The First and Second Functions of The Social Imagination

There are three aspects of the social imagination: origin 'source' a beginning point on a surface of potential social reality, participating individual components as: potential links, connectors stemming out like threads on a web from that original point and components carry symbols and tools of communication that contain information. The last aspect are the limits of the first aspects; boundaries that act to structure, give shape and even control in order to retain integrity of all three aspects as a whole system.

There are two functions of the social imagination. The first is the primary function and the second is the concept creative function.

The first function is the primary function and it houses the three main aspects: an original source, components and limits. This first function is a basic program for the operation of the second function. The first function acts as instructions that shapes/guides and rules over the second which is the concept creative. This second function has no need of its own fundamental aspects as it is grounded by the first. The first function is for simple performance as in simple bodily movement that enables getting from here to there without, let us say, much thought. It could be seen as the default mode program; whereas, the second function is the concept/ creative is for the purpose of escaping that routine, beginning with bodily movement incorporating gesture that has meaning other than just getting from one point in space to another; but moreover, the second function is the creative will of the first function enabled by the first function and this creates the nature of the whole, the social imagination.

There is an interconnected participatory feature of the first function and second function, experienced through bodily moments which create a necessary relationship, the nature of the whole comes into being 'social reality' and with this there is caused tensions of consciousness between the first function and the second function.  The second function reacts to such tensions from the first function and is able to respond in a concept/ creative mode so that that relation with the first function acting as a background, a default program and the second function create social imagination. The second function allows the collective conscious, the collective mentality, the group as having shared interest, to imagine and focus on new aspect potential which arises out of the second function's imagining. Through this and tensions, social imagination can either move onto another plane of social imagination -social reality, or remain as a constant eventually collapsing in on itself doe to corruptions in those tensions.