1986 saw a string of spectacular releases: Andrei Sakharov, Anatoly Shcharansky, Yury Orlov, Irina Ratushinskaya. Is Gorbachev simply more eager and skilled in the time-honoured practice of using dissenters for bargaining and propaganda purposes? Or has there been a real shift in policy that spells hope for dissenters in the future? Paradoxically, the answer to both questions may be 'yes'.
Pragmatism, as Richard Rorty has said, "names the chief glory of our country's intellectual tradition." In Democratic Hope, Robert B. Westbrook examines the varieties of classical pragmatist thought in the work of John Dewey, William James, and Charles Peirce.
"Behind every testimony is an army of God's warriors. After reading this book, you will appreciate those who have dedicated their lives to preaching the Gospel, and you will empathize with those imprisoned by human trafficking as you see how God can redeem their lives. Project Rescue was no grand strategy of a lone abolitionist who set out to stop sex slavery twenty-five years ago. Instead, courageous men and women of God in different cities of Southern Asia and Europe were led by the Spirit to take Jesus and hope to their cities' darkest streets and victims of sex slavery. These pioneers had little in common to bring to this battle. But each one was marked by a daring willingness to obey God's voice and a relentless belief that women and children in prostitution were indeed in the heart and plans of God. What made them different in the anti-trafficking space is that they decided to do the journey together, not alone. Project Rescue network ministry leaders have learned together, prayed together, shared resources, fought hell on behalf of God's violated sons and daughters, and celebrated the hard-won victories of rescue and restoration together. These leaders asked themselves early on, "If organized crime can work together around the world for evil purposes of greed, injustice, and exploitation, why can't good people - God's people - work together across denominations, organizations, and borders for God's great purposes of justice, freedom, and healing?" In From Horror to Hope, Grant shares Project Rescue's inspiring story of a growing collaborative movement to bring hope, restoration, and freedom to generations of trafficked women and their children around the world. But even more, it's the grand story of God's great love for victims of sexual exploitation and His amazing power to redeem and restore their lives"--
This article investigates the role of hope in politics, in the context of the current climate crisis. Hoping for positive transformation may seem naïve and or a way to avoid action, but there is a close connection between hope and democratic action. Understood as a collective political practice, hope can contribute to imagining and articulating alternative futures, and motivate action. The first part of the paper explicates the relevance of the work of Ernst Bloch for the challenges of the Anthropocene. It focuses specifically on learning hope as a collective political practice, the function of utopias in fostering political imagination, and the connection between political agency and hope. The second part of the paper draws on the work of the Dutch Party for the Animals to investigate how political hope can change existing political systems from the inside. In their party program and policies, the Party for the Animals gives central importance to the wellbeing of the earth and all its inhabitants, and demonstrate that a different way of doing politics, based on care and responsibility instead of economic growth, is possible.
Postcolonial ecocriticism has emerged gradually over the last couple of decades as the differences between postcolonialism and environmentalism have been overcome. Those differences have centred on an assumed conflict in the way the two discourses see the world. However, the colonial roots of environmental degradation and the growing postcolonial critique of the effects of imperialism have seen a growing alliance focused in the discipline of postcolonial ecocriticism. Postcolonial critique and environmentalism have found common interest in the role of imperialism and capitalism in the rapidly degrading anthropocene. However critique has not often led to a clear vision of a possible world. This paper suggests a new alliance – between postcolonial critique, environmentalism and utopianism – one that emerges from the postcolonial realisation the no transformation can occur without the hope inspired by a vision of the future. The paper asks what literature can do in an environmental struggle in which colonized peoples environmental struggle in which colonized peoples are among the worst affected. The role of postcolonial literature provides a model for the transformative function of the creative spirit in political resistance. No true resistance can succeed without a vision of change and literature provides the most powerful location of that vision – no transformation can occur unless it is first imagined.
Intro -- Title Page -- What people are saying about On the Threshold of Hope -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Epigraph -- Part One: Approaching the Subject of Sexual Abuse -- 1: Getting Started -- 2: On the Threshold -- 3: How to Care for Yourself As You Read -- 4: You Are a Survivor -- 5: One Woman?s Story -- Part Two: Dealing with the Abuse -- 6: Telling Your Story -- 7: What Happens after You Tell Your Story -- 8: Understanding Some Terminology -- 9: Dealing with Trauma -- 10: Childhood Abuse -- 11: What Did You Learn from Your Family? -- 12: A Look behind the Scenes -- Part Three: What Was Damaged in the Abuse? -- 13: Abuse Damaged Your Body -- 14: Abuse Damaged Your Emotions -- 15: Abuse Damaged Your Thinking -- 16: Abuse Damaged Your Relationships -- 17: Abuse Damaged Your Spirit -- Part Four: What Does Healing Look Like? -- 18: Healing for Your Body -- 19: Healing for Your Emotions -- 20: Healing for Your Thinking -- 21: Healing for Your Relationships -- 22: Healing for Your Spirit -- Part Five: Finding Others to Help -- 23: Finding a Good Counselor -- 24: Suggestions for People Who Are Walking alongside a Survivor -- 25: Some Final Thoughts -- Suggested Reading -- About the Author -- Note
This book provides a concise, interdisciplinary perspective on the emotion and practice of hope'. Based on the idea that hope is a dream that we carry in different ways, the five chapters draw on the authors original research and align it with literature on the sociology of culture and emotion, to explore the concept in relation to cultural and community practices and mental health. The climate crisis, violence, hostility, pandemics, homelessness, displacement, conflict, slavery, economic hardship and economic downturn, loneliness, anxiety, mental illness are intensifying. There is a need for hope. There is also a need to confront hope - what is hope and what can, and cannot, be achieved by hoping. This confrontation includes distinguishing hope from wishful thinking and blind optimism. Using examples from different spheres of social life, including health, religion, music therapy, migration and social displacement, the book sets the idea of hope in context of situations of uncertainty, challenge and pain, and goes on to highlight the practical application of these ideas and outline an agenda for further research on hope'. .
Since its introduction in the 1970s, hip-hop has become a way of life. This title takes an inside look at the groups of hip-hop. Hip-Hop Groups follows the careers of hip-hop's top group acts, examining their contributions to the genre as it burst into the mainstream and went global. Features include a timeline, a glossary, essential facts, references, websites, source notes, and an index. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Essential Library is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO
The article distinguishes three categories of hope: private, collective, and public. Public hope is hope that is invoked by political actors in relation to a societal goal of some kind. The article argues that public hope is the most dangerous kind of hope. The argument is developed using the recent history of trade negotiations between the United States and developing countries concerning intellectual property rights as they relate to life-saving medicines for AIDS. Public hope may allow political actors to harness emotionally collectivities to economic and social agendas that are poorly understood by those collectivities and that are ultimately destructive of the social institutions upon which actual private and collective hopes depend. Or public hope maybe secret hope that drives policies that escape public notice until it is too late. The final section of the article identifies four principles that help to make public hope a contingent force for the good.
The article distinguishes three categories of hope: private, collective, and public. Public hope is hope that is invoked by political actors in relation to a societal goal of some kind. The article argues that public hope is the most dangerous kind of hope. The argument is developed using the recent history of trade negotiations between the United States and developing countries concerning intellectual property rights as they relate to life-saving medicines for AIDS. Public hope may allow political actors to harness emotionally collectivities to economic and social agendas that are poorly understood by those collectivities and that are ultimately destructive of the social institutions upon which actual private and collective hopes depend. Or public hope maybe secret hope that drives policies that escape public notice until it is too late. The final section of the article identifies four principles that help to make public hope a contingent force for the good.