Description
In view of the multiple crises of our time and the apparent inability of existing institutions to solve these crises, it cannot be surprising that many people develop strong feelings of powerlessness. It seems that there is not only a lack of (technical) capacity to find solutions, but also a lack of (political) imagination of what a different/better world could look like. In this paper, I want to look for ‘narratives of hope’ that outline such a world. I do so in the context of international organizations (IOs). IOs pursue the greatest possible goals, and at the same time are often perceived as hypocritical. Can IOs – being bureaucracies often trapped in technocratic discourses – evoke hope for a better future? To answer this question, I develop an analytical framework by which one can examine different narratives for their hope-generating potential based on various dimensions (structure/grammar of the narrative, dynamics of affect, credibility of the sender, etc.). This analytical framework is then applied to a historical case study (UN under Hammarskjöld) as well as a currently dominant UN narrative (the SDGs). By focusing on the question of whether and to what extent IO initiatives such as the UN Secretary-General’s “Our Common Agenda” can generate hope for change, this paper speaks directly to the overarching conference theme.
