Valerie Waldow is Lecturer and Research Associate at the Department of Political Science at Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Germany. Her research focuses on critical international political theory, liberal violence and democratic critique, and International Relations in the Anthropocene, with particular attention to intervention, governance, and political imaginaries. She works on critique, epistemic limits, and transformations of political thought, especially in relation to debates on hope and negativity in contemporary political theory. She is co-editor of Hope in the Anthropocene: Agency, Governance and Negation (2024, EUP). Pol Bargués is Senior Research Fellow at Barcelona Centre for International Affairs, Spain. Over the years he has developed an interest in the intersection of philosophy, critical theory and International Relations. In particular, he has critically interrogated international interventions in conflict-affected societies and explored the increasing prevalence of the ideas of resilience, hybridity, and hope. David Chandler is Professor of International Relations at the University of Westminster and edits the journal Anthropocenes: Human, Inhuman, Posthuman. His recent publications include: Hope: Shortcuts to a Big Idea (2026); Race in the Anthropocene: Coloniality, Disavowal and the Black Horizon (2025); Hope in the Anthropocene: Agency, Governance and Negation (2024); The World as Abyss: The Caribbean and Critical Thought in the Anthropocene (2023); International Relations in the Anthropocene: New Agendas, New Agencies and New Approaches (2021); and Anthropocene Islands: Entangled Worlds (2021).

Hope is not commonly associated with the Anthropocene and its catastrophic implications. Without some positive hope – that is, recognition, planning, experimentation, invention and, above all, a new relation to the earth – we cannot face the unknowns that lie ahead. This book explores what a guarded and strategic hope, a ‘dark hope,’ might add to our understanding of what lies ahead.

• Introduction: Dark Hope in the AnthropoceneValerie Waldow, Pol Bargués and David ChandlerPart I. AgencyThe Anthropocene and the Unseen: Speculative, Pragmatic and Nihilist HopeDavid ChandlerA Hope against Hope: Scandal, Cynicism and Critique in the Wake of the Covid-19 polycrisisChris ZebrowskiWorking for 'Minor Utopias': Youth Employment in Sierra Leone and LiberiaSukanya Podder and Raul Zepeda GilVisualising Hope in the Radical Data Work of W. E. B. Du BoisKiran K. PhullA Feminist Ethic of Care for Orienting Utopia in Adjuntas, Puerto RicoChristie NicosonPart II. GovernanceEnduring Hopelessness: Governance without Horizon in Pandemic TimesNicolas GäckleSecuring the Hopeful Subject? The Militarisation of Complexity Science and the Limits of Decolonial CritiqueClaes Tängh WrangelThe Hope-Colonialism NexusMarjo Lindroth and Heidi Sinevaara-NiskanenHopeful Times, Black Futures, and Things Quantum Technologies Tell about International InstitutionsGeoff GordonIn the Breaches of Cancelled Futures: The Entropies of Modernisation and Ecological RecompositionRenan PortoPart III. NegationHope and the End of Critique? Crisis and Affirmation in the AnthropoceneValerie Waldow (Otto von Guericke University, Magdeburg)Hope in a World that will Never End? The Problem of Fanatical Hope in Critical DystopiasAristidis V. Agoglossakis FoleyHope Makes Strange: Affect, Hope, and StrangenessSrishti MalaviyaReimagining Hopeful Anthropocene Futures: From Entanglements to Radical OpennessIgnasi TorrentHope as a Theopolitical Virtue: Eschatology and End of Time PoliticsVassilios PaipaisHope: An EpilogueFleur Johns

Valerie Waldow is Lecturer and Research Associate at the Department of Political Science at Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Germany. Her research focuses on critical international political theory, liberal violence and democratic critique, and International Relations in the Anthropocene, with particular attention to intervention, governance, and political imaginaries. She works on critique, epistemic limits, and transformations of political thought, especially in relation to debates on hope and negativity in contemporary political theory. She is co-editor of Hope in the Anthropocene: Agency, Governance and Negation (2024, EUP). Pol Bargués is Senior Research Fellow at Barcelona Centre for International Affairs, Spain. Over the years he has developed an interest in the intersection of philosophy, critical theory and International Relations. In particular, he has critically interrogated international interventions in conflict-affected societies and explored the increasing prevalence of the ideas of resilience, hybridity, and hope. David Chandler is Professor of International Relations at the University of Westminster and edits the journal Anthropocenes: Human, Inhuman, Posthuman. His recent publications include: Hope: Shortcuts to a Big Idea (2026); Race in the Anthropocene: Coloniality, Disavowal and the Black Horizon (2025); Hope in the Anthropocene: Agency, Governance and Negation (2024); The World as Abyss: The Caribbean and Critical Thought in the Anthropocene (2023); International Relations in the Anthropocene: New Agendas, New Agencies and New Approaches (2021); and Anthropocene Islands: Entangled Worlds (2021).

Hope is not commonly associated with the Anthropocene and its catastrophic implications. Without some positive hope – that is, recognition, planning, experimentation, invention and, above all, a new relation to the earth – we cannot face the unknowns that lie ahead. This book explores what a guarded and strategic hope, a ‘dark hope,’ might add to our understanding of what lies ahead.

