Intergenerational Appreciative Inquiry: Caring for the Future Together

Intergenerational appreciative inquiry is an approach that maximizes the generativity of all generations and the generative outcomes of intergenerational collaboration. While conversations about intergenerationalism have increased in recent decades, forums and strategies for intergenerational collaboration have emerged at a much slower rate. In this chapter we explore definitions of the concepts of intergenerational and multigenerational and discuss generativity in the context of intergenerationalism. We share how we have found the appreciative inquiry summit, and other appreciative-based processes, to possess a natural capacity for enabling intergenerational inquiry that can maximize generativity. We conclude by turning to the future and discussing generational changes that are taking place in society and why we expect intergenerational appreciative inquiry will only increase in importance as we continue caring for the future together.