The Sociology of Hope: Classical Sources, Structural Components, Future Agenda

Abstract

The multiple problems that the planet is currently experiencing—climate crisis, conventional and unconventional wars,planetary disenchantment with political systems, growth of inequality, increase in all kinds of intersectional violence,destructuring of the political economy of morality, etc.—are not a favorable scenario for thinking about hope. This papernevertheless offers a summary presentation of the sociology of hope, presenting some of its central sources and componentsas well as a proposed study agenda for the future. This article seeks to foster discussion of what could be the central axes ofa sociology of hope. To achieve this purpose, the following argumentative strategy was chosen: (a) the “place” of hope isexplored in some classics of sociology, (b) the central components of a sociological investigation of hope are synthesized, and(c) an agenda is presented as a summary for a future development of a sociology of hope. The article seeks to draw attentionto the urgency of hope as an important element for the future of sociology and social sciences in the twenty-first century.