Imagined futures: Young men's talk about fatherhood and domestic life

As part of an extensive series of interviews about men and masculinity, small groups of 17 to 18-year-old male students were invited to look forward to their future romantic and domestic Lives. Their responses were analysed using the approach and methods of discourse analysis in order to examine both the interpretative resources used within their accounts and to look at how the young men attempted to manage the 'ideological dilemma' (Billig, Condor, Edwards, Cane, Middleton & Radley, 1988) that was framed by these cultural themes. The analysis describes three such strategies while paying particular attention to the 'action orientation' (Heritage, 1984) of these constructions. Finally, the paper moves on to discuss, albeit briefly, the broader implications of this research.