Imaginary
The Radical Imaginary
Explore in the Atlas →In Castoriadis, the creative, instituting dimension of the social imaginary — the social-historical's power to bring forth new significations and forms 'ex nihilo'. It is the source of genuine novelty and the ground of autonomy: the capacity of a collectivity to reopen and remake the meanings it lives by, rather than receiving them as fixed. Stands in tension with the instituted imaginary, which it can always reactivate or contest.
Autonomy Fantasy Collectivity
Details
- Introduced
- 1975
- Register
- Radical
Classifications
- Holder
- Communal intergenerational
- Source of authority
- Lived experience
- Subject
- Human centred
- Political position
- Subaltern resistant
- Degree of codification
- Protocol performed
- Knowledge type
- Relational embodied
- Epistemic cluster
- Western philosophical
Connections
- reactivates The Instituted Imaginary
Referenced by
- Cornelius Castoriadis proposed
- The Social Imaginary relates to
Sources
- n.d..
- n.d..
Cite this entry
First published May 2026Last revised Jul 2026
CLAD. "The Radical Imaginary." Atlas of Architectural Thought. CLAD, 2026. https://www.cl-ad.com.au/research/atlas/imaginary/the-radical-imaginary/. Accessed July 17, 2026.