The Role of the Social Imaginary in Lifestyle Migration: Employing the Ontology of Practice Theory

Abstract

I have shown how the social imaginary (and the role of the imagination and consequent actions) can be 22 better explicated using the ontology behind a theory of practice. This involves conceptualising structures and actions separately, as a heuristic device, while also always understanding them as interacting in practice. I have thus drawn on the distinction between external structures, internalised structures, practices, communities of practice, active agency, and outcomes as a way of bringing more precision to our understanding of the role of the imagination and to both the social structural and the creative aspects of imagining.