The Imperative for Hope amidst Contemporary Perils

We exist in a period of history filled with misinformation, alignment with authoritarianism, democratic decline, wars, famines, crises, and dystopia - what imperative is there for hope?

Hope has long been recognised as central to human existence. Studying hope has been crucial to understanding how/why humans endure immense suffering. The ability to maintain hope is a prominent theme, suggesting that developing hope and sustaining hopefulness for a future beyond suffering enables individuals to survive insufferable conditions. Across time periods, hope has been claimed as a force for social change; enabling not only survival but human flourishing. Examining hopefulness through a sociological lens, this session aims to frame hope as a sociopolitical tool to address structural inequalities and foster healthier communities.

We welcome papers exploring the socially-mediated human capacity of hope. Papers in our session are likely to draw on key ideas of scholars within the sociology of hope, social activism on hope and feminist and black feminist scholars on hope, among others. Positions on the utility of hope are divided. Philosophers like Nietzsche argue hope is futile. Indigenous scholars argue to ‘fuck hope’, and other feminist scholars argue that to create hopeful futures for all, we must understand circumstances under which hope is absent and the structural barriers to hope. Papers in the session will likely engage in these debates, somewhere between disregarding hope as impossible and regarding hope through overly-optimistic ‘rose-tinted glasses’. It is within this terrain of theoretical and methodological scholarship that we welcome diverse and challenging submissions.