Turning points in work and family life in the imagined futures of young people on Sheppey in 1978

Many researchers have used the method of asking young people to write essays charting the courses that they imagine their future lives will follow. One such project was undertaken in 1978 by Ray Pahl among a group of mainly 16-year-olds on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent. These essays were archived and have been reanalysedii and the themes compared with those developed by the original research team. Particular attention was paid in the reanalysis to what the young people’s essays contained in relation to the idea of turning points. The essays include a good number of transitions that fit the model of the conventional life cycle that was commonly reproduced in the social science literature of the time. But they also contain many others that involve a range of turning points that have become increasingly familiar foci of social research. The value of the imagined futures essay method thus includes the possibility that by opening up a window onto young people’s world views, the material generated encourages researchers to re-think their assumptions and analytical frameworks.