The way that people perceive of the future influences their actions in the present. Literature suggests that often people have hopes for their own personal futures, for example their family and career aspirations, yet remain pessimistic about a collective future both at the local and global scale (Hicks and Holden, 1995). This paper considers the intersections between the personal and collective futures of people from different social contexts. We conclude that connections between personal and collective futures are conceptualised differently according to social context. This paper presents preliminary findings from an in-depth qualitative study located in a regional town of Tasmania, Australia. The study utilised Bourdieu’s theoretical framework and drew heavily on habitus as a guiding method as well as an interpretative tool. Five focus groups were held across varying social contexts during 2015 and were subject to dialogical analysis. This paper will present themes that were found to be significant for people in negotiating personal and collective futures, including the role of money, social place and power. Further to this, it will problematize the ways in which futures are primarily conceived of as personal and explore some of the ways that people negotiate positive aspirations for themselves with a negative outlook for the world more generally. The implications that disconnection in conceptualisations of personal futures with collective futures has on sustainable development will be discussed.
History
Publication title
Proceedings of the 22nd International Sustainable Development Research Society Conference (ISDRS 2016)
Editors
J de Melo, A Disterheft, S Caeiro, R Santos, T Ramos
Pagination
168-180
ISBN
978-972-674-791-8
Department/School
Faculty of Education
Publisher
International Sustainable Development Research Society
Place of publication
Sweden
Event title
22nd International Sustainable Development Research Society Conference (ISDRS 2016)
Event Venue
Lisbon, Portugal
Date of Event (Start Date)
2016-07-13
Date of Event (End Date)
2016-07-15
Rights statement
Copyright 2016 the Authors
Repository Status
Restricted
Socio-economic Objectives
Other education and training not elsewhere classified