Holding hope: Financial coaching and the depoliticisation of poverty

Abstract

AbstractThis paper examines the affective and temporal dimensions of hope's use in the non‐profit spaces of poverty governance. Drawing on 14 months of qualitative fieldwork at financial coaching programmes in Boston, Massachusetts, this paper explores how financial coaches understand the function of hope in their work with low‐ and moderate‐income clients. By tracing how financial coaches use hope to encourage clients to participate in and build allegiance to the contemporary economy, this paper argues that hope is foundational to how contemporary poverty alleviation programmes, of which financial coaching is indicative, depoliticise clients' lived experiences of impoverishment. Amid a resurgence of interest in the geographies of hope, the significance of this inquiry lies in its ability to offer an alternate reading of the seemingly benevolent, positive, or radical uses of hope by conceptualising hope as a placating force that cements existing economic arrangements and forecloses alternative political imaginaries. The inquiry undertaken in this paper, then, has implications not only for our understanding of the persistence of poverty, but also indicates the role of non‐profit organisations in the production and ongoing maintenance of broader systems of capitalist exploitation.