Back from the future: a narrative approach to study the imagination of personal futures

• Published in: International journal of social research methodology Vol. 23; no. 4; pp. 451 - 465
• Main Author: Sools, Anneke
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 03-07-2020; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Accounts; anticipation; Elicitation; Foreign Countries; future imagination; Futures; Futures (of Society); Imagination; Letters (Correspondence); life writing; Meaning; Narrative; Narratives; possible selves; Referendums; Research Methodology; Social research; Social Science Research; Social sciences; Sociological research; Story Telling; Greece
• ISSN: 1364-5579; 1464-5300
• DOI: 10.1080/13645579.2020.1719617

This article responds to the call for prospective methodologies in the social sciences by developing a narrative approach to study the imagination of personal futures. The approach encompasses an analytical framework regarding dimensions of projectivity and an elicitation method (Letters from the Future). Using an example letter from a study about post-Referendum futures in Greece, the article draws on psychological, sociological, and futures studies research to elucidate key issues in projectivity research. The article clarifies potentials and challenges in three thematic clusters: (1) Balancing clarity and reach concerns the quality of narrative accounts of the future and proposes techniques for eliciting personally meaningful accounts; (2) The experience and meaning of time foregrounds narrative sense-making involved in imagining the future, thereby highlighting futures thinking as cultural capacity; (3) Engaging spaces of the possible foregrounds imagination in (co-)constructing narratives of and from the future. Finally, the article reviews strengths and limitations.