The Social Imaginaries Sociologies: the beginning of a needed conceptual clarification

Abstract

Abstract: This article clarifies the concept of social imaginary, an increasing popular term within social sciences and humanities. It opens with an analysis of the different notions of social imaginary by Durand and Castoriadis to address then the idea of social imaginary by Taylor. Finally, the concept of social imaginaries -now in plural- by Pintos centers our attention. The article offers an analysis of the similarities and differences among these four schools of the imaginary. It clarifies how social imaginaries differ from the concept of social representation and the idea of social belief. We describe also the potentialities of asocial imaginaries sociology for the analysis of social reality and ends pointing to the possibilities that the future opens to the social imaginaries perspectives, taking in account their probable convergences and disparities.