Social imagining can hold societies together and promote solidarity, but it can also generate differences and divisions. It can facilitate unity and forge bonds, but it can also lead to forms of exclusion and violence. It can strengthen and stabilise social structures, but it can also trigger new dynamics and spark change. Social imagining shapes current debates about the climate crisis and the future of the planet, public disputes over the pandemic, the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, the future of democracy and the resurgence of right-wing extremist ideologies. For these reasons and more, social imagining is a topic of pressing relevance both in Germany and around the world.

The Cluster of Excellence Imaginamics: Practices and Dynamics of Social Imagining makes an innovative contribution to research into this expansive field of study by illuminating the processes, practices, historical trajectories and dynamics of imagining itself. It aims to develop a comprehensive understanding of social imagining. To this end, it (1) combines research approaches from the cultural sciences, humanities and social sciences; (2) links foundational theoretical approaches with empirical studies and digital explorations; (3) expands upon current debates on social imagining by including transepochal and trans-cultural perspectives; (4) develops a set of instruments to describe and explain social dynamics more precisely and to enable critical reflection on them.

Involved Institutions:

• Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
• Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation
• Ettersberg Foundation
• Institute for Democracy and Civil Society (IDZ)
• Klassik Stiftung Weimar (KSW)
• Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
• Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology (MPI GEA)
• Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies
• University of Erfurt