Imagination in Human and Cultural Development

Imagination has long been a subject of interest and debate, this book considers imagination as a core process in our daily lives and explores how we use it in psychological development as well as in societal change. Tania Zittoun brings together findings from various fields of psychology and the social sciences, and reviews classic studies as well as recent research to propose a new integrative model of imagination in sociocultural psychology. In this book she examines the interrelations between individual lives and social processes as well as the dynamics of creation of new representations and cultural transformations by considering imagination as an important cultural dynamic.

Tania Zittoun is Professor at the Institute of Psychology and Education at the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. She studies human development through the lifecourse, with a particular focus on how people make sense of, and create, their own trajectories. Alex Gillespie is Associate Professor in Social Psychology at the London School of Economics, UK. He studies social interaction, specifically how it produces novelty, creates our sense of self, and enables society to reproduce itself.

Preface 1. Imagination: A sociocultural approach 2. The Centrality of Imagination to Everyday Life 3. The Loop of Imagination 4. Resources for Imagination 5. Imagination in Situated Activities 6. Imagination in the Lifecourse 7. Imagination in Societal Change 8. Imagination as Freedom References