The Image/Imaginary Relationship in Contemporary Political Sociology

The study of the systems of manipulation of the social consciousness of human collectives and of behaviours influenced by ideological/cultural narratives is today rooted in what is known as the Social Imaginary. As members of a given social format, individuals are unilaterally shaped into a vision of themselves and their environment, functional to the power system of society; the ideological decoding of collective Images and the symmetrical structuring of a dogmatic, prejudiced and self-referential discourse result in the Collective Imaginary, a single and multiple theoretical entity, vertically drafted and institutionally sanctioned at all levels of social organisation. If the Imaginary was once part of the social superstructure, today it is conceptualised as a structural element, as a system of beliefs that defines a large part of the ideas and attitudes of the subjects. This book seeks to open a door to the study of the narratives that populate the collective consciousness, to the complex and changing world of collective Images and Imaginaries.