• Introduction: Dark Hope in the AnthropoceneValerie Waldow, Pol Bargués and David ChandlerPart I. AgencyThe Anthropocene and the Unseen: Speculative, Pragmatic and Nihilist HopeDavid ChandlerA Hope against Hope: Scandal, Cynicism and Critique in the Wake of the Covid-19 polycrisisChris ZebrowskiWorking for 'Minor Utopias': Youth Employment in Sierra Leone and LiberiaSukanya Podder and Raul Zepeda GilVisualising Hope in the Radical Data Work of W. E. B. Du BoisKiran K. PhullA Feminist Ethic of Care for Orienting Utopia in Adjuntas, Puerto RicoChristie NicosonPart II. GovernanceEnduring Hopelessness: Governance without Horizon in Pandemic TimesNicolas GäckleSecuring the Hopeful Subject? The Militarisation of Complexity Science and the Limits of Decolonial CritiqueClaes Tängh WrangelThe Hope-Colonialism NexusMarjo Lindroth and Heidi Sinevaara-NiskanenHopeful Times, Black Futures, and Things Quantum Technologies Tell about International InstitutionsGeoff GordonIn the Breaches of Cancelled Futures: The Entropies of Modernisation and Ecological RecompositionRenan PortoPart III. NegationHope and the End of Critique? Crisis and Affirmation in the AnthropoceneValerie Waldow (Otto von Guericke University, Magdeburg)Hope in a World that will Never End? The Problem of Fanatical Hope in Critical DystopiasAristidis V. Agoglossakis FoleyHope Makes Strange: Affect, Hope, and StrangenessSrishti MalaviyaReimagining Hopeful Anthropocene Futures: From Entanglements to Radical OpennessIgnasi TorrentHope as a Theopolitical Virtue: Eschatology and End of Time PoliticsVassilios PaipaisHope: An EpilogueFleur Johns

Valerie Waldow is Lecturer and Research Associate at the Department of Political Science at Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Germany. Her research focuses on critical international political theory, liberal violence and democratic critique, and International Relations in the Anthropocene, with particular attention to intervention, governance, and political imaginaries. She works on critique, epistemic limits, and transformations of political thought, especially in relation to debates on hope and negativity in contemporary political theory. She is co-editor of Hope in the Anthropocene: Agency, Governance and Negation (2024, EUP). Pol Bargués is Senior Research Fellow at Barcelona Centre for International Affairs, Spain. Over the years he has developed an interest in the intersection of philosophy, critical theory and International Relations. In particular, he has critically interrogated international interventions in conflict-affected societies and explored the increasing prevalence of the ideas of resilience, hybridity, and hope. David Chandler is Professor of International Relations at the University of Westminster and edits the journal Anthropocenes: Human, Inhuman, Posthuman. His recent publications include: Hope: Shortcuts to a Big Idea (2026); Race in the Anthropocene: Coloniality, Disavowal and the Black Horizon (2025); Hope in the Anthropocene: Agency, Governance and Negation (2024); The World as Abyss: The Caribbean and Critical Thought in the Anthropocene (2023); International Relations in the Anthropocene: New Agendas, New Agencies and New Approaches (2021); and Anthropocene Islands: Entangled Worlds (2021).

Hope is not commonly associated with the Anthropocene and its catastrophic implications. Without some positive hope – that is, recognition, planning, experimentation, invention and, above all, a new relation to the earth – we cannot face the unknowns that lie ahead. This book explores what a guarded and strategic hope, a ‘dark hope,’ might add to our understanding of what lies ahead.

• Introduction: Dark Hope in the AnthropoceneValerie Waldow, Pol Bargués and David ChandlerPart I. AgencyThe Anthropocene and the Unseen: Speculative, Pragmatic and Nihilist HopeDavid ChandlerA Hope against Hope: Scandal, Cynicism and Critique in the Wake of the Covid-19 polycrisisChris ZebrowskiWorking for 'Minor Utopias': Youth Employment in Sierra Leone and LiberiaSukanya Podder and Raul Zepeda GilVisualising Hope in the Radical Data Work of W. E. B. Du BoisKiran K. PhullA Feminist Ethic of Care for Orienting Utopia in Adjuntas, Puerto RicoChristie NicosonPart II. GovernanceEnduring Hopelessness: Governance without Horizon in Pandemic TimesNicolas GäckleSecuring the Hopeful Subject? The Militarisation of Complexity Science and the Limits of Decolonial CritiqueClaes Tängh WrangelThe Hope-Colonialism NexusMarjo Lindroth and Heidi Sinevaara-NiskanenHopeful Times, Black Futures, and Things Quantum Technologies Tell about International InstitutionsGeoff GordonIn the Breaches of Cancelled Futures: The Entropies of Modernisation and Ecological RecompositionRenan PortoPart III. NegationHope and the End of Critique? Crisis and Affirmation in the AnthropoceneValerie Waldow (Otto von Guericke University, Magdeburg)Hope in a World that will Never End? The Problem of Fanatical Hope in Critical DystopiasAristidis V. Agoglossakis FoleyHope Makes Strange: Affect, Hope, and StrangenessSrishti MalaviyaReimagining Hopeful Anthropocene Futures: From Entanglements to Radical OpennessIgnasi TorrentHope as a Theopolitical Virtue: Eschatology and End of Time PoliticsVassilios PaipaisHope: An EpilogueFleur Johns