The Construction and Use of Hope within Health‐Settings: Recent Developments in Qualitative Research and Ethnographic Studies

Abstract

Qualitative and ethnographic studies within sociology and anthropology have paid increasing attention to the concept of hope. This review focuses on the analysis of hope within contexts of health and healthcare. An all‐compassing definition has continued to prove elusive, though studies have brought forth useful insights on the conceptualization and nature of hope. The article explores three common themes which emerged from recent literature. The first theme emphasizes different ways in which hope is enacted by people to ensure that hope can be maintained. The second theme focuses on the ways hope can transcend different frames of future time through the imagination of future possibilities, as well as moving people to cross‐geographical and imaginative borders. Finally, the third theme highlights insights into tensions that seem to be inherent to hoping. Hope proves to be ambivalent, as there always remains a possibility that the future which people imagined is not realized. The review shows that more empirical material is needed to understand how people deal with these tensions and how these tensions relate to the fluctuating nature and experience of hope. This offers interesting directions for further research on hope, both within and outside the context of health and healthcare.

‘In-between’ and other reasonable ways to deal with risk and uncertainty: A review article

“…In recent years, there has been a growing interest in issues of hope, as often related to risk, especially within anthropology and health sociology (see Brown et al, 2015 ; De Graaf, 2016 ; Petersen, 2015 ). Researchers have identified hope, together with faith and belief, as an important resource for dealing with risk and uncertainty in many social contexts and situations.…”

“…However, conceptual work has distinguished between two different forms of hope – or faith, respectively – with different characteristics (see De Graaf, 2016 ; Petersen, 2015 ). Passive hope, with its clear negative connotations, can replace activity.…”

From rationalities to lifeworlds: analysing the everyday handling of uncertainty and risk in terms of culture, society and identity

“…These developments, alongside various further elaborations are analytically helpful and stimulating. The latter two sections of Zinn's guest editorial also raise important themes in critically reviewing and considering expanding literature around emotions (Lupton, 2013) and hope (see also De Graaf, 2016). What is furthermore helpful about these two specific avenues of research is that they point analyses of the everyday handling of risk and uncertainty away from individual level analyses and start to focus more on group (see section on emotions) and institutional (see section on hope) dynamics.…”

‘I just wanted a change, a positive change’: Locating hope for young people engaged with residential alcohol and drug services in Victoria, Australia

“…Hope is also central to narratives of recovery and social models of health, where the possibility of recovery is proposed as a potential solution to the range of social problems people face (Webber & Joubert, 2015)—including problematic AOD use. These narratives tend to focus on hope as a cultural resource, but false hope and unrealistic expectations of recovery can likewise be a source of frustration and disengagement (Amati et al., 2019; de Graaf, 2016), particularly when people experiencing problematic AOD use face the very real prospect of ‘relapse’ (Bryant et al., 2021; MacLean et al., 2022). Petersen (2015) is also critical of the broader socio‐politics of hope in health and medicine.…”