Social imaginaries at the boundaries of the social world

• Applicant: Dr. Larissa Pfaller
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: from 2018 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 417783052

There is a new growing interest in imagination and social imaginaries in sociology. These approaches highlight that not only cognitive or linguistic concepts, but also imagination and images create cultural meaning and shape human thinking and acting. Social imaginaries are constitutive for everyday-life; they guide social practices and keep them vibrant.The project addresses a desideratum in this emerging field of the sociology of imagination: existing approaches reconstruct social imaginaries and imagination by pointing to their positive content and guiding principles. However, they do not pay attention to those images and imaginations that can be located at the borders of the social world. These images and imaginations relate to abject things and existential boundaries, e.g. the boundary between subject and object, nature and culture, human and non-human. So far, there have been no attempts to conceptualize or to investigate in further detail in those subject matters, neither on a theoretical level nor in empirical explorations.To fulfill this desideratum, the project considers two main research fields at the borders of the social world: fourth age and organ donation. Both subjects are specially qualified – they constitute at the borderline of life and death and offer aversive imaginations. The research will use metaphor analysis as well as image and film analysis to analyze documents, interviews and focus groups conducted in these two fields. The main purpose of this research project is to examine the constitution of social imaginaries and imagination at the boundaries of the social world. Thereby, it differentiates these concepts and sets up the ground for further theoretical exploration. At the same time, metaphor analysis is to be introduced as a method for investigating social imaginaries.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants