Imagination is a core driver of human development as well as social transformation. Long ignored in psychology, imagination enjoys renewed interest in developmental and sociocultural approaches to mind and culture. In this Handbook, the enquiry is broadened, and imagination is explored by a number of eminent scholars and practitioners within and at the frontiers of cultural psychology. Organized in four main sections, the Handbook of Imagination and Culture first examines the history and extension of the concept of imagination, its proximity to creativity, and the methodology used to approach it. The second section examines imagination as a dynamic, lifelong developmental process: its emergence in childhood and expression in adulthood and into old age. The third section explores imagination as a pervasive phenomenon in domains such as music, theatre, work, and education. The fourth sections shows that imagination can function as a motor for social change in community work, in the use of new technologies, in society’s relation to the past, and in political change. As a whole, the book invites us to go beyond the frontiers of our knowledge: it opens perspectives for future research and cultivates the potential for individual and collective action toward an imagined future.
Research with a Transformative Activist Agenda: Creating the Future through Education for Social Change