The Narratives research project connects fertility and family research to novel research approaches oriented to study the influence of the future in the decision-making process (Beckert 2016; Beckert and Bronk 2018). Life-course trajectories and fertility decisions are not the mere results of “the statistical shadow of the past” (past experiences and personality traits), but they also depend on the "shadow of the future”. Indeed, people use works of imagination, producing their own narrative of the future to act according to or in spite of the uncertainty they face.

Personal narratives of the future are anchored in existing cultural and institutional frames, as well as in public images produced by the media and other powerful opinion formers. People build their narratives of the future so as to take decisions in a condition of uncertainty over the real long-term consequences of these life-course decisions. We suggest that contemporary life-course studies should focus on how people build their narratives of the future, and how these narratives are (not) related to objective constraints, their subjective perception and/or social background and psychological characteristics.

The project is supported by the MiUR-FARE grant "Narratives" (PI: Daniele Vignoli), and is connected to the ERC Consolidator Grant EU-FER (Economic Uncertainty and Fertility in Europe).

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