Book reviews [International Journal of Emotional Education, 10(2)]

Abstract

Hope is an abiding theme throughout all four of the reviewed books. It is a precondition for the relationality of restorative practice, the core theme of Slezackova‟s book, with resonances also in the mental health promotion concerns of Cefai and Cooper‟s book interrogating these issues across diverse cultures. Moreover, Hood‟s interrogation of system complexity in social work to meet the needs of those experiencing a range of adversities, traumas and despair rests on the precondition of hope as the fuel for change, whether at individual or system level. Hope does not give the bland assurance that things will work out, it is not a quasiHegelian telos that treats the future as being etched with inexorable paths. Hope offers the chance that things can work out, it gives the breath of possibility, rather than the false ground of certainty. Hope is not the flat certitude of optimism, it is a more subtle dimension of human experience and system development in education, social work and beyond.