Resilient Hope: Identity, Extensibility, and Freedom as Design and Policy Considerations in Social Computing
Abdullah Hasan Safir, Nusrat Jahan Mim, S M Taiabul Haque, Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed · ACM Journal on Computing and Sustainable Societies · 2025
This article contributes to the social computing (particularly CSCW and HCI) scholarship by conceptualizing the idea of “hope”, particularly in relation to displacement, marginalization and resistance. Based on our longitudinal and multi-phase ethnographic interventions with internally displaced populations (IDPs) in Mohakhali and Kalyanpur areas of Dhaka, Bangladesh for three consecutive years, this work demonstrates how various dynamic properties of hope, both at personal and communal level, support this group to act, react, and/or resist many layers of urban adversities in their quotidian lives. By introducing the notion “Resilient Hope” , which constitutes identity formation, radical extensibility, and freedom of departure, the paper offers a novel understanding of how such marginalized communities sustain an uncertain, yet hopeful life. Drawing from a rich body of literature in Anthropology, STS, Philosophy, and Critical Urban Studies, it argues that resilient hope for a marginal community is not a static end goal to be achieved through design but a dynamic mode of survival and operation that has the potential to inform sustainable CSCW and HCI design processes. The paper further connects its empirical findings and theoretical insights to the broader goal of social justice in computing.