Hope: Shortcuts to a Big Idea

David Chandler’s Hope offers a compelling exploration of the politics of hope against the backdrop of a broken world grappling with global crises, from political disillusionment to catastrophic climate change, where alternative futures seem difficult to imagine in positive terms. Examining hope as an ethicopolitical praxis, Chandler offers a highly readable analyis of how hope can sustain alternative futures amidst widespread uncertainty and disillusionment, critically engaging with hope’s transformative potential, and challenging conventional political approaches and envisioning new ways of thinking about trust, care, and relational politics.It traces the concept of hope through diverse critical traditions, including the Frankfurt School, Black Radical Tradition, Queer Utopianism, Critical Indigenous Studies, and contemporary Critical Black Studies, and delves into the social and historical contexts of hope, analyzing its role in communities of survivance, struggle, and experimentatio