FoRe/Hope returns to DevDays 2026 with the workshop “Nurturing hope and resistance in the ruins”
Join FoRe/Hope for our upcoming workshop at the Development Days conference in Helsinki 26-27 February 2026. This workshop builds on last year’s DevDays workshop, which invited reflections on the entanglements of hope(lessness) and resistance and what they teach us about social change. The session generated critical insights into the politics of hope, how acts of resistance and hope reinforce and challenge each other, and what sustains hope in everyday life. Over the past year, these reflections have only grown more relevant amid ongoing climate emergencies, genocide, militarization, inequality, extractive capitalism, and authoritarianism.
This year, our workshop seeks to explore pathways for reimagining futures grounded in care, solidarity, and justice. Central to this exploration is the transformative potential of interrogating the relationship between resistance and hope. Both are vital sources of social change, capable of inspiring individuals and communities to challenge exclusionary and authoritarian structures and systems. Examining the political agency of hope alongside resistance enables critical reflection on how power structures are (re)made and (re)imagined in contexts of violence and oppression. We contend that hope and resistance are deeply intertwined in shaping the present through visions of the future, forming vital starting points for imagining and working toward more just worlds.
Aligned with the DevDays26 theme, Development in ruins, hope in the cracks the workshop will center on the question: How do different forms of resistance and practices of hope intersect, and how can we nurture social change amidst the ruins?
We invite participants to reflect on these intersections, focusing on their potential to enable social transformation. Scholars, practitioners, and all those committed to imagining and enacting more just futures are welcome to participate in this collective exploration of hope and resistance. If you are planning to attend the conference, join us even if you have not signed up in advance, the workshop will be open for walk ins! Click here to register for the conference.