Youth Futures Under Construction

This article introduces a “supplementary issue” of the Journal of the British Academy edited by Anna Barford, which summarizes the findings of the Youth Futures project. The issue explores how young people in countries like Uganda, Palestine, Ghana, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Nepal, Indonesia, and others, navigate structural challenges such as conflict, inequality, and climate change. Conducted from 2020 to 2022, the research used participatory and qualitative methods, including youth advisory boards, diary studies, and arts-based exhibitions, to center youth voices.

The project emphasizes a triple temporal lens, showing that youth experiences must be understood across past, present, and future. It highlights the “headaches” youth face, including job insecurity, gender discrimination, climate disruptions, and colonial legacies, while also recognizing their creative and civic agency.

Youth are not passive victims but active agents: from artistic healing in Uganda to resistance in Palestine and climate grief reflections in Indonesia. However, the research insists their efforts must be supported by broader structural change.

Main Objectives

• Investigate how young people today navigate structural challenges like conflict, inequality, and climate change.
• Understand youth aspirations and future imaginaries while emphasizing their experiences in the present.
• Promote youth participation in the research process itself, beyond tokenistic engagement.

Methodology

• Qualitative and participatory approaches
• Use of youth advisory boards, collaborative autoethnography, diary studies, and arts-based memory/futures exhibitions
• Research co-produced with youth as researchers and co‑authors

Finding, Insights

Triple Temporal Lens

Youth challenges must be understood through the past, present, and future. The present is not merely a staging ground for adulthood but a vital moment in itself.

Youth ‘Headaches’

The collection details the layered difficulties youth face:

• Lack of decent jobs
• Gender discrimination
• Insecurity and conflict
• Gambling as a survival strategy
• Impact of climate disruptions on livelihoods
• Legacies of colonialism and conflict

Civic & agency

Youth are active agents. Examples include:

• Young Ugandans using art and exhibitions to heal post-conflict memories and imagine peaceful futures.
• Young Palestinians documenting and resisting home demolitions.
• Climate-focused youth reflecting on grief and hope through autoethnography.

Structural Change Needed

While youth show resilience and innovation, their efforts are not enough alone. Broader systems, economic, legal, and institutional—must change. “Young people cannot be left without allies”, writes Anna Barford, who led the project.

Innovative Practices

Youth-led Co‑Research

Use of co-research frameworks balancing power between technical researchers and youth.

Arts-Based Futures Work

Exhibitions with curated objects (e.g., weapons as symbols of resistance) to open intergenerational dialogues on conflict and peace. (see article on Uganda)

Youth Think Tanks, “Digital Diaries”

Youth documenting their daily lives and economic coping during the pandemic.

Implications for policy, practice

• Engage youth beyond consultation by co-created research, policy, and programs.
• Design interventions that address structural constraints (e.g., discrimination in job markets, unregulated gambling industries).
• Recognize youth not as “adults-in-the-making” but as present actors with legitimate claims and insights.