V. Cuzzocrea- A possibility to square the circle? Youth uncertainty and the imagination of late adulthood – Title: A possibility to square the circle? Youth uncertainty and the imagination of late adulthood Author: Dr Valentina Cuzzocrea, Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Dipartimento di Scienze Sociali e delle Istituzioni, viale S. Ignazio 78, 09124, Cagliari (Italy). Email:
[email protected] Acknowledgment: This is the draft of an article which has been accepted for publication in this form in April 2018 by the journal ‘Sociological Research Online’ (Sage) with the DOI: 10.1177/1360780418775123. The article is part of a project that has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska- Curie grant agreement No 665958 to conduct research at the University of Erfurt, as MWK (Max- Weber-Kolleg) Fellow. It also partially draws from research funded previously by ‘P.O.R. SARDEGNA F.S.E. 2007-2013 – Obiettivo competitività regionale e occupazione, Asse IV Capitale umano, Linea di Attività l.3.1’ at the University of Cagliari. Abstract: Youth transitions literature has traditionally devoted great attention to identifying and analysing events that are considered crucial to young people regarding their (short term) orientation to the future and wider narratives of the self. Such categories as ‘turning points’ (Abbott 2001, Crow and Lyon 2011), ‘critical moments’ (Thomson et al. 2002, Holland & Thomson 2009, Thomson & Holland 2015, also used by Tomanović 2012) and ‘crossroads’ (Bagnoli & Ketokivi 2009) have been used to identify and explain the events around which young people take important decisions in order to realise the so-called transition to adulthood, each suggesting a sense of rupture.