Fantasy and Social Movements [Hardcover]

It is sometimes assumed that fantasizing stands in contrast to activism. This book, however, argues that fantasy plays a central role in social movements. Drawing on psychoanalysis and psychosocial theories, Fantasy and Social Movements examines the relationships between fantasy, reality, action, the unconscious and the collective.Introduction: Fantasy and Social Movements in Context PART I: FANTASY, REALITY, THE UNCONSCIOUS, ACTION, AND THE COLLECTIVE Introduction to Part I 1. Fantasy in Freudian Theory 2. Fantasy in Kleinian Theory 3. Fantasy in Lacanian Theory 4. Modes of Fantasy PART II: FANTASE AND SOCIAL MOVEMENT THEORY Introduction to Part II 5. Social Movement Theory and Types of Action 6. Smelser's Theory of Collective Behaviour 7. A Typology of Social Movements PART III: A CASE STUDY OF THE PRO-SPACE MOVEMENT AND FANTASY Introduction to Part II 8. Fantasy in the Pro-Space Movement 9. The Pro-Space Movement and Social Structure 10. The Pro-Space Movement and Ideology 11. The Pro-Space Movement and Political Organization

James S. Ormrod is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Brighton, UK. His research focuses on social movements and psychosocial theory, and on the relationship humans have with their environment and with the universe more generally. He is co-author, with Peter Dickens, of Cosmic Society: Towards a Sociology of the Universe.

Covers a broad array of theoretical perspectives, from Weber and Freud through the new utopianists

Grapples with elements of agency and the unconscious