Reassessing the Intergenerational Contract

In English This paper addresses the concept of an intergenerational contract. Due to its various and/or imprecise definitions, the intergenerational contract seems a vague and descriptive notion with limited analytical relevance. Is it a contract based on kinship or a contract between age groups? Does it refer to implicit and informal obligations, or explicit and formal ones as well? The author discusses the advantages and limitations of the concept by drawing upon ethnographic examples from Singapore as well as existing literature on the intergenerational contract.