Global Politics Of Hope

Hopes for the future remain central to the political imaginations of socially excluded people. Key to the construction of collective hope is their ability to both navigate the risks posed by social exclusion as well as patiently endeavour for change. Hope is not an individual property. Rather, hope-making is enmeshed in broader social, cultural and economic processes.

PROJECTS

  1. Hope amidst social exclusion in three global cities
  2. Hope-making during the pandemic in São Paulo

Hope amidst social exclusion in three global cities

Hope amidst social exclusion in three global cities is a collaborative project focusing on hopes harboured by socially excluded people in London, Mumbai and Paris. It documents the ways in which socially excluded people express their hopes for a better future despite confronting multiple crises, including a global pandemic which coincided with, and hindered, fieldwork for this project. The project was supported by a collaborative grant (valued at €453,000) made by the Economic and Social Research Council, the Agence Nationale de la Recherche and the Indian  Council of Social Science Research under the EU-India Platform for the Social Sciences and the Humanities.  

Snapshots from fieldwork

LONDON
  • Just another day
  • A kerfuffle
  • The learning centre
  • Today a reader
  • Gentrification from below
  • A bustling shopping centre
MUMBAI
  • Jai Bhim
  • Elections
  • Organising a community
  • Portraits
PARIS
  • Hurrying
  • School
  • The bar
  • A patrol

Outputs

Everyday activism amid the pandemic
Inciting hopes for the future

People

  • Carole Gayet-Vidau
  • Indrajit Roy
  • Josué Gimel
  • Khushboo Srivastava
  • Melissa Williams
  • Öznur Yardimci
  • Simon Parker
  • Suryakant Waghmore

Hope-making during the pandemic in São Paulo

Hope-making during the pandemic in São Paulo collaboratively examines the ways in which socially excluded people in the city’s Sapopemba neighbourhood made claims on the state and on each other when confronted with the COVID19 crisis. The project was supported by two FAPESP grants: 1) National Health System (SUS) governance in contexts of poverty and social vulnerability, Centre for metropolitan Studies; and (2) Mental Health in Adversity: An ethnographic study of the experience of poor mental health in the favelas of São Paulo, Instituto de Psiquiatria FFM USP (Process 2019/17397-7).

Outputs

Feeling like a citizen: Hope amid social exclusion in São Paulo during the pandemic

People

  • Felipe Szabzon
  • Indrajit Roy
  • Vera Schattan Pereira Coelho