ABSTRACT
Sociologically, art movements in particular constitute both expressive organizations and emotional communities. In fact, although rarely linked to the ideas coming from critical theory and its successors, art represents a paradigm case of the communicative action of which Habermas. The central problem for theories of social transformation, including ideas of "development", is that of creatively conceiving of future societies that do not simply reproduce the negative dimensions of the current ones, including their highly damaging ecological impact. The fear of art in totalitarian societies, whether religious or secular, illustrates well that those who would control must control the imagination. Without such control, creativity rapidly overspills the narrower boundaries of purely artistic expression into the social, and the social imagination is the most dangerous form of all to any regime or group that would assert its hegemony over cultural practices.
