The concept of generations has been incorporated into sociological analysis, which points class differences but also gender, ethnic, racial, cultural and generational inequalities. However "generations" seems to be a kind of umbrella concept or category that have been little theorized. Though the concept of generations of Mannheim represent, for many authors, the most comprehensive attempt to explain the issue, it has been frequently quoted since it is a "classic". The possibilities of analysis of the concept proposed by the author still are many. This article presents, first, a reconstruction of this 'famous' essay which has not yet come to be fully translated and published in Brazil, and secondly, discusses the relevance and appropriateness of the article written by Mannheim in 1928 for the contemporary studies of generation and their interfaces with other fields.
generation; sociology of knowledge; Karl Mannheim