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Young people looking forward: Imagined future and normative tensions in urban Norway
Author(s) -
Andersen Nina H. B.,
Gubrium Erika,
Ulvik Oddbjørg S.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
children and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.538
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1099-0860
pISSN - 0951-0605
DOI - 10.1111/chso.12422
Subject(s) - narrative , normative , sociology , embodied cognition , gender studies , futures contract , meaning (existential) , social psychology , aesthetics , psychology , epistemology , philosophy , linguistics , financial economics , economics , psychotherapist
We explore the meaning‐making practices of ‘little personal stories’ and ‘big societal stories’ in the imagined futures of 12‐ and 13‐year‐olds within Norway, known for its egalitarian ideals and welfare society. Using the concept ‘prospective narratives’, we explore these practices through the students' narrative world‐making. The narratives connect the imagined future with gender and class variations related to larger social norms in the arenas of work and family. They demonstrate embodied and positioned cultural knowledge of the present, reflecting tensions between dominant social norms—‘big stories’—in terms of child‐centred parenting, active work‐life and egalitarian ideals across gender and class.