Imaginary and society. An Approximation to the Sociology of the Imaginary Thing in the French Tradition

Abstract

This work is an approach to the fundamental elements on which it turns the specially French sociological current known as sociology of the imaginary thing. In the first place, it fixes his attention on the analysis of those theoretical traditions that have contributed to develop this current, the anthropological-sociological thought of Gilbert Dürand and the durkheimian contributions of the French sociological School. Next, it raises the sociological relevance of the notion of imaginary like a new approach to the understanding of the social reality, synthetically detachhing the essential directives on which this current weighs affecting five aspects: the persistence of the myth and the asylum, the implication of the imaginary thing in the routine character, the interpretation of the daily life, the attachment between imaginary and the politician and the imaginary foundation of the utopia.