This doctoral research examines how young adults orient towards uncertain futures in contemporary social conditions. It argues that images of the future function as socially embedded orientations through which uncertainty, agency, and belonging are interpreted and acted upon. Drawing on an abductive research design and informed by critical futures research, the study explores how these images are shaped by structural conditions such as late-modern societal dynamics, legal and institutional arrangements, and racialised inequalities, as well as by personal histories, expectations, hopes, and fears. The empirical material consists of interviews with 30 young adults in Finland across two empirical studies, including students, refugees, and asylum seekers, whose experiences of uncertainty arise from diverse contexts. The dissertation is structured around three interlinked articles. Article I examines how young adults in late-modern contexts navigate uncertainty characterised by multiple life choices and limited shared guidance. It shows how images of the future reflect tensions between optimistic personal expectations and more uncertain or pessimistic views of broader societal futures. Article II focuses on refugees and asylum seekers, demonstrating how legal precarity, bureaucratic waiting, and social exclusion shape everyday experiences of uncertainty while also giving rise to adaptive forms of agency. Drawing on the same participants, Article III explores how past experiences, present realities, and perceived future possibilities interact in the formation of images of the future. It demonstrates that future imagination is shaped through a dynamic and ongoing interplay of temporal influences rather than through a straightforward linear projection of the future from the present. Across the articles, uncertainty emerges as a multi-layered condition that operates at structural, epistemic, experiential, and temporal levels, and is experienced differently depending on individuals’ social positions and life circumstances. In late-modern contexts, uncertainty is associated with an excess of possibilities and the need to navigate multiple potential pathways. In contrast, in contexts of forced migration, uncertainty is shaped by restricted or externally controlled choices. Under these conditions, access to the future becomes conditional, shaped by factors such as legal recognition, education, employment, and social inclusion, which enable or constrain individuals’ ability to plan and act. The findings show that images of the future play a central role in how young adults cope with uncertainty, make sense of their present circumstances, and sustain a sense of direction. These images are shaped through the interaction of multiple temporal influences. While experiences of displacement, disruption, and exclusion can limit what futures are seen as possible, they can also foster resilience and adaptive forms of agency. Across contexts, young adults actively negotiate possibilities within changing structural conditions, balancing aspiration with constraint while maintaining a sense of purpose. By bringing these insights together, the dissertation contributes to futures studies, migration and youth research, and sociological theories of agency. It advances an understanding of images of the future as dynamic and socially embedded processes, showing that engaging with the future is not only about anticipating what may come, but about navigating uncertainty in the present. More broadly, the study highlights that futures are not distant or abstract, but lived and negotiated within the conditions of everyday life.