By and large and on the whole.(The Big Picture: Life, Work and Relationships in the 21st Century)(Book review)

The Big Picture: Life, Work and Relationships in the 21st Century, by Bernard Salt; Hardie Grant, 2006, $29.95.

FOR A NUMBER OF YEARS, Bernard Salt has claimed the title of Australia's leading demographer. In this role, Salt generally brings some much-needed factual substance to an area of debate that would otherwise be completely dominated by the so-called social commentators, such as Hugh Mackay.

Salt's reputation was cemented by his one earlier book The Big Shift, originally published in 2001. The "shift" in that title referred to the "seachange" phenomenon, which Salt saw as a third stage in our progression from the bush at the time of Federation, to suburbia in the second half of the twentieth century.

Apart from some minor changes, such as the "dotcom generation" having become Generation Y, The Big Picture, like its predecessor, is a highly readable and thought-provoking book, full of perceptive observations about the society in which we live. Many of Salt's themes will be familiar to readers of the earlier book, as will the sweeping generalisations and doubtful conclusions.

Almost by definition, demography is based on generalisations, but the occasional caveat would surely not hurt. Instead, Salt continually ascribes one set of characteristics to all Baby Boomers, another set to all Xers and another to all Ys.

Salt's argument about "seachange" highlights his tendency to generalise. He does not distinguish enough between young families moving from western Sydney to the Gold Coast hinterland to get a bigger house, better climate, less crime and year-round access to the theme parks, from the very different social phenomenon that takes Sigrid Thornton types to trendy towns like Barwon Heads. The former are the sort of Australians that David Williamson does not enjoy meeting on cruise ships; the latter are the sort of Australians who are quite likely to attend a David Williamson play on their regular return visits to a capital city. Life on the Gold Coast hinterland often has no more connection to the sea than life in western Sydney does to Bondi Beach.

Salt's most contentious conclusion is that "it was the Xers' 1990s and not the boomers' 1960s, that was the decade of most significant social change". Whether one is an ageing hippie yearning to recapture the vibe of San Francisco in 1967, or a social conservative who believes the root of all society's problems stem from that era, it is unlikely that many will agree with Salt's proposition. The fact that the social changes which swept the world in the 1960s are still cause for debate is proof enough, in itself, that it was the era of profound social change.