1st Edition
Towards A Sociology of Hope Looking Beyond
Why does hope appear in certain epochs and places, only at other times to disappear from people’s lives and from society as a whole? This book addresses hope from a sociological perspective, offering a theoretical framework and a set of concepts to consider a range of questions. With attention to historical bearers of hope are, and which social groups are most inclined towards hope and why. It also considers the objects and goals towards which their hope is directed and the conditions under which hope is easier. An enquiry into the relationship between hope and social, cultural, economic and political conditions, this volume redirects the sociological gaze towards the discovery of social experiences in which hope resurrects and contributes to the imagination of a new social world. It will therefore appeal to scholars of sociology and social theory with interests in the emotions, social practices and social movements.
1. What Hope Is and How to Define It
2. The Relational Universe of Hope
3. Shapes and Dimensions of Hope
4. Who? To Whom? In What Context?
5. Hope as praxis: Overcoming Crises
6. Conclusion: Understanding Our Own and Others’ Hopes
Biography
Guido Gili is Professor Emeritus of Sociology of Culture and Communication and currently teaches Sociology at the Pontifical Gregorian University and Communication Theory at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Italy. His research focuses on issues of credibility and trust, manipulation, post-truth, transformations of the public sphere, theories of mass society and media ecology. His most recent publications include: with M. Panarari, La credibilità politica (2022), with G. Boccia Artieri & F. Colombo, Comunicare: persone, relazioni, media (2022) and with G. Maddalena, The History and Theory of Post-Truth Communication (2020).
Emiliana Mangone is Full Professor of Sociology of Culture and Communication at the Department of Political and Communication Sciences, University of Salerno (Italy). Her main research interests are in the field of cultural and institutional systems, with particular attention to the social representations, relational processes, knowledge, and narrative as key elements to the human act, in migration studies, and as well as the study of the thought of Pitirim A. Sorokin. She recently published: Pitirim A. Sorokin: Rediscovering a Master of Sociology (2023) and Narratives and Social Change. Social Reality in Contemporary Society (2022).
Gili and Mangone’s volume is an act of hope for the renewal of sociology. Like Pitirim Sorokin’s explorations in altruism, and like recent “positive psychology,” the work helps to build an integral perspective capable of understanding not only pathology, but also creativity, resilience and a shared sense of new possibilities.
Dr. Lawrence T. Nichols, Editor, The American Sociologist
The sociology of hope is possible! Italian sociologists are “rediscovering” an anthropological constant – homo sperantis – by studying hope in different hypostases, based on social theory and historical facts, and creating the vectors of a new perspective. Hope appears as a complex cultural configuration and as a social sentiment that is generated by social relations and allows a human being to act – to survive, to dream, and to create something new in the present and in the future.
Professor Olga A. Simonova, HSE University, Moscow, Russia, Sociology of Emotions. Board Member of ISA RC RC36 Alienation Theory and Research (2023-2027)
Gili and Mangone’s rigorous and inspiring book explores and invites the development of a Sociology of Hope. Hope, among other things, as a "relational good" with the capacity to improve society and to contribute to the mobilisation of praxis. A timely book, necessary given the wars and devastation ravaging part of the planet. A book of interest to sociologists and to the general public alike. A place where the Sociology of Hope meets praxis and humanism.
Professor Estrella Gualda, University of Huelva, Spain
Hope is necessary for human life. In this dramatic historical moment, we perceive this even more clearly. This book, written by two sociologists, goes beyond their (and my) discipline to reveal that without hope, and without the category of possibility that lies at its heart, we cannot understand human relationships, nor the society they found and make possible.
Professor Fausto Colombo, Head of Department of Communication and Performing Arts, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Italy
