Description
It is a commonly held assumption among cultural, social, and political psychologists that imagining the future of societies we live in has the potential to change how we think and act in the world. However little research has been devoted to whether this effect exists in collective imaginations, of social groups, communities and nations, for instance. This book explores the part that imagination and creativity play in the construction of collective futures, and the diversity of outlets in which these are presented, from fiction and cultural symbols to science and technology. The authors discuss this effect in social phenomena such as in intergroup conflict and social change, and focus on several cases studies to illustrate how the imagination of collective futures can guide social and political action. This book brings together theoretical and empirical contributions from cultural, social, and political psychology to offer insight into our constant (re)imagination of the societies in which we live.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction: What may the future hold?; Constance de Saint-Laurent, Sandra Obradović & Kevin R. Carriere.- Section 1: Imagining the Future.- Chapter 2: Imagining the collective future: a sociocultural perspective; Tania Zittoun & Alex Gillespie.- Chapter 3 Framing the issue: Literature, collective imagination, and fan activism; Kevin R. Carriere.- Chapter 4 Thinking through time:. From collective memories to collective futures; Constance de Saint-laurent.- Chapter 5 Perspectival collective futures: Creativity and imagination in society; Vlad Petre Glăveanu.- Section 2: Collective Imaginations.- Chapter 6 Imagining collective futures in time: prolepsis and the regimes of historicity; Ignacio Brescó de Luna.- Chapter 7 Utopias and World-Making: Time, Transformation and the Collective Imagination; Sandra Jovchelovitch & Hana Hawlina.- Chapter 8 Troubled pasts, collective memory and collective futures; Cristian Tileagă.- Chapter 9 Imagining collective identities beyond intergroup conflict; Cathy Nicholson and Caroline Howarth.- Section 3: Creating Socio-Political Change.- Chapter 10 Creating Alternative Futures: Cooperative Initiatives in Egypt; Eman A. Maarek & Sarah H. Awad.- Chapter 11 Remembering and imagining in human development: Fairness and social movements in Ireland; Séamus A. Power.- Chapter 12 Creating Integration: a Case Study from Serbia and the EU; Sandra Obradović.- Chapter 13 History education and the (im) possibility of imagining the future; Mario Carretero.- Chapter 14 Conclusion: Changing imaginings of collective futures; Ivana Marková.
