Hope as a form of agency in the future thinking of disenfranchised young people

Abstract

This paper examines future thinking in a group of disenfranchised young Australians. We draw on literature about individualisation and choice biographies to understand participants’ narratives. Participants that managed to narrate a future expressed strong desires to be ‘normal’, articulating futures marked by traditional indicators: a job, home and family. Yet, their narratives of future were specific to the minimal opportunity structures available to them – a prioritising of paid employment with little concern about the type of work done, a home that was secure but not owned and, often, a wish to regain custody of children. Significantly, many participants could not articulate a future beyond their present circumstances. The uncertainties of their lives shaped their future thinking, through their lack of capital but also through deficit views of themselves as possessing few choices. But, while there was no ‘choice-making’, there was agency: they hoped for something better such as to live securely and to be happier. We suggest that sociological thought pursue a closer understanding of how hope operates in young lives and how it shapes future practice and trajectories. We propose that one way forward is to consider hope as a form of agency conceptualised through relational theories of practice.

Keywords:

• marginalised youth
• future
• hope
• drugs
• agency

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the study participants for generously sharing their time and personal stories. We acknowledge the excellent contribution of the study's Reference Group, who provided intellectual and practical insight about the study's design, methods and findings. The authors thank the anonymous peer reviewers for their generous and constructive critique of the original version of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The study was funded by a grant from NSW Health. The Centre for Social Research in Health is supported by a grant from the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing.