Our Hopes, Our Future: Insights from the Hope Barometer

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How can we overcome crises and shape our common future?

Since the beginning of the Corona pandemic, we have all been put to an immense test. This shows how humanity can successfully and constructively deal with such situations and make the best of them. And we learn that the future is not something that happens to us, but that we can actively and constructively shape it. The basic prerequisite for this is an attitude of openness, mutual helpfulness and hope. 

This non-fiction book vividly reports on the currently prevailing images of the future and the common longings as well as on people's capacity for hope and action. It reveals the power of desirable images of the future and of a collective hope as the opposite of general helplessness or of blind and naïve optimism. 

The central statements of this book are based on the experiences of thousands of people in more than ten countries who participated in the scientific study of the Hope Barometer in 2019 and 2020. In a unique way, this combines lived practice with the latest findings of social science futurology, positive psychology and pragmatic philosophy. 

Target groups:

This book is for anyone who wants to look to the future with hope. It offers concrete answers to key questions and shows how crises can be overcome while shaping a better future for individuals and society as a whole. 

About the author:

Dr. Andreas M. Krafft teaches at the University of St. Gallen and at the Free University of Berlin. As co-president of swissfuture, the Swiss Association for Futures Research, and as a board member of the Swiss Society for Positive Psychology, he leads the international research network of the Hope Barometer.

Author(s): Andreas M. Krafft
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2023

Language: English
Pages: 173
City: Berlin

Preface
Contents
1 Introduction
1.1 Looking into the Future
1.2 The Value of Hope
1.3 Shaping the Future Together
1.4 Structure of the Book
Part I Images of the Future
2 Psychology of Future Thinking
2.1 Why We (Should) Think About the Future
2.2 Retrospection, Prediction and Prospection
2.3 Fantasy and Reality
2.4 Unrealistic Optimism
2.5 Meaning and Sense
3 Forms of Thinking and Images of the Future
3.1 Two Ways of Thinking About the Future
3.2 Two Contrasting Images of the Future
3.3 Principles of Future Thinking
3.4 Three Categories of Future Thinking
4 Expectations of the Future
4.1 Questions About the Future
4.2 Future Expectations for the Year 2040
4.3 Future Trends from the Perspective of the Population
4.4 Basic Assumptions About Society
5 Possible and Probable Futures
5.1 Scenarios and Possible Futures
5.2 An Age of Wealth, Sustainability and Peace
5.3 An Age Full of Problems and Crises
5.4 Harbingers of Crisis
6 Desirable Futures
6.1 Positive Images of the Future
6.2 Individualism, Competition, Technology and Prosperity
6.3 Sustainability, Social Cohesion and Harmony
6.4 The Power of Positive Social Visions of the Future
Part II Managing Crises
7 Causes and Consequences of Crises
7.1 Trust and Uncertainty
7.2 Openness to What’s New and Progress
8 Perceived Stress
8.1 The Covid-19 Crisis
8.2 What is Stress?
8.3 Perceived Stress of the Population
9 Stress Coping Strategies
9.1 Dealing with Stress
9.2 Coping Strategies During the COVID-19 Pandemic
9.3 Coping Strategies and Stress Perception
10 Hope in the Crisis
10.1 Importance of Hope
10.2 Perceived Hope
10.3 Sources of Hope
11 Stress-Related Growth
11.1 Areas of Inner Growth
11.2 Stress-Related Growth During the COVID-19 Pandemic
11.3 Insights from the Crisis
Part III Shaping the Future
12 What is Hope?
12.1 Personal and Social Hope
12.2 Capacity for Action and its Limits
12.3 Elements of Hope
13 Between Hopelessness and Optimism
13.1 Hope and Hopelessness
13.2 Hope Between Wishful Thinking and Activism
13.3 Hope and Positive Expectations
13.4 Hope and Optimism
14 How We Hope
14.1 Mental Imagination
14.2 Belief and Trust
14.3 Energy, Willpower and Commitment
15 What We Hope
15.1 Wishes and Values
15.2 Personal Hopes
15.3 The Best Possible Self of Young Adults
16 The Social Dimension of Hope
16.1 Social Support
16.2 Receiving Support
16.3 Giving Support
17 Societal Hope
17.1 Pragmatic Hope
17.2 Collective Hope
17.3 Hope and Realistic Utopias
17.4 Need for Utopian Visions of the Future
17.5 Institutions of Hope
18 The Desirable World of Young Adults
18.1 The Best Possible World
18.2 Future and Fears and Concerns of Young Adults
18.3 The Best Possible World of Young Adults
18.4 The Effect of Desirable Images of the Future
19 Living with Hope
19.1 Fundamental and Radical Hope
19.2 Hope in the Present for the Present
19.3 Hope and Personal Growth
20 Developing Hope
20.1 The Power of Habit
20.2 Overcoming Negative Habits
20.3 Nurturing Positive Habits
Conclusion: Hope for Shaping the Future
Appendix
References