Without a minimum of hope, we cannot so much as start the struggle. But without the struggle, hope, as an ontological need, dissipates, loses its bearings, and turns into hopelessness. And hopelessness can beconje tragic despair. Hence the need for a kind of education in hope. Hope, as it happens, is so important for our existence, individual and social, that we must take every care not to experience it in a mistaken form, and thereby allow it to slip toward hopelessness and despair. [Paulo Freire (1994). Pedagogy of Hope. Continuum: New York (p. 9, Translated by Robert R. Barr)]
Award & Honor
She was awarded the “Civica Benemerenza” honor by the Municipality of Laureana Cilento (SA) with the following motivation: “for her eminent contribution to sociological research and the social sciences, in recognition of her dedication and commitment to promoting culture and knowledge” (Municipal Council Resolution no. 70 of 11/08/2025).
New book
(2025). (with G. Russo). Culture and Everyday Life in Rela(c)tion. Leeds, UK: Emerald Publishing (ISBN: 978-1-83708-515-6 – ISBN: 978-1-83708-514-9 ISBNe: 978-1-83708-516-3).
In a society that is still experiencing the crisis generated by the pandemic due to the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, aggravated also by the conflict in Ukraine and the conflict in the occupied territories of Palestine, it is necessary to rethink the concept of culture, which must be declined in its factual reality of everyday life, since the cultural system and its elements not only produce relationships (meaningful interactions) but also individual and collective social action, hence the use of the term rela(c)tion in the title.
(2025). (with G. Gili). Towards a Sociology of Hope: Looking Beyond. Abigdon and New York: Routledge (ISBN: 978-1-032-60021-5; ISBN: 978-1-032-61603-2; ISBNe: 978-1-032-61604-9; https://doi.org/10.4324/9781032616049).
Why does hope appear in certain epochs and places, only at other times to disappear from people’s lives and from society as a whole? This book addresses hope from a sociological perspective, offering a theoretical framework and a set of concepts to consider a range of questions. With attention to who the historical bearers of hope are, and which social groups are most inclined towards hope and why. It also considers the objects and goals towards which their hope is directed and the conditions under which hope is easier. An enquiry into the relationship between hope and social, cultural, economic and political conditions, this volume redirects the sociological gaze towards the discovery of social experiences in which hope resurrects and contributes to the imagination of a new social world. It will therefore appeal to scholars of sociology and social theory with interests in the emotions, social practices and social movements.
(2025) (with G. Gili). Speranza. Passione del possibile. Milan: Vita e Pensiero (ISBN: 978-88-343-5691-3).
There are words that we think we know perfectly well because they indicate realities that are part of our everyday experience. One of these is hope. As so many have said, from Aristotle to today, hope is a universal need and a structure of human life itself, because without hope we cannot live. As a subjective experience it expresses itself in the form of emotion, feeling, personality trait, habit of action, virtue. However, it is not only something that happens ‘in’ people, but also ‘between’ people. We hope not only for ourselves, but also for others, with others and sometimes against others. Different people and groups place their hope in different realities: in life beyond death, in happiness in this world, in material security, in love, in bodily health or spiritual well-being… And then there are also the ‘great’ hopes of social classes, generations, nations or the whole of humanity. Referring to the humanities and social sciences, literature and art history, the two sociologists Guido Gili and Emiliana Mangone explore the theme of hope in the round, questioning, for example, its specific characteristics; its relationship with desire or expectation; the forms of its relationship with transcendence. And again: why is it that in certain epochs and places hope is born or resurrects overbearingly, while in others it becomes hysterical and seems to disappear from the horizon of personal and associated life? And above all, why is there a need for hope today, the ‘passion of the possible’, as Jürgen Moltmann and Paul Ricoeur define it?
Emiliana Mangone 