This book explores the sociology of hope. It presents an overview of the 'state of the art' of hope in sociology and proposes a new basic theory of hope linked to the classical theoretical traditions of sociology, to the perspective of its founding women, and to the reconstruction of the contributions of the theories of revolution, utopia, social change and collective action.

In an attempt to understand the sociology of hope as a critical theory and a science of life, this book proposes the central elements in theoretical and epistemic terms for establishing connections between ethics, aesthetics, politics of knowledge and their current strong modi-fications in the study of society. As such the book will appeal to scholars and students inter-ested in emotions, particularly from the disciplines of sociology, anthropology, political sci-ence, and psychology.