This summer Anna worked in collaboration with Global Action Plan through her Masters in Global Environment, Politics and Society. As part of her research, she spoke to young people across the UK from a variety of backgrounds, asking them about their expected visions of the future and what their ideal visions would be.

To find out more about Anna's research, read her blog post here.

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Audio only version:

If you prefer to read rather than watch, the transcription is here: 

Anna: What was really noticeable was that they had quite negative visions of their sort of expected future and that I think we would have expected probably, but not just negative but quite fatalistic as well. So kind of they thought that it was quite inevitable that things would wouldn't change and things wouldn't get better, which was the kind of more disheartening aspect of it. But of course they were there was lots of signs of ambivalence and kind of they showed positivity as well as negativity. So that was quite interesting To see as well. 

Natasha: Yeah, and unfortunately, that's not unexpected result really, is it? I mean, we've talked about this a lot at Global Action Plan in terms of just so many visions of the future that we see are negative. It's almost it's easier to kind of imagine the dystopias and everything going wrong. And that's what we see in films and things and in stories, and that's kind of what we're seeing. So it's perhaps not surprising that they're feeling that way. 

So yeah, what were some of the more unexpected findings? 

Anna: So the people I chose to speak to all had environmental values, so they were kind of already... they weren't in denial of climate change. They all sort of were there for it and to different degrees were engaged with the kind of environmental movement. And what was unexpected then was how like unhopeful, if that's a word, they were, kind of how cynical they were, given that. But also at the same time how strong and resilient their hope was. So it was really unexpected to see such a like extreme difference. And a polarization of their views, considering that they all fundamentally kind of had the same opinion
about the environment, but they had sort of a drastic they would go between, well, we have to believe there's got to be a better future, but at the same time, 
"but it's never going to happen". And that was kind of because of that ambivalence and that that polarization. What's so important is to remember that in spite of that negativity there's always that positivity there. And that's what is going to be absolutely vital to to like kind of enhance for the future. 

Natasha: It’s fascinating, isn't it? Because it's not a clear cut. You know, they're not they not feeling one way. They're feeling lots really mixed, lots of different emotions of having to feel hopeful to keep going and to keep on with kind of activism and things, but also not always feeling like it's going to get there. And I think probably most of us working in the environmental sector can relate to that very strongly. We have days where we feel more hopeful and days where we don't and we have to try and keep going somehow. So really interesting that we've got to try and help young people somehow to kind of keep that hope alive. 

And so how do you think we can do that? Like, was there any findings in terms of strategies or ways that you think it might be helpful to help young people to keep that hopefulness alive and not drift too far too often to the fear of things not getting better?

Anna: Well yeah, there was loads, loads and loads to discuss and Yeah. It was kind of endless really, which is a good thing because there was so much that we can sort of use to our advantage. I think there was like an important sort of distinction where... so there's difficulty in having a creative vision of how the future  might look. And then there's also difficulty in believing that it's possible. So you've got these two kind of sides to it, and both are things that we need to work with in order to have sort of this ultimately positive vision of the future, both expected and ideal. And I think and that is what provides that having that constructive hope, not kind of abstract like based in nothing hope. That's not useful, but having constructive hope is so important to motivate people to act in terms of working with those things, I think you've got the importance of intentionally imagining an ideal future, and I think we underplay that in education and just in everyday life, there's not very much importance placed on just abandoning the sense of rationality and just, you know, thinking, "What would I really want from the world?” Because you're never going to achieve it if you don't even think about it. 

And then but also on the other side, you've got kind of enhancing like a hopeful sense of that could happen. And those are the two things that I looked at in the research, and I sort of did that by talking to them about where they got their ideas of the future from.

Natasha: Yeah, because we've got to be able to imagine it in the first place. And that can be really hard to imagine things outside of what we're just so used to. There's that, that phrase “it's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism”. So we kind of get stuck don’t we, and just only imagining things a little bit different to how they are now, but not that different. And when we're applying that kind of practical mindset of like “oh but, that will never happen” So then we don't let our minds wander and get to the places where actually the really interesting stuff might lie about a hopeful future.