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Paper short abstract:

This paper explores feelings of hope and hopelessness, which are influenced by embodied experiences of past and present violence, among social workers in post-conflict Belfast. It addresses how the memory of the past connect to the imagined future the social workers want for themselves and the others.

Paper long abstract:

“I’ve lost too many kids”. Since the conventional end of the latest Northern Irish conflict (1998), social workers have been at the forefront of social and health interventions to ease those wounds of the past (Fassin and Rechtman 2009) that were still affecting many (Tomlinson 2012). This contribution focuses on feelings of hope and hopelessness among social workers in post-conflict Belfast that are influenced by embodied experiences of past and present violences (Kleinman 2000). The work builds on ethnographic data collected in a youth centre in one segregated working-class area of Belfast. Social workers’ past and personal experiences of the conflict are shared with the young people and mothers in their care. Moreover, experiences of a violent past and present reveal the social workers’ emotions towards an uncertain future. This influences how social workers provide ‘care’ and construct ‘hope’, helping them to imagine a future where young people will not experience the suffering of the past. This paper also discusses how feelings of hopelessness obstacle the social workers’ ability to do their job. Thus, it also looks at ‘failure’. The high rates of suicide among young people in the area are referred to as one important example and one of the major challenges that the social workers have to face in their line of work. In this context, feelings of hope are constructed both individually and collectively, revealing a particular relationship between the memories of the past and the imagined future the social workers want for themselves and the others.