Imagining Collective Futures

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. Front Matter ....Pages i-xiii Introduction: What May the Future Hold? (Constance de Saint-Laurent, Sandra Obradović, Kevin R. Carriere)....Pages 1-12 Front Matter ....Pages 13-13 Imagining the Collective Future: A Sociocultural Perspective (Tania Zittoun, Alex Gillespie)....Pages 15-37 Framing the Issue: Literature, Collective Imagination, and Fan Activism (Kevin R. Carriere)....Pages 39-58 Thinking Through Time: From Collective Memories to Collective Futures (Constance de Saint-Laurent)....Pages 59-81 Perspectival Collective Futures: Creativity and Imagination in Society (Vlad Petre Glăveanu)....Pages 83-105 Front Matter ....Pages 107-107 Imagining Collective Futures in Time: Prolepsis and the Regimes of Historicity (Ignacio Brescó de Luna)....Pages 109-128 Utopias and World-Making: Time, Transformation and the Collective Imagination (Sandra Jovchelovitch, Hana Hawlina)....Pages 129-151 Troubled Pasts, Collective Memory, and Collective Futures (Cristian Tileagă)....Pages 153-172 Imagining Collective Identities Beyond Intergroup Conflict (Cathy Nicholson, Caroline Howarth)....Pages 173-196 Front Matter ....Pages 197-197 Creating Alternative Futures: Cooperative Initiatives in Egypt (Eman A. Maarek, Sarah H. Awad)....Pages 199-219 Remembering and Imagining in Human Development: Fairness and Social Movements in Ireland (Séamus A. Power)....Pages 221-235 Creating Integration: A Case Study from Serbia and the EU (Sandra Obradović)....Pages 237-254 History Education and the (Im)possibility of Imagining the Future (Mario Carretero)....Pages 255-271 Conclusion: Changing Imaginings of Collective Futures (Ivana Marková)....Pages 273-294 Back Matter ....Pages 295-298