Hope during and Post-Disasters: Social Work’s Role in Creating and Nurturing Emancipatory Hope

Abstract

Disasters pose fundamental tests to human resilience not only for physical survival but also on socio-political civility. Internationally, armed conflict remains a significant problem for human security causing humanitarian crises, such as forced migration and food shortages. Globally, there is an increasing recognition that disasters have moved from random events of nature to an increased consciousness that human activity has escalated the frequency and severity of climate catastrophes such as wildfires, famines, storms and rising sea levels. Alongside communities, social work has a critical role to play in preparing and responding to disasters and working with people to rebuild, maintain and achieve their hopes. This article broadens social work’s orientation to hope beyond the therapeutic ‘installation of hope’ by including emancipatory hope in the context of disasters and recovery. Drawing from Braithwaite’s work, this article describes a framework for practice, which advocates for the strategic integration of cognitive change (aligned with Snyder’s view of hope) and structural change (aligned with emancipatory hope) that social workers could mobilise before, during and after disasters. We argue that whilst social workers must build individual psychological hope, this cannot be done without structural change and advocacy to enable viable pathways for achieving hopes.