ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with traditions of imagination at the sociogenetic level, that is, the level of culture and society. It explores how distributed imagination is built up within traditions and communities and the potential consequences of these imaginations. First, the chapter examines how humans have imagined the moon, specifically the imagination which led up to the moon landings. Second, it examines less successful and more turbulent utopian imagination, which have led many to walk the path from dreams to revolution. One domain which clearly shows imagination leading collective agency is in the imagination that led people to walk on the moon. While it had practical uses for marking time and navigation it has also been the subject of art and imagination in many societies. The chapter explains the collective imagination of utopia itself, its social history, and the accumulation of cultural resources for imagining utopia as it is intrinsically linked to human agency.
