A political economy of hope: Materialisations of social class and inequity in women's imaginings of alcohol (free) futures

Abstract

This paper explores how social class shapes affective experiences, integrating the sociology of emotions with political economic theory to examine how systems of dis/advantage influence women's hopes and hopefulness about their futures and the potential for reductions in alcohol consumption. Using 149 open-ended qualitative interviews with 86 women across three studies, we analyse 'hope stories' to investigate how capacities for hopefulness are embedded in the social practices and temporal orientations of gender and class. Interviews focused on the role of alcohol in daily life and perceptions of opportunities for reducing consumption, particularly in the context of alcohol as a health risk. Throughout data analysis, we made sense of the data though literature on the sociology of hope and the political economy of hope, revealing how class and gender create differing conditions and expressions of hope. Women in affluent social class positions expressed confidence in reducing alcohol consumption (if desired), attributing this to agency and personal virtue, often dismissing the need for hope. Middle-class women reported relying on hope to navigate pressures to conform to gendered norms and respectability, where alcohol use is socially expected. In contrast, working-class women described feelings of hopelessness, as intersecting precarities in their lives reinforced reliance on alcohol to manage life stressors. This study highlights how social class and gender create varying distributions and conditions of hope, offering empirical evidence on the structuring structures of hopefulness. Our findings provide critical insights for policy makers to develop equitable and class-sensitive approaches to supporting women in reducing alcohol consumption.