Grounding Hope in Trust: The Case of Climate Activism

According to the standard definition of hope, for one to be hopeful, the desired outcome must be considered at least possible. The literature on climate activism has incorporated this notion of hope, but we argue that this notion alone cannot fully account for hopeful attitudes in situations where collective action is demanded. For hope to be justified in the case of climate activism, it must be supported by some form of trust. We then outline different forms of trust that can be found in activist practices to ground hopeful attitudes, including procedural and moral trust in institutions and in fellow citizens or activists. We finally argue that mistrust represents a democratic equilibrium between the activists’ duty to exercise vigilance and critique toward institutions and the need for institutions to be perceived as trustworthy by activists and citizens more broadly.