B1 Other refereed article (e.g., editorial, letter, comment) in a scientific journal
Political Imagination and Social Change
Authors: Salmenniemi, Suvi; Perheentupa, Inna; Ylostalo, Hanna
Publisher: SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
Publishing place: LONDON
Publication year: 2025
Journal: Sociological Research Online
Journal name in source: SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH ONLINE
Journal acronym: SOCIOL RES ONLINE
Number of pages: 18
eISSN: 1360-7804
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/13607804251334020
Web address : https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13607804251334020
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/498659832
This Introduction to the special issue 'Political Imagination and Social Change' addresses the role of political imagination for transformative politics and social change. It argues that sociology has a critical role to play in analysing, theorising, and facilitating political imagination and contributing to reinvigorating the collective political imagination by offering insights to envisaging alternative social formations and destabilising conventional ways of thinking. The Introduction discusses how political alternatives are imagined, practised, and lived out in different historical, social, and geographical contexts and by different groups of people. It shows how structures of power and domination, such as colonialism, racism, and gender and class systems, shape the practices of political imagination and affect the ways in which people can imagine and act towards social change. It also discusses how political imagination can be methodologically approached, and proposes a tripartite conceptualisation of political imagination centring on the notions of utopia, imaginary, and practice. It concludes that emancipatory and progressive political imagination is sorely needed to counter today's dystopic and destructive forces and envisage better ways of being.
Downloadable publication This is an electronic reprint of the original article. |  |
Funding information in the publication:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study was supported by the Research Council of Finland (grant number 331067).
