The Social Imaginary As a Site of Hope: The Case of the Climate Change Threat
The climate crisis is generating new forms of social imaginary that contrast, and sometimes mix, dystopian and utopian visions. The new generations are strongly involved in the creation and diffusion of these new imaginaries in which concern and hope intersect in original ways and generate awareness of the extent of the threat and new impulses for collective action.
Social imaginaries on climate change are a clear example of how criticism, dissatisfaction and fear of the present, but also hope for the future, produce complex scenarios. They are simultaneously a criticism of the past – of the causes that have led to the current situation – an accusation of the present – of the responsibilities of those who maintain the status quo and do not intervene to avoid future risks – and a hopeful elaboration of the future – of the common necessity to address possible solutions. They give shape to hope, to possible different worlds beyond the constraints of the given present.
A critical review of the concept of social imaginary - starting from the relevant contributions of Castoriadis and Taylor - can be useful to show how the elaboration of the future opens up possibilities of critique of the present fostering a new approach to the sociology of hope. The social imaginary can be understood as a field of constant production of critique of the existing that mixes hope and concern and articulates in an original way a vision of alternative reality.