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Journal ArticleDOI

Assessing the Conceptual Use of Social Imagination in Media Research

01 Oct 2002-Journal of Communication Inquiry (SAGE Publications)-Vol. 26, Iss: 4, pp 349-353
TL;DR: The role of imagination in framing how people engage in social structures is explained by the concept of social imaginaries, discursive structures that articulate the framing of social forms, affecting subjects' understanding of themselves, their practices, and the places they occupy in society.
Abstract: This JCI theme issue presents five original articles that deal with the notion of imagination and its role in the articulation of media cultural texts. The authors explore media through the lens of theoretical concepts such as imagined community (Anderson 1983) and the social imaginary (Castoriadis 1987) to engage in new ways of understanding the role of media products in “an increasingly complex, culturally hybrid and diasporic world” (Durham and Kellner 2001). The role of imagination in framing howpeople engage in social structures is explained by the concept of social imaginaries, discursive structures that articulate the framing of social forms, affecting subjects’ understanding of themselves, their practices, and the places they occupy in society. By becoming the “implicated order through which all understanding necessarily pass” (Durand 1993), the social imaginary turns out to be a guiding tool that mobilizes social subjects in a world full of uncertainties. Although the term “social imaginary” is elaborated by Cornelius Castoriadis (1987) in his book The Imaginary Institution of Society, the role of imagination in the constitution of the collective should be traced to Emile Durkheim’s (1995) work The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. In this work, Durkheim proposed that the natural condition of human subjects is to be in society. He suggested that the way social subjects bond in society is due to the sharing of symbolic forms that enable individuals to come together as a collective (Durkheim 1995, 444). This collective organizes through systemic (conscious and unconscious) articulations. Those articulations constitute meanings that take form and are communicated in what Durkheim called the “conscience collective.” As a theoretical concept, the conscience collective has been explored in different ways by the works of Cornelius Castoriadis (1987), Michael Maffesoli (1993a, 1993b), Charles Taylor (1989, 2002), and Arjun Appadurai (1996). These scholars rethinkDurkheim’s (1995) idea of the conscience collective by suggesting that as a social articulation, it emerges in the form of a social imaginary, a kind of symbolic template or cultural conditioning that generates a sense of identity and inclusiveness between the members of a community.
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Afterlife of Eurovision 2003: Turkish and European Social Imaginaries and Ephemeral Communicative Space as discussed by the authors is a collection of articles about the Eurovision Song Contest 2003.
Abstract: The Afterlife of Eurovision 2003: Turkish and European Social Imaginaries and Ephemeral Communicative Space

28 citations


Cites background from "Assessing the Conceptual Use of Soc..."

  • ...In relation to media content, Gonzalez-Velez (2002) writes that “the social imaginary, as a cultural concept, offers novel venues for cultural analysis and understandings of media texts and their role in the articulation of social life” (p. 251)....

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  • ...The relationship between media texts in general (Gonzalez-Velez, 2002), journalistic texts in particular (e.g., Gardetto, 1997; Kaplan, 2003; Zelizer, 1992), and the social imaginary has been a well-scrutinized area of communication research....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a shift away from a "pure" cultural and intercultural preparation of mobile students, which tends to ignore the fact that unrealistic expectations and preconceived ideas about study abroad can be as much of a hindrance as e.g. culture shock, is proposed.
Abstract: This paper problematizes the imagineering of study abroad, especially in terms of set objectives and learning outcomes. The authors propose a shift away from a ‘pure’ cultural and intercultural preparation of mobile students, which tends to ignore the fact that unrealistic expectations and preconceived ideas about study abroad can be as much of a hindrance as e.g. ‘culture shock’. The concept of imaginaries is used to prepare international students, some from Asian countries, to reflect on, discuss and ‘reform’ their perceptions of study abroad. Imaginaries, which are constitutive of human beings living in groups, are of course necessary components of the study abroad experience. The results show that the students are able to deconstruct critically their own as well as others’ doxic discourses on the characteristics of study abroad. Yet at the same time, as one should expect, the students develop new imaginaries on mobility. We argue that by allowing them to develop more counter-narratives about study abroad—and thus multiplying imaginaries—the students can feel more apt to face the complexities and contradictions of the study abroad experience.

21 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article , the sociological foundations of Japanese study abroad (SA) are investigated, and it is shown that Japanese SA participants follow implicit socialisation rules, whereby avoidance of co-national sojourners holds the potential to undermine deeply-held ways of being.
Abstract: With internationalisation continuing at an ever-increasing pace, Japan incentivises student mobility via study abroad (SA) programmes in the hope of cultivating the global human resources necessary for future economic growth. Against this background, proficiency in English emerges as a dominant linguistic and epistemic model, increasingly viewed as prerequisite to high-level employment. Seeking to address the sociological foundations of this practice, this inquiry incorporates ‘Western’ philosophical perspectives with Japanese academic voices to explore the market-driven imaginaries driving Japanese SA. Regarding behaviour, pressure falls on Japanese SA participants to follow implicit socialisation rules, whereby avoidance of co-national sojourners holds the potential to undermine deeply-held ways of being. Concerning learning, it is shown that, while ostensibly multicultural, the Japanese State maintains a preference for English when describing ‘the further development of Japan as a nation’, reinforcing essentialist-culturalist interpretations of SA and, indeed, foreign language. Finally, discourses surrounding post-sojourn benefits suffer from a lack of clarity and unrealistic targets that, in turn, subtly produce an informal–and, for many, unpayable–social debt between actor and state.

