family legacies - Wisconsin School of Business - University of ...

Family Legacies
legacies by not enacting the legacy in their own lives, by doing the opposite in their daily lives,
or by creating new legacies which they could pass on to the next generation.
Embracing and rejecting positive and negative legacies was more complex than simply
accepting the positive and dismissing the negative. In some instances, individuals only partially
embraced or rejected a family legacy. In other instances, participants rejected the positive and
embraced the negative. These instances are especially important because they represent times
when the younger generation demonstrated agency in resisting cultural expectations.
Partial acceptance and rejection. First, legacies were not always embraced or rejected as
absolutes. Instead, participants often noted degrees to which they embraced or rejected family
legacies, representing a continuum that demonstrates the complex nature of legacies. For
example, one participant shared a story about her family competing in marathons. Her dad
always had to win, and she concluded the story saying, “I’m competitive, but not like the rest of
my family.” This example emphasized how family members can be similar, but yet different on
an individual level. In essence, this participant modified the legacy by being “less competitive”
than other family members.
Family members also responded to family legacies on a situational basis. For instance,
family members selected when they embraced or rejected the same theme based on the context,
including who was present. Whether or not the individual embraced or rejected the legacy was
also contingent upon the relationships with the people involved, and thus, the acceptance or
rejection of legacies occurred within their interplay with people in their own daily experience.
For example, when talking about the legacy “play too much,” a participant explained how she
embraced the legacy in one situation and rejected it in another:
I: In what ways, if any, have you rejected these legacies as a reflection of your own
identity? Tell me a story that illustrates how you have rejected these legacies.
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