Imagination in Politics

Freedom or Domination?

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Political Science, Politics, Practical Politics, Government, Democracy, History & Theory
Cover of the book Imagination in Politics by Mihaela Czobor-Lupp, Lexington Books
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Mihaela Czobor-Lupp ISBN: 9780739199077
Publisher: Lexington Books Publication: October 15, 2014
Imprint: Lexington Books Language: English
Author: Mihaela Czobor-Lupp
ISBN: 9780739199077
Publisher: Lexington Books
Publication: October 15, 2014
Imprint: Lexington Books
Language: English

Imagination is a complex and ambiguous culture-making power, which, while central to politics, is a rather marginal concept in contemporary political theory. By drawing on works of modern and contemporary Continental political philosophers, this book addresses how imagination can be both a source of freedom and domination in liberal-democratic politics, and argues for a benign public employment of images and narratives in a global world of diverse cultures. The challenge is not to keep contemporary politics clear of images, but to better distinguish between benign and malign uses of creativity in the public realm.

This distinction is important because the language employed by the participants in the complex cultural dialogue that characterizes modern plural societies is constituted by metaphors and myths, which form their perceptions and sensibilities. The embedment of communicative practices in a society’s imaginary brings an ambivalent psychological and emotional potential into democratic politics. Modern liberal-democracies can shift the public employment of imagination either in a direction that increases the autonomous capacity of individuals to engage culture and language in a creative and interactive manner in the construction of their identities, or in a direction that increases fascination with images and myths and, consequently, the escapist desire to pull these out of the living dialogue with others.

Turning the public work of creativity in the first direction requires a conscious change in the modern social imaginary. This can be achieved through the aesthetic cultivation of an ethical productive imagination: both analogical and explorative, both empathic and reflective. While capable of creatively giving utopian impetus to politics, this imagination would also stir the individuals’ responsiveness to the particularity of others and to their capacity to be equal and free partners in the making of a common world. An important avenue in achieving this objective in modern liberal-democracies will be provided by the capacity of literary works to open up public spaces of dialogue. There the renewal of the metaphors and myths that frame individual and collective identities in a society can have transformative effects that increase the individuals’ ability for cross cultural understanding.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Imagination is a complex and ambiguous culture-making power, which, while central to politics, is a rather marginal concept in contemporary political theory. By drawing on works of modern and contemporary Continental political philosophers, this book addresses how imagination can be both a source of freedom and domination in liberal-democratic politics, and argues for a benign public employment of images and narratives in a global world of diverse cultures. The challenge is not to keep contemporary politics clear of images, but to better distinguish between benign and malign uses of creativity in the public realm.

This distinction is important because the language employed by the participants in the complex cultural dialogue that characterizes modern plural societies is constituted by metaphors and myths, which form their perceptions and sensibilities. The embedment of communicative practices in a society’s imaginary brings an ambivalent psychological and emotional potential into democratic politics. Modern liberal-democracies can shift the public employment of imagination either in a direction that increases the autonomous capacity of individuals to engage culture and language in a creative and interactive manner in the construction of their identities, or in a direction that increases fascination with images and myths and, consequently, the escapist desire to pull these out of the living dialogue with others.

Turning the public work of creativity in the first direction requires a conscious change in the modern social imaginary. This can be achieved through the aesthetic cultivation of an ethical productive imagination: both analogical and explorative, both empathic and reflective. While capable of creatively giving utopian impetus to politics, this imagination would also stir the individuals’ responsiveness to the particularity of others and to their capacity to be equal and free partners in the making of a common world. An important avenue in achieving this objective in modern liberal-democracies will be provided by the capacity of literary works to open up public spaces of dialogue. There the renewal of the metaphors and myths that frame individual and collective identities in a society can have transformative effects that increase the individuals’ ability for cross cultural understanding.

More books from Lexington Books

Cover of the book Breaking with Athens by Mihaela Czobor-Lupp
Cover of the book Engaging Agnes Heller by Mihaela Czobor-Lupp
Cover of the book Afro-Asian Connections in Latin America and the Caribbean by Mihaela Czobor-Lupp
Cover of the book Creating Engagement between Schools and their Communities by Mihaela Czobor-Lupp
Cover of the book Making Cairo Medieval by Mihaela Czobor-Lupp
Cover of the book Thinking Dead by Mihaela Czobor-Lupp
Cover of the book Cooperation and Excellence by Mihaela Czobor-Lupp
Cover of the book Descartes' Temporal Dualism by Mihaela Czobor-Lupp
Cover of the book Crossing Boundaries by Mihaela Czobor-Lupp
Cover of the book Decadence, Radicalism, and the Early Modern French Nobility by Mihaela Czobor-Lupp
Cover of the book Cold Peace by Mihaela Czobor-Lupp
Cover of the book Reinventing the Tripitaka by Mihaela Czobor-Lupp
Cover of the book The Post-Racial Limits of Memorialization by Mihaela Czobor-Lupp
Cover of the book Prison Management, Prison Workers, and Prison Theory by Mihaela Czobor-Lupp
Cover of the book The Polish Experience through World War II by Mihaela Czobor-Lupp
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy