希望研究關懷人們如何在困境中度日，本研究透過台灣小書店行動者如何面對生存困境，發現希望的重新定位不僅是逆境中取得能動的方式，希望也使行動者從困境走向創造性，而對未知與可能性更加開放。在台灣小書店的發展脈絡中，書店已從買書的地方，轉型為文化活動與理念展現的舞台，使小書店的生產持續增加，但小書店行動者仍長期面臨收入不足的憂慮。因此，在理想性的外觀下，小書店現象內在埋藏著矛盾與張力：將書店視為職業收入的行動者，為什麼要從事賠錢的生意？把書店視為理想實踐的行動者，又為什麼要加入商業市場的遊戲？本研究觀察到，行動者透過重新定位外在阻力、對客觀數字的再評估，使困境產生不確定性，開書店的過程也使其逐漸偏好創造性工作，此一透過實踐過程而對未知產生的開放性，使開書店成為有希望的生活。

近年來人類學開始關注希望研究，提出希望具有重新定位現實的效果，並實際影響人類的行動，啓發本研究跳脫經濟的視角，以封閉／開放的互動來探討行動者在書店之路的轉折與變化。行動者在面對困境時，顯示了特殊的時間性觀點，使其跳脫過去經驗的束縛、預測未來的計劃性，產生嘗試看看的可能性思維與行動。本研究對象為生存策略彈性的小書店，以及由小書店行動者為主體的友善書業供給合作社。除了參與觀察與訪談，研究者自身開書店五年並任合作社理事三年的經驗，使本研究兼具反身性思考與行動者觀點。本研究將小書店的困境與希望理論對話，發現書店場域與行動的獨特文化與創造力，並藉此探索希望的影響力如何交織於快速變化的當代社會生活。

The research of hope concerns how people make a living in difficult circumstances. From this framework, this thesis focuses on how small book-shop operators in Taiwan perceive the harsh reality of their business and reorient themselves for creative actions and new possibilities. Small book shops in Taiwan have transformed from a place that sells books to a platform of cultural activities and ideas. This has prompted more of such kinds of book shops to come into existence, but in the long run these operators still face the situation of insufficient profit. Therefore, under the façade of idealism, the phenomenon of small book shops is inherently contradictory. On the one hand, as profit-seeking entities, this is essentially an unprofitable business. On the other hand, as actors that wish to realize their ideals, why bother to participate in a game of numbers? This research finds out that by reorienting outside obstructions and re-evaluating objective numbers, small book-shop operators could find creativity in their line of work. In this process, an openness towards the unknown future could be developed, making the operation of book shop a hopeful life.

Hope has become an important subject matter in recent anthropological studies. It is argued that hope can reorient the practical world and thus affect the actions of people. This has inspired this thesis to think beyond economic terms and approach the operation of small book shops from a framework of open/close-ness in order to understand the twists and turns of their business operation. When facing difficult circumstances, temporality becomes a crucial point of orientation, allowing actors to break away from past experience and fixed plans for the future, while encouraging attempts of different possibilities to take place. The main subject of this thesis is the small book shops that have flexible survival strategies, as well as the Friendly Book Supplies Co-operative Limited organized by the operators of these book shops. Research methods include participant-observation and interview, but the experience of operating a book shop for five years and serving on the board of the co-operative for 3 years by the researcher also provides a reflexive and actor-oriented point of view. This thesis connects the difficult circumstances of small book shops with the research of hope, points out the unique culture and creativity in the field of book shops, and explores how the influence of hope is intersected in the rapidly changing contemporary social life.

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