Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 24, 2025

Author Spotlight: Enhancing Neurorehabilitation Through EEG, Motor Imagery, and Virtual Reality
Published on: May 10, 2024
Imagination and social movements
Hana Hawlina1, Oliver Clifford Pedersen1, Tania Zittoun1
1University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
Abstract:
Whether explicitly mentioned or not, imagination plays a key role in social movements. People's dissatisfaction with what is, their imagining of how things once were better, or of how things may become, often supports social movements. Social movements can, in turn, bring about new imaginations for people. After defining the notion of imagination and social movements, drawing on recent research, we review the literature along three main axes: the role of temporality in the relation between social movements and imagination; the relation between collective identities, social movement and imagination; and the resources that support imagination and social movements. We conclude by highlighting further dimensions to analyse the dynamics of imagination, which may open new ways to analyse the trajectories of social movements.
Related Concept Videos
Magical Thinking
Social Foundations of Self II: The Generalized Other
Nonconscious Mimicry
Social Foundations of Self I: Play and Game
The Sense of Self: Reflected Self-Appraisal and Social Comparison
Social Scripts

