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 eld has expanded across disciplines and beyond the academy. e recent debates on social imaginaries and potential new imaginaries reveal a recognisable 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 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 signi 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 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, speci cally political-economic imaginaries, the ecological imaginary, multiple modernities and their intercivilisational encounters. e social imaginaries eld imparts powerful messages for the human sciences and wider publics. In particular, social imaginaries hold signi 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). e essay concludes with the argument that social imaginaries as a paradigm-in-the-making o! 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.
Social Imaginaries in Debate / BLOKKER, PAULUS ALBERTUS. - In: SOCIAL IMAGINARIES. - ISSN 2393-2503. - STAMPA. - 1:(2015), pp. 15-52. [10.5840/si2015112]
Social Imaginaries in Debate
BLOKKER, PAULUS ALBERTUS
2015
Abstract
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 eld has expanded across disciplines and beyond the academy. e recent debates on social imaginaries and potential new imaginaries reveal a recognisable 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 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 signi 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 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, speci cally political-economic imaginaries, the ecological imaginary, multiple modernities and their intercivilisational encounters. e social imaginaries eld imparts powerful messages for the human sciences and wider publics. In particular, social imaginaries hold signi 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). e essay concludes with the argument that social imaginaries as a paradigm-in-the-making o! 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.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
