The Imaginary

About: The Imaginary is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 4807 publications have been published within this topic receiving 87663 citations.

Touching Listening: The Aural Imaginary in the World Music Culture Industry

Abstract: Focusing on Kinship Records and the two years of ethnographic fieldwork I performed there, this essay develops the theory of the “aural imaginary” in an effort to deconstruct the centrality of racialized gender to the formation of the American world music culture industry In doing so, I illuminate an aural imaginary particular to the production of a market for world music in the United States, suggesting ways to understand how this market is being consolidated, and considering some of the implications of its existence and functioning While many studies of “world music” have focused on the construction of difference through the packaging of exoticized others for Western listeners, this essay explores “world music” as a construction of US listening practices and sonic fantasy

Reviewer Feedback as Discourse of the Other A Psychoanalytic Perspective on the Manuscript Review Process

Abstract: This article contributes to dialog in the field about the nature of the manuscript review process. It develops a psychoanalytic framework for understanding how participants in the review process construct each other as subjects in discourse and why the experience of alienation inevitably marks this process. The framework suggests that participants can draw on different subject positions with regard to this alienation. One is imaginary and entails the failed fantasy that lack and alienation can be overcome. The other is symbolic and entails a mutual engagement with this failure. The article suggests imaginary positions are less constructive, resulting in struggles between participants as others. By contrast, it suggests symbolic positions are more constructive, resulting in struggles with otherness and opportunities for more creative outcomes. The article explores reviewer reflexivity as an important element of symbolic interactions in which participants have responsibility for the production of relationsh...

Resetting journalism in the aftermath of Brexit and Trump

Abstract: This article considers the lifeline of the Anglo-American imaginary in news. It tracks its evolution, consolidation during the Cold War era and centrality in the UK/US coverage of Brexit and Trump in 2016-2017. It argues that not only has the imaginary prevailed but it continues to shape contemporary coverage to the detriment of public understanding of current events.

Self-Monitoring and the "New Look" at the Imaginary Audience and Personal Fable: An Ego-Developmental Analysis:

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relation between self-monitoring and the imaginary audience and personal fable constructs, and their relation to levels of ego development in early and late adolescence. Subjects included 29 fifth-graders, 26 seventh-graders, 26 ninth-graders, 23 eleventh-graders, and 22 college undergraduates. Standard assessments of self-monitoring, imaginary audience, and personal fable were used. Ego development was assessed by means of the Sentence Completion Test. The results can be summarized as follows: (a) self-monitoring displays significant (decreasing) trend from early to late adolescence, as do the imaginary audience and personal fable constructs; (b) these constructs show a statistically equivalent relationship with age; (c) high self-monitoring predominates in early adolescence, low self-monitoring predominates in late adolescence; (d) high self-monitors have significantly higher imaginary audience and personal fable scores that do low self-monitors; (e) high...