Résultat de la recherche
Thinking through time: From collective memories to collective futures
In this chapter I look at the links between collective memory and the imagination of collective futures. Drawing on works on imagination and autobiographical memory, I first discuss the role of past experiences in imagining the future. I then explore the consequences of such a perspective for collective memories and collective futures, which will lead me to argue that the former provides the basis for the latter. Three case studies are presented, each illustrating a different type of relation between collective memory and collective imagination: 1) collective memory as a frame of reference to imagine the future; 2) collective memory as a source of experiences and examples to imagine what is likely, possible or desirable; and 3) collective memory as generalisable experience from which representations of the world – Personal World Philosophies – are constructed and in turn used to imagine the collective future. This will lead me to the conclusion that representations of the world are characterised by “temporal heteroglossia”, the simultaneous presence of multiple periods of time, and that they mediate the relation between collective memory and collective imagination, allowing us to “think through time”.
Imagining the collective future: A sociocultural perspective
The present chapter examines how groups imagine their future from a sociocultural perspective. First, we present our sociocultural model of imagination and its three dimensions, before building on it to account for how collectives imagine the future. We maintain that it is a mistake to assume that because imagination is “not real”, it cannot have “real” consequences. Imagination about the future, we argue, is a central steering mechanism of individual and collective behaviour. Imagination about the future is often political precisely because it can have huge significance for the activities of a group or even a nation. Accordingly, we introduce a new dimension for thinking about collective imagination of the future— namely, the degree of centralization of imagining—and with it, identify a related aspect, its emotional valence. Based on two examples, we argue that collective imaginings have their own developmental trajectories as they move in time through particular social and political contexts. Consequently, we suggest that a sociocultural psychology of collective imagination of the future should not only document instances of collective imagining, but also account for these developmental trajectories— specifically, what social and political forces hinder and promote particular imaginings.
Life-creativity: Imagining one’s life
How people become unique persons is an ever-renewed puzzle for any observer of human life. Somehow, in the complex sets of social and cultural constraints that reduce margins of freedom, each person is actually the author of his or her life. Each trajectory is unique, and can be recognized by its specific melody (Zittoun et al., 2013). This uniqueness, we propose, can be seen as resulting from lifecreativity, the process of creating one’s life-paths. To better understand it, we will first examine the relation between creativity and development, then propose to consider imagination as the heart of the creative process. We will treat imagination as a three-dimensional developmental process, and define the conditions under which it might be acknowledged as creativity. The case study of Rachel, going through her teenager years, will ground our proposition and further discussion. This exploration, we hope, will contribute to our understanding of the developmental aspects of creativity.