Imagined futures, present lives

Abstract

The article is focused thematically on the uses and meanings of media for (some) young people in Recife, a million-inhabitant city in the northeast of Brazil. The article brings together the perspective of Anne Line Dalsgaard, a long-term anthropological field researcher who is familiar with the everyday lives and social conditions for growing up in Recife, and the findings of a short-term, interview-and observation-based media ethnographic study, conducted by Norbert Wildermuth. The concept of imagination as potentially both an enabling and a limiting practice in the consumption of media is discussed centrally in this attempt to contribute to an empirically grounded understanding of the role that media play for youth in their striving to 'find a place in life' . In the empirical context presented in the article, imaginations, expanded and circulated by a globalized media circuit, are appropriated and interpreted locally and under particular socio-economic conditions.

Aspirational ambivalence and the imagined futures of middle-class secondary students in Hong Kong

“…This is a differentiation between social theories because it tries to understand how social surroundings are imagined by ordinary people, not through theoretical terms, but through the images, stories and legends they inherit and possess. Through comparing differences and similarities of these narratives, images and stories, ordinary people employ the normative imaginations as a fundamental capital in their struggle and mediation to make sense of their lives, how they define themselves in relation to others, and informing on the aspirations and decisions they make (Wildermuth & Dalsgaard, 2006).…”

“…The media's role was explored further by Wildermuth and Dalsgaard (2006), looking into the intersection between everyday life, media and modernity, and how Brazilian youths from lower socioeconomic backgrounds led plural lives, simultaneously within family, peer-groups, school or work, enlarged globalisation, and 'reality symbolic significance that include(d) the world of media representation' (p. 27). The research emphasised the centrality of the public sphere in providing multiple frames of orientation and reference, but also of creating a fear in youths of missing out on opportunities, in addition to frustrations of pursuing contradictory or unattainable dreams and ambitions.…”