Methodologies of Hope for International Relations

What are the conditions of possibility for hopefulness in international relations? Against commonplace representations of global politics that centre violence, fear, and suffering, this article proposes hope as an alternative way of knowing the world under conditions of uncertainty. Hope encourages an open, ethical relationship to the present so that the political possibilities inherent to everyday life become visible and we are able to imagine new ways of understanding and engaging with political life. Building on an experimental undergraduate course, we identify three sensibilities that are central to developing the capacity for hope: holding contradiction, paying attention to affective landscapes, and developing and sustaining curiosity. A series of ‘hopeful practices’, drawn from students’ final coursework, represent ‘methodologies of hope’ for the discipline of International Relations (IR) and everyday life that enable alternative ways of knowing and worlding that foreground relationality, embodiment, and everyday micropolitics. By situating hope within lived experience, the article offers a plural, practice-oriented approach that expands critical and creative possibilities for both IR scholarship and pedagogy.