What are Social Imaginaries?: A Pathway Through the Labyrinth
In: International Journal of Social ImaginariesSearch for other papers by Suzi Adams in
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Abstract
This essay charts a pathway through the labyrinth of social imaginaries. It enters into hermeneutic engagement with Castoriadis, Ricoeur, Taylor, and Arnason to outline a framework that elucidates social imaginaries in relation to social creativity, meaning, action, institutions, and the world horizon. It first situates “imaginaries” within a theory of culture. This section addresses the world as a background horizon of implicit meanings; imaginary significations as world creating; the interpretative aspect of creation; and the symbolic as a bridge between culture and society. The second section addresses the ‘social’ of social imaginaries. It highlights the social-historical as the impersonal dimension of society, and institutions and modes of social doing in which social imaginaries are incarnated. It identifies three varieties of doing: movement, social practices, and social praxis. It draws on the metaphor of the hermeneutic spiral to grasp social imaginaries in their dynamic movement of interpretation and creation.
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Adams, S. (2011). Castoriadis’ Ontology: Being and Creation. New York: Fordham University Press.
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Adams, S. (ed) (2015). Ricoeur and Castoriadis in Discussion: On Human Creation, Historical Novelty, and the Social Imaginary. London, Rowman and Littlefield International.
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Taylor, G.H. (2024*) “Editor’s Introduction”. In Lectures on Imagination. Edited by G.H. Taylor, R.D. Sweeney, J-L. Amalric, and P. Crosby, Chicago: University of Chicago Press (In-Press).
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What are Social Imaginaries?: A Pathway Through the Labyrinth
In: International Journal of Social ImaginariesSearch for other papers by Suzi Adams in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
This essay charts a pathway through the labyrinth of social imaginaries. It enters into hermeneutic engagement with Castoriadis, Ricoeur, Taylor, and Arnason to outline a framework that elucidates social imaginaries in relation to social creativity, meaning, action, institutions, and the world horizon. It first situates “imaginaries” within a theory of culture. This section addresses the world as a background horizon of implicit meanings; imaginary significations as world creating; the interpretative aspect of creation; and the symbolic as a bridge between culture and society. The second section addresses the ‘social’ of social imaginaries. It highlights the social-historical as the impersonal dimension of society, and institutions and modes of social doing in which social imaginaries are incarnated. It identifies three varieties of doing: movement, social practices, and social praxis. It draws on the metaphor of the hermeneutic spiral to grasp social imaginaries in their dynamic movement of interpretation and creation.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 945 | 745 | 63 |
| Full Text Views | 500 | 51 | 5 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 918 | 105 | 5 |
