Paper short abstract:

The paper provides an ethnographic account of young people's "future-thinking" and "future-making". It analyses their "future literacy" and perceived agency to create different, new, and better (urban) futures while reflecting on how to research the future ethnographically.

Paper long abstract:

"Europe needs the vision, engagement and participation of all young people to build a better future, that is greener, more inclusive and digital," announced the European Commission when it declared 2022 the European Year of Youth. In line with the belief that the "world stands on youth", as the Slovenian and Croatian saying goes, their agency has been probably best recognized in Fridays for future movement, which is seen as a historical turn in (climate) activism. However, organizations working with youth increasingly raise awareness that many young people are not empowered to imagine (and act towards) a (collective) future.

The presentation, deriving from the Slovenian-Croatian research project 'Urban Futures', relies on the ethnographic research of how futures are imagined and how these visions and expectations inform actions in the present intended to create different, new and better (urban) futures. It pays attention to diverse approaches young people claim to undertake for the(ir) future, from protests to public actions not recognized as future-making and private acts inserted in the routine of everyday life. By focusing on their agency to imagine and activate their personal and collective futures linked to the cities and towns they live or study in, the paper, on the one hand, analyses their "future literacy" (cf. Unesco) and, on the other hand, reflects on how to prompt their "future-thinking" and self-understanding of their "future-making".