Sociology and Hope: Letter to Editor

Ana Dinerstein

Sociology and Hope: Letter to Editor

Ana Dinerstein

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Abstract

Dr Ana Dinerstein writes about the importance of hope in pushing us to
seek a better future beyond incremental change. She argues that life, as Mary Holmes argues, can be indeed full of enjoyable moments, lovely relationships, interesting jobs, art, beauty, solidarity and worthy causes. But this is not the point. By offering a critique of the idea of critical optimism, she claims that what makes sociology a ‘miserable’ social science is not that it is too critical, but that is not critical enough. To overcome its misery, critical sociology does not need to counter-pose optimism to pessimism. It needs to learn hope.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	27-27
Number of pages	1
Journal	NETWORK Magazine of the British Sociological Association
Volume	Spring 2017
Publication status	Published - 20 Mar 2017

Bibliographical note

is Associate Professor of Sociology in the Department of Social and Policy Sciences at the University of Bath. She has written books, journal articles and book sections for academic and non-academic audiences on issues of labour, urban, rural and indigenous movements, protest, Marxist theory, autonomy, labour subjectivity, Argentine and Latin American politics and the uses of Bloch’s philosophy for contemporary understandings of utopia. She is member of associate and advisory boards of Historical Materialism (London), Sociology of Work (Madrid), Research Partner of the 'New Politics Projec't (2016-2020), Transnational Institute (Amsterdam), and member of the Committee of the Society for Latin American Studies (SLAS, UK). Her publications include The Labour Debate (2002), The Politics of Autonomy in Latin America: The Art of Organising Hope (2015); and Social Sciences for An Other Politics: Women Theorising without Parachutes (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016

Cite this

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title = "Sociology and Hope: Letter to Editor",

abstract = "Dr Ana Dinerstein writes about the importance of hope in pushing us toseek a better future beyond incremental change. She argues that life, as Mary Holmes argues, can be indeed full of enjoyable moments, lovely relationships, interesting jobs, art, beauty, solidarity and worthy causes. But this is not the point. By offering a critique of the idea of critical optimism, she claims that what makes sociology a {\textquoteleft}miserable{\textquoteright} social science is not that it is too critical, but that is not critical enough. To overcome its misery, critical sociology does not need to counter-pose optimism to pessimism. It needs to learn hope.",

author = "Ana Dinerstein",

note = "is Associate Professor of Sociology in the Department of Social and Policy Sciences at the University of Bath. She has written books, journal articles and book sections for academic and non-academic audiences on issues of labour, urban, rural and indigenous movements, protest, Marxist theory, autonomy, labour subjectivity, Argentine and Latin American politics and the uses of Bloch{\textquoteright}s philosophy for contemporary understandings of utopia. She is member of associate and advisory boards of Historical Materialism (London), Sociology of Work (Madrid), Research Partner of the 'New Politics Projec't (2016-2020), Transnational Institute (Amsterdam), and member of the Committee of the Society for Latin American Studies (SLAS, UK). Her publications include The Labour Debate (2002), The Politics of Autonomy in Latin America: The Art of Organising Hope (2015); and Social Sciences for An Other Politics: Women Theorising without Parachutes (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016",

year = "2017",

month = mar,

day = "20",

language = "English",

volume = "Spring 2017",

pages = "27--27",

journal = "NETWORK Magazine of the British Sociological Association",

publisher = "British Sociological Association",

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T1 - Sociology and Hope

T2 - Letter to Editor

AU - Dinerstein, Ana

N1 - is Associate Professor of Sociology in the Department of Social and Policy Sciences at the University of Bath. She has written books, journal articles and book sections for academic and non-academic audiences on issues of labour, urban, rural and indigenous movements, protest, Marxist theory, autonomy, labour subjectivity, Argentine and Latin American politics and the uses of Bloch’s philosophy for contemporary understandings of utopia. She is member of associate and advisory boards of Historical Materialism (London), Sociology of Work (Madrid), Research Partner of the 'New Politics Projec't (2016-2020), Transnational Institute (Amsterdam), and member of the Committee of the Society for Latin American Studies (SLAS, UK). Her publications include The Labour Debate (2002), The Politics of Autonomy in Latin America: The Art of Organising Hope (2015); and Social Sciences for An Other Politics: Women Theorising without Parachutes (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016

PY - 2017/3/20

Y1 - 2017/3/20

N2 - Dr Ana Dinerstein writes about the importance of hope in pushing us toseek a better future beyond incremental change. She argues that life, as Mary Holmes argues, can be indeed full of enjoyable moments, lovely relationships, interesting jobs, art, beauty, solidarity and worthy causes. But this is not the point. By offering a critique of the idea of critical optimism, she claims that what makes sociology a ‘miserable’ social science is not that it is too critical, but that is not critical enough. To overcome its misery, critical sociology does not need to counter-pose optimism to pessimism. It needs to learn hope.

AB - Dr Ana Dinerstein writes about the importance of hope in pushing us toseek a better future beyond incremental change. She argues that life, as Mary Holmes argues, can be indeed full of enjoyable moments, lovely relationships, interesting jobs, art, beauty, solidarity and worthy causes. But this is not the point. By offering a critique of the idea of critical optimism, she claims that what makes sociology a ‘miserable’ social science is not that it is too critical, but that is not critical enough. To overcome its misery, critical sociology does not need to counter-pose optimism to pessimism. It needs to learn hope.

M3 - Letter

VL - Spring 2017

SP - 27

EP - 27

JO - NETWORK Magazine of the British Sociological Association

JF - NETWORK Magazine of the British Sociological Association

ER -

Sociology and Hope: Letter to Editor

Abstract

Bibliographical note

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