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Paper short abstract

Children imagined hopeful post-pandemic futures. Their visions highlight agency, intergenerational responsibility, and creative, non polarized ways of thinking about future crises and shared social worlds.

Paper long abstract

This paper is based on research conducted with children during and immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic. Younger children (aged 5–6), with use of art, craft, and narrative, imagined the post-pandemic world. Older children, aged 6–11, participated in art-based and participatory workshops that resulted, among other, in recommendations for adults in the event of future crises. Imagining the future produces knowledge about understandings of the present. At the same time, its practical dimension cannot be overlooked: it generates solutions that illuminate what kinds of worlds are thinkable.

Although the study concerned the future in the context of the COVID-19 crisis, the crisis itself was not the central focus for the participants. The envisioned future was a good and safe world, one in which free action would be possible. The children also emphasized obligations and responsibilities toward a good future. The recommendations created by children for future crises may be interpreted literally, as a set of principles that could inform policy making and practical interventions. However, they may also be understood as an invitation to co-create a shared, better world.

The research proved that engaging children in constructing visions of the future makes it possible to obtain nuanced responses that diverge from polarized dystopian or utopian critiques of society. Their contributions demonstrate that creative approaches to the future are not only possible but necessary, and children can be viewed not only as the future of the societies, but predominantly as creative future makers.