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

Abstract

AbstractQualitative 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.