Hope in the Anthropocene: Agency, Governance and Negation

New modes of Hope have emerged in the Anthropocene, increasingly grounded in an ethics of attentiveness and responsibility. Through incorporating contemporary approaches to both theory and policy practice, including critical, feminist, black and indigenous perspectives, this book analyses how Hope works with the uncertainties and interdependencies of human agency and interaction. It draws out the problems of integrating Hope into governance and policy management, and engages with Hope as a potentially negating force, in a world which can be seen as one of unending catastrophe.

Valerie Waldow is Lecturer at the Department of Political Science at Otto-von-Guericke University of Magdeburg, Germany. Her research interests include international political theory, rationalities of international interventions and governance, Anthropocene discourses, and prospects for hope and critique in IR.

Pol Bargués is Senior Research Fellow at Barcelona Centre for International Affairs, Spain. Over the years he has developed an interest in the intersection of philosophy, critical theory and International Relations. In particular, he has critically interrogated international interventions in conflict-affected societies and explored the increasing prevalence of the ideas of resilience, hybridity, and hope.

David Chandler is Professor of International Relations at the University of Westminster, UK. He edits the open access journal Anthropocenes: Human, Inhuman, Posthuman. His recent books include: The World as Abyss: The Caribbean and Critical Thought in the Anthropocene (2023); International Relations in the Anthropocene: New Agendas, New Agencies and New Approaches (2021); and Anthropocene Islands: Entangled Worlds (2021).