Paper short abstract:

This talk investigates the ontology of hope with particular attention to its manifestation as a phenomenon in the study sociotechnical practices. What characteristics might delineate hope as a unitary phenomenon while accommodating its diverse expression across and within sites and groups?

Paper long abstract:

This talk investigates the ontology of hope with particular attention to its manifestation as a phenomenon in the study sociotechnical practices. What characteristics might delineate hope as a unitary phenomenon while accommodating its diverse expression across and within sites and groups?

I ground this inquiry with STS literature and my original research covering sites and activities including military planning and technology, robotic science competitions, pure mathematics, and consumer technology. Common to these sites is an orientation towards the future, core counterfactual beliefs, and narratives and identities productive of agency.

I propose that hope can be understood as a plan that realizes agency, the counterfactual possibility of action, in the present moment. Doing so allows application of the social ontology of plans Barry Smith has devised, building upon the work of John Searle and Scott Shapiro. Plans in Smith's account are informational entities that specify action, are modular, and can be enmeshed. They are critical to achieving what Shapiro has called massive social agency. Smith and Shapiro's work was devised to explain military doctrine and the law, respectively. I conclude with modifications and further specifications for the ontology of plans suggested by sociotechnical practices of hope.

Ultimately, this account offers a theoretical lens for STS scholars to better identify and engage with the phenomenon of hope in their work. Understanding hopes of various kinds, from techno-optimism to the "horizontal" hope that Ratto and Jackson (2023) extoll, in similar theoretical terms enables more effective and empathetic engagement and intervention within these practices.