Editorial introduction: The sociology of hope in contexts of health, medicine, and healthcare

Abstract

We live in an era saturated with the language and imagery of hope. Patient advocacy groups, welfare groups, and organizations oriented to various humanitarian causes often make direct reference to hope in their official titles and campaign bylines: “Pink Hope,” “Giving children hope,” “Hope: Global,” “Hope: Preventing Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide,” “Hope Foundation,” and “Australia HOPE International,” to name a few. Politicians of both the left and right have sought to deploy the rhetoric of hope to announce promises of economic prosperity and their commitments to provide improved social services and to deliver better futures for all. The now-famous “Hope” poster, which represented President Barak Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, serves as a powerful illustration of the symbolic power of the hope message, a message that Australia’s Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, also appropriated for his 2013 “Hope, Reward, and Opportunity” election poster campaign. People’s hopes readily feature within the language of advertisements (Petersen and Seear, 2011). As Raymond Williams (1980) noted, the enticement of hope is an essential part of the “magic system,” whereby efforts are made to persuade and identify consumerism as the means to personal fulfillment and happiness. It might be argued, however, that it is in relation to matters of health, illness, and healing that hope finds its fullest expression and is most forcefully addressed as a vital concern. This is not only due to the fact that the lived disruption and distress of injury and