Cultivating Hope: An Ethnography of Vulnerable Young Adults in Denmark
Cultivating Hope: An Ethnography of Vulnerable Young Adults in Denmark
Name of applicant
Kenni Eilert
Title
PhD Fellow
Institution
University of Amsterdam
Amount
DKK 2,856,340
Year
2026
Type of grant
Internationalisation Fellowships
What?
This project investigates how hope is socially and institutionally cultivated among vulnerable and at-risk young adults in Denmark, and how it reshapes the present by structuring what possibilities for action feel available and worth pursuing.
Why?
Research on hope is often future-oriented only. This project shows why the present matters just as much. For vulnerable young adults, hope may determine whether any action feels possible now. Understanding this helps explain how youth support works, why it sometimes fails, and how social marginalisation can be deepened or interrupted.
How?
Hope research often focuses on the future. This project shows why the present matters just as much. For vulnerable young adults, hope may determine whether any action feels possible now. Understanding this helps explain how youth. It combines ethnography, micro-phenomenology, and visual anthropology to study both how hope is cultivated institutionally and how it is lived and felt in everyday life.