Social Imaginaries in Debate

Bibliographic Data

ID5772750
AuthorsSuzi Adam, Suzi Adams (Flinders University), Paul Blokker (0000-0003-4352-6478, Charles University), Natalie J Doyle, John W M Krummel (0000-0002-3940-2571, Hobart and William Smith Colleges), J Smith (0000-0003-2204-1594, Federation University), Jeremy C A Smith, Zeta Books
Year2015
Volume1
Issue1
Pages15-52
Publication date2015-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Social Imaginaries (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2772-7858 • E-ISSN: 2772-7866
PublisherPhilosophy Documentation Center (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.5840/si2015112
OpenAlexW599286867
LanguageEN
Citations received59
References cited46

Investiga tions into social imaginaries have burgeoned in recent years.From 'the capitalist imaginary' to the 'democratic imaginary', from the 'ecological imaginary' to 'the global imaginary' -and beyond -the social imaginaries fi eld has expanded across disciplines and beyond the academy.Th e recent debates on social imaginaries and potential new imaginaries reveal a recognisable fi eld and paradigm-in-the-making.We argue that Castoriadis, Ricoeur, and Taylor have articulated the most important theoretical frameworks for understanding social imaginaries, although the fi eld as a whole remains heterogeneous.We further argue that the notion of social imaginaries draws on the modern understanding of the imagination as authentically creative (as opposed to imitative).We contend that an elaboration of social imaginaries involves a signifi cant, qualitative shift in the understanding of societies as collectively and politically-(auto)instituted formations that are irreducible to inter-subjectivity or systemic logics.After marking out the contours of the fi eld and recounting a philosophical history of the imagination (including deliberations on the reproductive and creative imaginations, as well as consideration of contemporary Japanese contributions), the essay turns to debates on social imaginaries in more concrete contexts, specifi cally political-economic imaginaries, the ecological imaginary, multiple modernities and their intercivilisational encounters.Th e social imaginaries fi eld imparts powerful messages for the human sciences and wider publics.In particular, social imaginaries hold signifi cant implications for ontological, phenomenological and philosophical anthropological questions; for the cultural, social, and political horizons of contemporary worlds; and for ecological and economic phenomena (including their manifest crises).Th e essay concludes with the argument that social imaginaries as a paradigm-in-the-making off ers valuable means by which movements towards social change can be elucidated as well providing an open horizon for the critiques of existing social practices

Epistemology · Political science · Sociology · Foucault, Power, and Ethics · Hermeneutics and Narrative Identity · Philosophy · Rhetoric and Communication Studies

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