This article outlines a framework for exploring the relationship between hope and utopia. Hope is conceptualised as a socially mediated human capacity that can be experienced in different modes. A taxonomy of modes of hoping is presented. This differentiates between non-utopian (‘estimative’ and ‘resolute’), anti-utopian (‘patient’) and utopian (‘critical’ and ‘transformative’) modes of hoping. When critical or transformative hope predominates within the collective emotional orientation of a society, it is suggested that utopian ideas are likely to thrive both as a product and a source of hope. A contemporary utopian politics thus requires the institutions of social life to be reconstituted so that they once again foster critical and transformative hope.
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