The Young Technician and the Construction of Imaginaries of the Future

The concept of scientific and technological development is an influential paradigm of social progress. When knowledge and the readiness to apply it become the main asset of society, a certain type of socialisation becomes particularly important, one that shapes the image of the future and endows the growing individual with a practical attitude to cognition. This could enable the child to imagine, dream, create and, at the same time, “act according to instructions.” The objective of this study is to analyse the content of the magazine “Young Technician” published between 1956 and 1965, with a view to identifying its role as an agent of secondary socialisation in the formation of skills deemed necessary for “readiness for the future.” The paper presents a content analysis of the 120 issues in the specified time period mentioned above, visualises the identified keywords, considers the illustrations and covers of the publications, presents the main tools (fantastic stories and images, conceptual models of technology) and themes (space and other related topics) that form the image of the future. This study employs an interdisciplinary approach to examine the contribution of magazines for children and young people to the development of skills to meet the challenges of the forthcoming era, taking into consideration advances in history, pedagogy, sociology, and philosophy.