From Futurephobia to Futuretopia: What Brazilian Youths Reveal About Imagining Tomorrow

The future is no longer what it used to be. For many young Brazilians, it has stopped being a symbol of promise and has become something heavy — a burden. The study “From Futurephobia to Futuretopia,” led by Teach the Future Brazil, emerges exactly from this point of tension: why has imagining the future become so difficult — and what are young people doing not to give up on it?

Far from offering ready-made answers or linear forecasts, the study proposes listening, disruption, and symbolic reconstruction. It is grounded in the premise that imagination is a human right and a collective capability, systematically denied to younger generations, especially in contexts marked by inequality, urgency, and instability.

How the Study Was Conducted: Listening as a Political Act

To understand what young people feel, think, and imagine about the future, the study used a groundbreaking methodology called Expanded Listening to Futures. More than just a method, it is an ethical and epistemic stance: it’s about stopping speaking for youth and starting to listen, with intention and care.

The research heard from 689 young people aged 18 to 28 from all regions of Brazil. In addition to the quantitative survey, in-depth interviews were conducted with youth from diverse backgrounds, and with 12 experts in education, mental health, foresight, digital culture, and innovation. Emerging narratives from events like the World Futures Day and Futures Week Brazil were also analyzed, where spontaneous statements revealed fears, emotional blocks, and creative reinventions in the face of collapse.

Artificial Intelligence also played a role — not as a replacement, but as a critical ally. It helped organize open data semantically, always under the final curation of a human research team.

The Research Team

This study was conducted by the interdisciplinary team from Teach the Future Brazil, including:

• Rosa Alegria, futurist with over 25 years of experience, Master's degree from the University of Houston, and a key figure in Latin American foresight;

• Ludymila Pimenta, researcher in regenerative education, Master's in Learning and Change, and founder of RHlab;

• Eduardo Sá, specialist in strategic communication, innovation, and project design, communication lead at TTF Brazil;

• Wellington Porto, expert in strategic innovation and ESG impact, with experience in business and education sectors.

Together, they crafted a study that merges methodological rigor, deep listening, and genuine engagement with the present.

What the Data Reveals: Between Fear and Desire

The study is structured into three complementary dimensions: the Intimate, the Collective, and the Systemic, which help reveal how Brazilian youth experience the future across different layers of life.

The Intimate Layer: When the Body Feels Time

Over 78% of young respondents reported anxiety when thinking about the future, while 45% said they feel constantly tired. The average level of fear about what might come was 3.4 out of 5, rising to 4.2 among 24–25-year-olds, what the study names the “pressure valley.”

Many expressed a sense of inadequacy and exhaustion in response to unattainable standards of perfection. As one participant stated:

“My head won’t stop, so my body stays tired. Thinking about tomorrow became an extra weight.”

Still, the desire to imagine persists. 87% believe imagining the future is a learnable skill, and the average clarity about their desired future was high: 4.24 out of 5. One youth put it simply:

“Imagining doesn’t pay the bills. But I’ll try anyway.”

To cope, young people turn to spirituality, creativity, and self-care from dancing and meditation to graffiti and urban gardens. The body and desire re-emerge as central tools to envision more viable and sustainable futures.

The Collective Layer: School, Work, and Belonging

Only 31% of youth feel school prepares them for the future, and 77.6% say classroom content doesn’t reflect their realities. For many, school has become a symbolic barrier instead of a bridge to what comes next.

Work, too, reveals contradictions. 66% want to work with purpose, but face precarious conditions, burnout, and disillusionment. Many turn to entrepreneurship not out of ambition, but survival:

“Everything demands performance: school, jobs, social media. And when it’s time to breathe, there’s no air left.”

Despite this, new forms of resilience emerge: self-managed collectives, peer-support networks, and alternative professional models rooted in care and autonomy. The power of doing things together becomes a counterpoint to individualistic, high-performance logic.

The Systemic Layer: Territory, Technology, and Climate

The systemic dimension highlights forces beyond personal control: climate instability, urban inequality, algorithmic bias, and rising automation, that deeply shape young people’s sense of possibility.

Even so, they resist passivity. Youth are creating environmental regeneration projects, using technology critically, and building networks of care in their communities. The study introduces the concept of “futuretopia”: imagining as infrastructure, as “a chance to restart, create, and transform.”

Conclusion – Crossings Toward the Not Yet Revealed

The From Futurephobia to Futuretopia study doesn’t offer final answers, it opens windows. Windows through which we see the voices, struggles, and creative forces of a generation that, despite fear, still dares to imagine.

The most striking insight isn’t a data point, but a paradox: today’s youth live under a silent urgency. They feel pressured to succeed in a world they barely recognize, tired of unattainable demands, and frustrated with systems that ignore their realities. And yet, they continue. They imagine, they create, they push back even when the odds seem stacked.

The most common profile that emerges is not the naive dreamer, nor the passive cynic. It is the “cautious optimist”: someone who holds real concerns, yet keeps the spark of possibility alive. These youth know the world is not ready for them, but they are getting ready to change the world. Their hope is not passive,  it is watchful, active, and intentional.

We are witnessing an act of symbolic resistance: imagining the future in a collapsing world is not naivety, it is courage. As one young participant said:

“When reality suffocates, imagining is the only breath we have.”

In this light, the study becomes a moral and political call to governments, schools, companies, families, and cities: we must restore young people’s right to imagine and reclaim time. Imagination cannot remain a privilege of a few; it must become a collective capability taught, valued, and nurtured.

Because the future cannot be just a pressure, it must be a call. A call to imagine, to co-create, and to inhabit fairer, more plural, more vibrant worlds.