Foundations of a Generational Approach of the Violence of the New Left

Revolutionary violence of the New Left shows clear features of a generational phenomenon. The global diffusion of repertoires of action, the existence of an ethos shared by the revolutionary organizations of the time (Rapoport), the sociodemographic characteristics of the founders of the armed groups, all suggest that an approach inspired in the sociology of generations of Karl Mannheim may be fruitful to explain the origin, decline and transnational nature of this wave of revolutionary violence. Starting from an analysis of recent developments in the sociology of generations, this exploratory work tests the possibilities and limitations of this theory in relation to the study of the origin of the armed organizations of the Central American revolutionary left.