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Young people and post-pandemic futures: scenario planning as a radical politics of hope

journal contribution
posted on 2023-03-01, 21:57 authored by Peter KellyPeter Kelly, Seth Brown, James GoringJames Goring
PurposeIn this paper we report on the outcomes of a scenario planning project in Melbourne's (Australia) inner northern suburbs, which was undertaken in the context of an extended lockdown during Melbourne's second wave of COVID-19 infections. In this project, the researchers sought to identify the ways in which young people and youth service providers understood the challenges that the pandemic was creating for young people and the provision of youth services, and through the 5 years up to 2025.Design/methodology/approachThe project was shaped by a scenario planning methodology that produced three research informed scenarios of possible futures for young people in Melbourne's inner north in 2025. The project conducted a series of structured video interviews with young people, and semi-structured interviews with stakeholders that asked participants to reflect on the context of the pandemic, and what the future might hold in relation to young people's pathways and health and well-being, and the futures of their communities and the planet.FindingsThe scenario planning methodology revealed many concerns, uncertainties and anxieties that were shared, but which also varied between young people and stakeholders – both about the immediacy of the pandemic, and its aftermaths and intersection with future crises.Originality/valueThe scenario planning approach offers sociologies of education and youth a means to do the future-oriented, “hopeful” work that multiple crises for young people demand. Scenario planning is an “affirmative” exercise in hope by which sociologies can “stay with the trouble” that we find ourselves in, and that the pandemic has amplified.

History

Journal

Qualitative Research Journal

Volume

23

Pagination

1-15

Location

Bingley, Eng.

ISSN

1443-9883

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Issue

4

Publisher

Emerald Publishing Limited

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