6 citations

Dissertation
22 Jan 2007

Cites background from "Assessing the Conceptual Use of Soc..."

  • ...Sosiaalisen mielikuvituksen käsitteellä viitataan tällaiseen kollektiiviseen ymmärrykseen ympäröivästä yhteiskunnasta, joka tekee mahdolliseksi yksilöiden toiminnan ja sosiaalisen vuorovaikutuksen (González-Vélez 2002, 349)....

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References
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Book
01 Jan 1996

12,313 citations


"Assessing the Conceptual Use of Soc..." refers background or methods in this paper

  • ...Appadurai, Arjun....

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  • ...As a theoretical concept, the conscience collective has been explored in different ways by the works of Cornelius Castoriadis (1987), Michael Maffesoli (1993a, 1993b), Charles Taylor (1989, 2002), and Arjun Appadurai (1996)....

    [...]

  • ...The conceptualizations of the imaginary developed by Castoriadis (1987), Maffesoli (1993b), Taylor (1989, 2002), and Appadurai (1996) suggest that in modernity, the collective is not a coherent, natural, and localized object but a social construction—an invention that normalizes subjects’…...

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  • ...Interestingly, Appadurai (1996) has addressed imagination as a “collective, social fact” that has been taken for granted by people as they operate in everyday life....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912), Emile Durkheim set himself the task of discovering the enduring source of human social identity as discussed by the authors, and investigated what he considered to be the simplest form of documented religion - totemism among the Aborigines of Australia.
Abstract: 'If religion generated everything that is essential in society, this is because the idea of society is the soul of religion.' In The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912), Emile Durkheim set himself the task of discovering the enduring source of human social identity. He investigated what he considered to be the simplest form of documented religion - totemism among the Aborigines of Australia. Aboriginal religion was an avenue 'to yield an understanding of the religious nature of man, by showing us an essential and permanent aspect of humanity'. The need and capacity of men and women to relate socially lies at the heart of Durkheim's exploration, in which religion embodies the beliefs that shape our moral universe. The Elementary Forms has been applauded and debated by sociologists, anthropologists, ethnographers, philosophers, and theologians, and continues to speak to new generations about the origin and nature of religion and society. This new, lightly abridged edition provides an excellent introduction to Durkheim's ideas. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

6,633 citations

Book
Charles Taylor1
01 Mar 1992
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the conflicts of modernity and modernity's relationship with the self in moral space and the providential order of nature, and present a list of the main sources of conflict.
Abstract: Preface Part I. Identity and the Good: 1. Inescapable frameworks 2. The self in moral space 3. Ethics of inarticulacy 4. Moral sources Part II: Inwardness: 5. Moral topography 6. Plato's self-mastery 7. 'In Interiore Homine' 8. Descartes's disengaged reason 9. Locke's punctual self 10. Exploring 'l'Humaine Condition' 11. Inner nature 12. A digression on historical explanation Part III. The Affirmation of Ordinary Life: 13. 'God Loveth Adverbs' 14. Rationalised Christianity 15. Moral sentiments 16. The providential order 17. The culture of modernity Part IV. The Voice of Nature: 18. Fractured horizons 19. Radical enlightenment 20. Nature as source 21. The Expressivist turn Part V. Subtler Languages: 22. Our Victorian contemporaries 23. Visions of the post-romantic age 24. Epiphanies of modernism 25. Conclusion: the conflicts of modernity Notes Index.

5,608 citations

Book
29 Dec 2003
TL;DR: The Modern Moral Order and the Specter of idealism as discussed by the authors have been identified as the foundations of the modern social imagination, and the modern moral order has been called the "Social Imaginary".
Abstract: Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 1 The Modern Moral Order 3 2 What Is a "Social Imaginary"? 23 3 the Specter of idealism 31 4 The Great Disembedding 49 5 The Economy as Objectified Reality 69 6 The Public Sphere 83 7 Public and Private 101 8 The Sovereign People 109 9 An All-Pervasive Order 143 10 The Direct-Access Society 155 11 Agency and Objectification 163 12 Modes of Narration 175 13 The Meaning of Secularity 185 14 Provincializing Europe 195 Notes 197

2,190 citations

Book
01 Jan 1987
TL;DR: Castoriadis's "The Imaginary Institution of Society" as discussed by the authors is one of the most important works of contemporary European thought, and it is the most original, ambitious, and reflective attempt to think through the liberating mediation of history, society, external and internal nature once again as praxis.
Abstract: "[T]he most original, ambitious, and reflective attempt to think through the liberating mediation of history, society, external and internal nature once again as praxis". -- Ju rgen Habermas, "The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity" "Castoriadis's "The Imaginary Institution of Society" is a work of great power and originality. As a work of social theory, I would argue that it belongs in a class with the writings of Habermas and Arendt". -- Jay Bernstein, University of Essex This is one of the most original and important works of contemporary European thought. First published in France in 1975, it is the major theoretical work of one of the foremost thinkers in Europe today. Castoriadis offers a brilliant and far-reaching analysis of the unique character of the social-historical world and its relations to the individual, to language, and to nature. He argues that most traditional conceptions of society and history overlook the essential feature of the social-historical world, namely that this world is not articulated once and for all but is in each case the creation of the society concerned. In emphasizing the element of creativity, Castoriadis opens the way for rethinking political theory and practice in terms of the autonomous and explicit self-institution of society.

1,412 citations