Towards an affective politics of hope: Learning from land struggles in the Philippines

Abstract

Acts of resistance recognize the world’s becoming. In this article, I attend to hope and resistance through the experiences of land-based social movements in the Philippines. Many of the stories shared by those involved do not immediately appear to be hopeful, infused as they are with loss. For, despite decades of struggle, many participants have lost, or never gained access to, their land. Yet, hope weaves its way through, binds and even underpins, the experiences shared. In this paper, I consider some of the contradictions and issues associated with land reform in the Philippines and some of the complexities of hope and being hopeful for these participants. I find hope to be a way of being and becoming now that insists on contingency and openness in ways often radically different from a simple optimism. Hope helped those involved remain in the struggle, bound the participants to each other and to land, nurtured their belief in their organizing efforts, and encouraged them to understand themselves, and their lives, differently. Hope became a way of being, relationally, in the world. I conclude by considering the possibilities for building an affective politics based on a recognition that the emotional and the political, feeling and action, are entirely entwined.