ABSTRACT
In order to make sense of children's alternative symbolic representations of Otherness amongst peers, this chapter draws on the work of Paul Ricoeur on narrative, social imaginary and ideology and utopia. However, unlike Bourdieu, Ricoeur insists on the more positive dimension of ideology, which can only be understood by examining the functions of its corollary: utopia. Social imaginary builds on the stories that shape the symbolic realm of society and is at the heart of the dialectic between 'the integrative function of ideology and the subversive function of utopia'. Through the idea of social imaginary, Ricoeur transcends the opposition between institution and imagination. This 'politics of imagination' rests upon the dialectic of ideology and utopia, and frames the collective narratives of a historically constituted group. Ricoeur's notions of ideology, utopia, and the ways in which they form social imaginaries is particularly well suited to the analysis of children's views of Otherness amongst peers in the French school.
