Pier Luca Marzo teaches sociology of social change and sociology of imaginary at Department of Cognitive Sciences, Psychology, Education and Cultural Studies (COSPECS), University of Messina. He is editor in chief and founder of the open access journal Im@go. A Journal of the Social Imaginary, and member of the scientific board of AIS (The Italian Sociological Association) Imaginary section. Luca Mori is associate professor of sociology at the University of Verona. His research focuses on social theory, sociology of health and illness and social imaginaries.
The imaginary has usually been studied at the intersection of different academic disciplines and has remained marginal. What has been lacking is work based on the idea that the imaginary is not the opposite of the real, but its invisible source. Startling in the richness and plurality of its contributions, this book moves in this essential direction and will certainly be a point of reference for future study. This new edited collection is a highly readable, thought-provoking update and expansion of theories of materiality and the phenomenology of the imaginary, relevant to a new generation seeking to theorize questions of social integration and social change. It should be on the list of graduate foundational readings across programs in sociology, STS, and media and cultural studies.