Imagining better societies: A social psychological framework for the study of utopian thinking and collective action

Badaan, Vivienne; Jost, John T.; Fernando, Julian W.; Kashima, Yoshihisa

doi:10.1111/spc3.12525

Cited by 34 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 81 publications

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“…Through normative and relational dynamics, this motivated process is itself socially informed. An example of this is Badaan et al.’s (2020) analysis of utopian thinking and the complex ways in which it can shape efficacy beliefs. They argue that people who are motivated to imagine better societies in the future, in doing so, experience greater social hope, and see such utopian visions as more concrete and proximal in time and practice.…”

Section: Classical Approaches To Emotion Motivation and Thought In (Collective) Actionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feeling and thought in collective action on social issues: Toward a systems perspective

Zeineddine

Leach

2021

Social & Personality Psych

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Theories of action have tended to view it—and its basis in thought and feeling—as static, discrete, mechanistic, and decontextualized. Moreover, studies of action have tended to be fragmented in academic silos. The consequences of these problems include a lack of cumulative and contextualized theory‐building, and an inability to recognize emergent, dynamic, and non‐linear causality, especially across levels of analysis. We argue that such problems could be partly alleviated with increased engagement with a meta‐theoretical perspective that has long been advocated for in psychology—the systems approach. In this view, thought, feeling, motivation, action, and context can be viewed as co‐evolving, inextricably linked, systems of systems. We illustrate the need for and benefit of this approach in the domain of collective action on social issues. We conclude that systems perspectives allow more contextualized, generalizable, conceptually rich, and applied directions for research in this domain.

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Section: Classical Approaches To Emotion Motivation and Thought In (Collective) Actionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feeling and thought in collective action on social issues: Toward a systems perspective

Zeineddine

Leach

2021

Social & Personality Psych

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“…Thus, it develops no need for a dissociative experience, and it suffices for him to turn to the other side of the coin to escape any taboos, traumas, and painful emotions, and he can thus come to terms with any negative feelings and traumas by using the strategies and methods accepted by the culture of this lawless city without needing to dissociate from his own individuality. Although the concept of utopia does not belong exclusively to Iranian culture and it can be considered a global concept and experience ( 34 , 35 ), the concept of lawless utopia and its active mechanisms are less discussed. Although some of these mechanisms are common in other cultures, we have tried to pay more attention to the differences between these mechanisms in Iranian culture and other cultures.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dissociative Disorder in the Iranian Culture: The Lawless Utopia

Seddigh¹

2021

IJPS

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Epidemiologic and etiological studies of dissociative disorders are a challenging area in psychiatry. These challenges become more complex when noting that the existing theories cannot explain the differences observed in certain cases; for example, studies in Iran have reported the prevalence of dissociative disorders (dissociative amnesia, dissociative fugue, and depersonalization disorder) as less than 0.6%, and there has been no reported case of dissociative identity disorder (DID) in this country; meanwhile, the prevalence of all dissociative disorders in the general population of the US has been reported as 18.3%, and the prevalence of DID as about 1.1%. Although several studies indicate the high prevalence of dissociative symptoms in many Iranian psychiatric illnesses, dissociative disorders as a stand-alone disorder have a very low prevalence in Iran. The present article attempts to propose a possible hypothesis for the answer to the above questions through a different cultural conceptualization and seeks to be of some help to future studies in this area. Certainly, this hypothesis requires a careful study to be validated.

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“…Indeed, the trajectories of notable social movements, those involving civil rights or social justice for example, can be tied to imagination and creativity [57,58]. Recall, Martin Luther King's galvanizing oration, certainly one of the most famous speeches in human history, which involved "having a dream" [59]. In our era of high technology, innovation is defined as the "successful implementation of creative ideas" [60].…”

Section: Imagination Creativity and Innovationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The emerging body of research on utopian thinking often refers to ordinary people, and how they envision a better society [59]. This is salient, for in this context ordinary means that these individuals canvassed in studies are not political operatives, policy makers, professional philosophers and so on.…”

Section: Looking Back Moving Forwardmentioning

confidence: 99%

Project Earthrise: Inspiring Creativity, Kindness and Imagination in Planetary Health

Logan¹,

Berman

et al. 2020

Challenges

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The concept of planetary health blurs the artificial lines between health at scales of person, place and planet. At the same time, it emphasizes the integration of biological, psychological, social and cultural aspects of health in the modern environment. Our grandest challenges in the Anthropocene ultimately stem from human attitudes to each other and to our environment. However, solutions rarely confront the underlying value systems that created these interconnected problems, or the attitudes that perpetuate them. Too often, the dominant focus is on the “worst of human nature”, and devalues or neglects the importance of empathy, kindness, hope, love, creativity and mutual respect—the deeper values that unite, empower and refocus priorities of individuals and groups. Here, we call to normalize more creative, mutualistic approaches—including the perspectives of traditional and indigenous cultures—to positively influence normative value systems. We revisit the power of inspiration with the profound example of the Apollo 8 Earthrise photo which galvanized a fledgling planetary health movement over 50 years ago. Through the inaugural Earth Day that followed, we are reminded that its early organizers were not constrained in how they defined the “environment”. They and their primary speakers were as concerned about value systems as they were about pollution—that we cannot hope to solve our problems without addressing the attitudes that created them in the first place. We explore the ways in which the awe of Earthrise—and the contemporary science of creativity and studies of utopian thinking—might reinvigorate imagination, kindness and mutualism. We revisit the fundamental challenge offered by Pulitzer-Prize-winning microbiologist Rene Dubos and others in the afterglow of the Earthrise photo, and the inaugural Earth Day. This is a question of imagination: What kind of world we want to live in?

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Imagining better societies: A social psychological framework for the study of utopian thinking and collective action

Cited by 34 publications

References 81 publications

Feeling and thought in collective action on social issues: Toward a systems perspective

Feeling and thought in collective action on social issues: Toward a systems perspective

Dissociative Disorder in the Iranian Culture: The Lawless Utopia

Project Earthrise: Inspiring Creativity, Kindness and Imagination in Planetary Health

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