing changing.", "layers": [ { "id": "roles-and-parties", "name": "Roles and parties", "description": "The roles that exist around a generation and who fills them.", "findings": [ { "id": "role-assignments", "name": "Role assignments and their validity", "description": "Who holds which role over a generation, from when, and on whose authority.", "questions": [ { "id": "role-assignments-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a role over a generation, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a role over a generation, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a role over a generation is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "ownership-and-accountability", "name": "Ownership and accountability", "description": "Who answers for a generation and who may decide about it.", "findings": [ { "id": "accountability", "name": "Accountability and decision rights", "description": "Where responsibility for a generation sits when something goes wrong.", "questions": [ { "id": "accountability-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes responsibility for a generation, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about responsibility for a generation, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once responsibility for a generation is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "legal-identity", "name": "Legal identity and mandate", "description": "What generation is in law and what it exists to do.", "rationale": "Legal identity survives changes of name, address, staff and premises, which is exactly why it must be recorded separately from all of them.", "layers": [ { "id": "registration", "name": "Legal form and registration", "description": "Form, register, identifiers and jurisdiction.", "findings": [ { "id": "registration-record", "name": "Registration and identifiers", "description": "What names this body unambiguously in law.", "questions": [ { "id": "registration-record-q01", "text": "What legal form does generation take, in which register, under which identifier?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "registration-record-q02", "text": "What survives a rename, a merger or a move of premises, and what does not?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "mandate", "name": "Mandate and governing instrument", "description": "The purpose it is bound to and the document that binds it.", "findings": [ { "id": "mandate-record", "name": "Mandate and its source", "description": "What it may do, and the instrument that says so.", "questions": [ { "id": "mandate-record-q01", "text": "What is the mandate of generation, and which founding or governing instrument grants it?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "mandate-record-q02", "text": "What lies outside the mandate, and what should an agent do when asked for it?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "governance-and-membership", "name": "Governance, membership and decision rights", "description": "Who decides in generation and who belongs to it.", "rationale": "Authority inside an organisation is held by roles, not people, and an agent needs to know which role can commit it.", "layers": [ { "id": "decision-rights", "name": "Decision rights", "description": "Bodies, offices and what each may bind.", "findings": [ { "id": "authority-map", "name": "Who may bind the organisation", "description": "The offices that can commit it and their limits.", "questions": [ { "id": "authority-map-q01", "text": "Which bodies or offices of generation may take which decisions, and up to what limit?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "authority-map-q02", "text": "What evidence shows that a given person currently holds that office?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "membership", "name": "Membership and affiliation", "description": "Who counts as part of it and on what terms.", "findings": [ { "id": "membership-rules", "name": "Membership and its evidence", "description": "Classes of member, how membership starts and ends.", "questions": [ { "id": "membership-rules-q01", "text": "What kinds of membership or affiliation does generation have, and how does each begin and end?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "membership-rules-q02", "text": "What may a member do in its name, and what may they not?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a generation came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a generation and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a generation, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a generation, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a generation is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a generation is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a generation, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a generation, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a generation is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }