The Hope Process and Social Inclusion

The psychology of individual hope has been well articulated through the work of Seligman and Snyder, but scholars have done little to extend this model to under-stand how individuals engage in collective hope. This article develops a model of the collective hope process that emphasizes the importance of principles of social inclusion, open contestation of goals, and transparent pathways to give certainty to the belief that the public is important to the process, even if the same public is uncertain and divided about the outcomes. The study is based on a survey of 2,040 Australians who shared their hopes, fears, and actions in relation to the Australian taxation system in 2000.