Conference Theme: Political Hope

In an era characterised by a multiplicity of crises – for example, ecological crisis, right-wing populism and widening inequalities – it is easy to lose hope. Indeed, the most hopeful people at the current moment might be either delusional – they have fundamentally misunderstood something – or dangerous – what is augured by the preeminent forces of the contemporary world do not bode well for our collective future. Yet hope – the sense that things can be better and that improvements are possible – has always been a necessary ingredient and driving force within social movements, whether this resulted in radical reform or revolutionary change. Indeed, without some amount of hope, what possible reason might people have to involve themselves in politics?

While the NZPSA conference of 2025 welcomes submissions from all fields of Political Studies, we would especially like to encourage papers, panels, and roundtables that speak broadly to the theme of “Political Hope”, including the following themes and topics:

• The role of hope in democratic and populist thought.
• The relationship between hope, agency, and resistance.
• The possible connections between religious forms of hope and politics.
• Political hope in Indigenous traditions and the Global South
• Hope – and hopelessness – in historical and contemporary social movements, with a special focus on environmental movements.
• Utopianism, realism, and the limits of political hope.