Panels on “Youth as the Future: Imagining, Practicing and Constructing Futures in Insecure Times” at The EASA APeCS 2025 Conference in Edinburgh
The study of the future and its making as an embodied social, cultural and political practice is increasingly gaining centrality in the social sciences. It was also the central theme of the EASA APeCS Conference 2025, which took place in early June in Edinburgh. Over the course of two days, the conference explored diverse and contested forms of future-making in times of conflict, violence and insecurity. The focus was on how insecurity and violence limit possibilities of a peaceful and just future yet also inspire resistance, enabling (oppressed) people to imagine and invent new forms of belonging and co-existence.
Together with Elena Miltiadis, Mette Fog Olwig organized three panels on youth as the future: imagining, practicing and constructing futures in insecure times. The panels focused on three key themes: global youth perspectives on future-making; youth constructions of imaginable futures in hostile environments; and schools, education, and future-making. These themes were explored in diverse geographical localities in Europe, Africa, Asia, South America and North America. The participants discussed how youth engage in future-oriented political actions, as well as in the making of ‘youth’ as a powerful political symbol; future-making in digital spaces; the affective dimension of future-making; how youth imagine and practice the future when faced with conflict, violence and insecurity; and how youths’ futures and their perceptions of them are shaped by structural forces. Mette, Conrad and Tirza contributed with paper presentations based on their fieldwork among youth in Tanzania and Denmark.
In her presentation, titled ‘It Takes a “Global Village”: Can Youth Use Global Imaginaries to Create Secure Futures?’, Mette discussed the recent emergence of a new cohort of youth, brought together from different countries by donor funding. During her presentation, Mette showed how this group of young people, through networking, joint events and global social media performances, become part of what could be called “gated global villages” – spaces that are global, yet exclusive, creating small tight-knit spheres of global thinking and imaginaries.
Conrad’s presentation, titled ‘Taming the Peril Planet: Youths’ Imagined Futures and Preparation in Times of Climate Variability’, focused on how youth imagine the future of the world in times of climate change. He argued that youth must navigate the tension between being impacted by climate change, as it will significantly disrupt their lives, and at the same time being looked at as the (potential) providers of solutions for this problem. Reconciling these two positions is difficult as well as urgent. Therefore, Conrad concluded, we need to know more about how youth prepare for their future in the complicated world of climate variability.
Lastly, Tirza’s presentation, titled ‘Future Forecasts by Youth: Fatalistic and Fantastic’, challenged the popularized notion that youth today constitute a ‘global generation’ concerned about whether they have a future at all. She argued that futures imagined by youth are highly diverse and can be both optimistic and pessimistic. What shapes these ‘futures’ are local and global challenges and insecurities, sociocultural and political structures as well as youths’ related ideas about what constitutes ‘development’, and their frequent and border-crossing use of social media.
Read more here if you’re interested in learning more about the conference topic and programme.