Memory and Hope in the Age of Polycrisis

We are living in what has been described as an age of polycrisis, where climate change, geopolitical conflict, economic instability, technological disruption, and violence are tightly entangled. These overlapping crises do not simply coexist – they reinforce one another, creating cascading effects that are increasingly difficult to address. In such conditions, the erosion of hope risks becoming a crisis in itself, weakening both individual and collective capacity to respond.

This Theme starts from that premise: that the loss of hope is not just a consequence of crisis, but a fundamental challenge shaping how societies act in the present. At its core is the idea that hope is deeply connected to memory – specifically cultural memory, or the ways in which societies interpret and narrate the past. Memories of war, displacement, famine, and injustice shape how crises are understood, and what kinds of futures can be imagined.

Bringing together perspectives from across the humanities and social sciences, the Theme explores how memory and hope interact under conditions of uncertainty and instability. Particular attention is given to regions often positioned at the margins of Western perspectives, such as the Middle East and parts of Southern and East-Central Europe, where societies have long navigated multiple, overlapping crises. These contexts offer critical insights into how resilience is formed and sustained, and how hope may persist even under conditions of prolonged instability.

The concept of critical hope is central in the Theme. Unlike naïve optimism or passive expectation, critical hope is grounded in an awareness of structural challenges – ecological, political, and economic – while at the same time identifying resources for action within cultural traditions, institutions, and social practices. 

It is a form of hope that engages with reality, without being confined by it.

The Theme is guided by a set of interlinked questions:

• How do societies remember violence, environmental degradation, and war in times of intersecting crises?
• How do these memories shape political imagination and collective responses—do they foster paralysis and fear, or resilience and action?
• What forms of hope are realistic, constructive, and capable of mobilising change?
• And how can such forms of hope be understood, developed, and expressed through scholarship, culture, and the arts?