TY - JOUR AU - Calhoun, Craig PY - 2017/02/16 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - The Importance of Imagined Communities – and Benedict Anderson JF - Debats. Revista de cultura, poder i societat JA - Debats VL - 1 IS - 0 SE - SPECIAL ISSUE 1 DO - UR - https://revistadebats.net/article/view/1686 SP - AB - <p>Benedict Anderson’s remarkable book Imagined Communities reshaped<br />the study of nations and nationalism. Strikingly original, it broke<br />with previous over-emphasis on the European continent and falsely<br />polarized arguments as to whether nations were always already<br />in existence or mere epiphenomena of modern states. Imagined<br />Communities stimulated attention to the dynamics of socially and<br />culturally organized imagination as processes at the heart of political<br />culture, self-understanding and solidarity. This has an influence beyond<br />the study of nationalism as a major innovation in understanding<br />‘social imaginaries’. Anderson’s approach, however, maintained<br />strong emphases on material conditions that shape culture, and on<br />institutions that facilitate its reproduction — from newspapers and<br />novels to censuses, maps, and museums.<br /><br /></p> ER -