This paper examines the dynamics of hope in creative industries in the city of Accra in Ghana. Building on theoretical insights from geography, anthropology and sociology that have mobilized the concept of hope as an analytical category, we examine the economic actions and entrepreneurial behaviour of creative entrepreneurs working in “precarious geographies”, i.e. locations where precarity is not a deviation from the norm but a constant and longstanding feature. Drawing on in-depth interviews, we contend that in conditions of radical and pervasive precarity, hope represents a distinct form of work in which the potentialities of the moment extend the present into the future, while the future, however hazy and unimaginable, affects the economic vitality of the present. By unpacking three dominant practices of hopeful orientation to futurity enacted by creative workers in Accra, namely hustling, waiting, and spiritualizing, we demonstrate the usefulness of hope as a concept in analysing economic action and labour dynamics.

本文研究了加纳阿克拉市创意产业的希望动力。基于地理学，人类学和社会学的理论见解，这些理论动员了希望的概念作为分析类别，我们研究了在“不稳定地区”工作的富有创造力的企业家的经济行为和企业家行为，即那些不稳定的地区与当地的差异不大。规范，但却是一个长期不变的特征。通过深入的访谈，我们认为，在极端和普遍的不稳定状态下，希望代表了一种独特的工作形式，其中，当下的潜力将当下延伸到未来，而未来，无论多么朦胧和难以想象，都会影响到未来。目前的经济活力。