In the aftermath of the 2008 global economic crisis, the future of young people is often presented in a negative light. Despite the recent difficult circumstances, our mixed-method study found that young people in Britain were still optimistic about their personal future. In this article, we explore the tension between this optimism and the (often less positive) actual circumstances of young people. Our findings suggest that young people’s views of the future were shaped by their deep-seated faith in the transformative power of hard work. We shall argue that this faith results from young people’s psychological adjustments to neoliberal beliefs about the potential of human agency to forge the future, with implications for views of others and society more generally.
AndersonM.BechhoferF.McCroneD.JamiesonL.LiY.StewartR. (2005) ‘Timespans and Plans among Young Adults’, Sociology39 (1): 139–55.
2.
ArnettJ. J. (2000) ‘High Hopes in a Grim World: Emerging Adults Views of Their Future and Generation X’, Youth & Society31 (3): 267–86.
3.
BallS.MaguireM.MacraeS. (2000) Choice, Pathways and Transitions: New Youth, New Economies in the Global City. London: Routledge.
4.
BeckU. (1992a) Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity (Vol. 17). London: SAGE Publications.
5.
BrannenJ.NilsenA. (1992b) ‘From Industrial Society to the Risk Society: Questions of Survival, Social Structure and Ecological Enlightenment’, Theory Culture and Society9 (1): 97–123.
6.
BrannenJ.NilsenA. (2007) ‘Beyond Class and Nation: Reframing Social Inequalities in a Globalizing World’, The British Journal of Sociology58 (4): 679–705.
BrannenJ.NilsenA. (2002) ‘Young People’s Time Perspectives: From Youth to Adulthood’, Sociology36 (3): 513–37.
10.
BrannenJ.NilsenA. (2005) ‘Individualisation, Choice and Structure: A Discussion of Current Trends in Sociological Analysis’, The Sociological Review53 (3): 412–28.
11.
BrannenJ.NilsenA. (2007) ‘Young People, Time Horizons and Planning a Response to Anderson et al.’, Sociology41 (1): 153–60.
12.
BraunV.ClarkeV. (2006) ‘Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology’, Qualitative Research in Psychology3 (2): 77–101.
13.
BrownP.LauderH.AshtonD. (2011) The Global Auction: The Broken Promises of Education, Jobs, and Incomes. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
14.
BynnerJ. (2005) ‘Rethinking the Youth Phase of the Life-course: The Case for Emerging Adulthood?’, Journal of Youth Studies8 (4): 367–84.
DaviesB.BanselP. (2007) ‘Neoliberalism and Education’, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education20 (3): 247–59.
17.
ElderG.Jr (1994) ‘Time, Human Agency and Social Change: Perspectives on the Life Course’, Social Psychology Quarterly57 (1): 4–15.
18.
EvansK. (2002) ‘Taking Control of Their Lives? Agency in Young Adult Transitions in England and the New Germany’, Journal of Youth Studies5 (3): 245–69.
19.
FestingerL. (1962) A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
20.
FranceA.RobertS. (2015) Youth and Social Class: Enduring Inequality in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. London: Springer.
21.
FranceschelliM. (2017) Identity and Upbringing in South Asian Muslim Families: Insights from Young People and Their Parents in Britain. London: Palgrave McMillan.
22.
FranceschelliM.EvansK.SchoonI. (2016) ‘“A Fish Out of Water?” The Therapeutic Narratives of Class Change’, Current Sociology64 (3): 353–72. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392115595064
23.
FurlongA.CartmelF. (1997) Young People and Social Change. Buckingham: Open University Press.
24.
GallandO. (2008) ‘Young People and Society: Contrasting Visions of the Future’, in StellingerA.WintrebertR. (eds) Young People Facing the Future: An International Survey, pp. 27–56. Paris: Foundation Pour L’Innovation Politique.
25.
GiddensA. (1991) Modernity and Self-identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Cambridge: Stanford University Press.
26.
GreenA. (2017) The Crisis for Young People Generational Inequalities in Education, Work, Housing and Welfare. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.
JanmaatJ.G.KeatingA. (2017) ‘Are Today’s Youth More Tolerant? Trends in Tolerance among Young People in Britain’, Ethnicities. DOI: doi.org/10.1177/1468796817723682.
29.
JeffreyC.McDowellL. (2004) ‘Youth in a Comparative Perspective Global Change, Local Lives’, Youth & Society36 (2): 131–42.
KeatingA.KerrD. (2013) ‘Putting Participation into Practice: Re-evaluating the Implementation of the CITIZENSHIP CURRICULUM in England’, in HedtkeR.TatjanaZ. (eds) Education for Civic and Political Participation: A Critical Approach (pp. 117–132). New York and Oxford: Routledge.
32.
KeatingA.MelisG. (2017) Youth Attitudes Towards Their Future: The Role of Resources, Agency and Perceptions of Hard Work. Paper presented at the BSA Annual Conference, Manchester.
33.
KeatingA.KerrD.BentonT.MundyE.LopesJ. (2010) Citizenship Education in England 2001–2010: Young People’s Practices and Prospects for the Future: The Eighth and Final Report from the Citizenship Education Longitudinal Study (CELS). London: Department for Education.
34.
LeccardiC. (2008) ‘New Biographies in the “Risk Society”? About Future and Planning’, Twenty-first Century Society3 (2): 119–29.
35.
LevyR.BühlmannF. (2016) ‘Towards a Socio-structural Framework for Life Course Analysis’, Advances in Life Course Research 30 (Dec.): 30–42.
36.
MacdonaldR.ShildrickT.FurlongA. (2014) ‘In Search of “Intergenerational Cultures of Worklessness”: Hunting the Yeti and Shooting Zombies’, Critical Social Policy34 (2): 199–220.
PutnamR. D. (2016) Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis. New York: Simon and Schuster.
39.
RobertsS. (2010) ‘Misrepresenting “Choice Biographies”? A Reply to Woodman’, Journal of Youth Studies13 (1): 137–49.
40.
RuddP.EvansK. (1998) ‘Structure and Agency in Youth Transitions: Student Experiences of Vocational Further Education’, Journal of Youth Studies1 (1): 39–62.
41.
SchoonI.MortimerJ. (2017) ‘Youth and the Great Recession: Are Values, Achievement Orientation and Outlook to the Future Affected?’, International Journal of Psychology52 (1): 1–8.
42.
SilvaJ M (2013) Coming up Short: Working-class Adulthood in an Age of Uncertainty. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
43.
StellingerA.WintrebertR. (eds) (2008) Young People Facing the Future: An International Survey. Paris: Foundation Pour L’Innovation Politique.
