Critical Hope, Kari Grain, PhD
Critical Hope, Kari Grain, PhD
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Critical Hope
How to Grapple with Complexity, Lead with Purpose, and Cultivate Transformative Social Change

Author: Kari Grain, PhD

Narrator: Kari Grain

Unabridged: 9 hr 51 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/03/2022

Synopsis

Introducing the 7 principles for practicing critical hope--because hope isn’t something you have; it’s something you do.

Each person has a unique, ever-changing relationship to hope.
 
Hope alone can be transformational--but in moments of despair, or when you’re up against profound injustice, it isn’t enough on its own. Hope without action is, at best, naive. At its worst, it tricks you into giving up the power and agency you have to change systems that cause suffering.
 
Enter critical hope: a spark of passion, an abiding belief that transformation is not just possible, but vital. This is hope in action: a vibrant, engaged practice and a commitment to honoring transformative potential across a vast spectrum of experience.
 
Dr. Kari Grain, PhD, offers 7 principles for practicing critical hope:
Hope is necessary, but hope alone is not enoughCritical hope is not something you have; it’s something you practice.Critical hope is messy, uncomfortable, and full of contradictions. Critical hope is intimately entangled with the body and the landCritical hope requires bearing witness to social and historical traumaCritical hope requires interruptions and invitationsAnger and grief have a seat at the table 
The principles for practicing critical hope are not what you might think: they confront toxic positivity and take up discomfort, social injustices, and an ethos of hospitality toward anger and grief. But held in this same space is a love for connection–and an honoring of what makes you feel alive.
 
Inspired by her global research, teaching experiences, and education curriculum taught at the University of British Columbia, Dr. Grain shows that to cultivate critical hope--and combat despair--you need to show up with your whole self, in all its messy, passionate, vibrant complexity.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Matt on January 03, 2024

Exquisitely written, hope with a critical eye, unflinching and soft, honest and inspiring, a map to a future of healing and wholeness.......more

Goodreads review by Christopher on June 09, 2022

I really liked this book. In the introduction, the author talks about gap between academic theory and practice and how it was always difficult for her as a PhD student to understand these theories if they weren't based in real world experiences. This book is full of real world experiences that suppor......more

Goodreads review by Candace on September 27, 2022

This book is unlike anything else I’ve read. It’s not just smart and elegant writing, but the way Dr Grain sees the world is a view through a new window for me. The concept of critical hope couldn’t be better explained or given more stunning examples. You will laugh and cry and feel and hope, and wh......more

Goodreads review by ModernDayArachne on July 09, 2022

My personal rating 3/5 stars. TW: miscarriage, gendered language, white privilege acknowledgement, visceral descriptions of broken bones I was very excited regarding the premise for this book. It's one that I've been studying through the lens of Martin Buber's book I and Thou and it's one I truly fee......more

Goodreads review by Jingzhou on October 17, 2022

I am currently reading this book and wanted to express how much I have been in love with it! Firstly, I really appreciated the structure of this book as it started with an introductory chapter that contextualized what hope was in diverse sociocultural contexts. I was also impressed by how the author......more

Quotes

“In an age when we so often feel overwhelmed by the enormity of trauma in our communities and our world, Dr. Grain’s book couldn’t be more relevant and applicable. It is a compendium on hope in a way you’ve never seen before, and mixes academia with real, raw, and honest storytelling. It cannot be missed.”
—Candace Salmon, lawyer and cofounder of Reflections on Rwanda

“It is rare that one reads a book where the writer is so open and honest. One cannot help but admire the courage with which Kari Grain has dealt with the adversities she encountered in her life. On a larger scale, Grain shows an acute awareness of the challenging problems facing the world right now and the renewed strength and skills that will be essential to deal with these difficulties now and in the future. Emily Dickinson wrote that hope is that thing with feathers. In her book, Kari Grain makes hope fly.”
—Pinchas Gutter, Holocaust survivor and author of Memories in Focus

“I wish I had written this book. I have lived with the concept of critical hope without ever having had a name for it. This book told me something that I needed to know. Everyone should read it.”
—Douglas Courtemanche, MD

“This is a beautiful book with a powerful takeaway: the critical part of hope is seeded and nurtured by discomfort and humility. Grain’s deep connection to teaching helps us see how we can enter hopeful space with others. For me, the stories that Grain relays of friends, acquaintances, and coworkers navigating critical hope were icing on the cake—it’s Grain’s own experience as an educator and a seeker, guided by justice, that really catches us up and shows us the way.”
—Tristin K. Green, professor of law at the University of San Francisco and author of Discrimination Laundering

“It is a beautiful experience to read something that is so emotional, critical, and academic. I wish there was more writing like this.”
—Emily Yee Clare, anti-racism educator and equity consultant

“Critical Hope is an important contribution to not only the field of education, but also the political realm that encompasses the world as invisible architecture. Grain’s emphasis on deepening structural analysis, praxis, and somatics, including the important work of metabolizing grief, are part of a time-tested trinity to become more contextually relevant beings. Given the current context, this is the urgent and eternal work of our times.”
—Alnoor Ladha, cofounder of The Rules, council chair for Culture Hack Labs, and coauthor of Post-Capitalist Philanthropy

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