A landscape of hope for social transformation: mapping emotional resonance in times of crisis

Marej, Katarina

Abstract

The contribution develops a nuanced concept of an Ecology of Hope drawing from cultural anthropology, philosophy, and sociology. It conceives hope not as a static feeling or naïve optimism, but as a dynamic, emotional and spiritual self- and world-relation. Hope is a universally human, yet rarely permanent phenomenon, shaped by time, space, and relationality in how it is experienced, sustained, or lost by individuals and collectives. Hope functions as a resonance-seeking emotion that opens possibility for meaningful world-relationships and drives transformation when anchored in such connections. This article develops an ethical theory of hope beyond motivational or utilitarian framings. Hope holds no inherent moral value; its ethical significance emerges from the world-relations it cultivates. In times of overlapping crises, hope becomes ethically ambivalent: commodified or ideologically appropriated forms risk masking injustice and reinforcing passivity. By contrast, the ethical theory argues for a critically reflected, dialogical hope that sustains capacity to act without collapsing into strategic reassurance. As a transversal emotion, hope can transform other emotions such as fear, anger, and grief by linking past, present, and future. A landscape of hope visualizes emotional figurations within sustainability discourse, distinguishing resonant, pre-resonant, and resonance-denying emotions. Finally, the article outlines pedagogical pathways for cultivating hope through human encounter and aesthetic experience as a spiritual anchor, enabling exchange across emotional communities. These ecologies of hope are not naturally given but must be consciously nurtured. Approached relationally, hope emerges as a catalyst for individual and collective transformation and a vital component of sustainable transformation.