The social imaginary and urban anthropology

The following contribution is concerned with the imaginary of the city. Drawing on the theory of the imaginary propounded by Cornelius Castoriadis, it differentiates between three dimensions of the imaginary: a representative, a creative and a political dimension. These three aspects are used to give a paradigmatic summary of the ongoing research in the field of urban studies with a special interest in the political dimension. Over all, this contribution presents a proposal to conceptualize the different notions of the imaginary common in the field of urban studies as a manifestation of distinct aspects of the same object-the imaginary of the city.