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Exploring the Immortological Imagination: Advocating for a Sociology of Immortality

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Repository DOI


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Type

Article

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Authors

Nowaczyk-Basińska, K 
Kiel, P 

Abstract

jats:pThe digital age has rekindled popular and academic interest in immortality. While the idea of immortality has long been recognized as fundamental to human societies, unlike death, within the field of sociology, immortality has not yet established itself as a distinct and autonomous field of study. This paper contributes to the recently emerging scholarship promoting a sociology of immortality. Drawing inspiration from C. Wright Mills’s sociological imagination (1959) and building upon significant research in the field of immortality, we offer to use the concept of the immortological imagination as an analytical and conceptual tool for further developing a sociology of immortality. We refer to the immortological imagination as a complementary concept to Penfold-Mounce’s thanatological imagination, seeing both concepts as stemming from two different lineages and academic traditions. After defining the immortological imagination and how it differs from and complements the thanatological imagination, the paper moves to discuss examples in popular culture establishing the potential impacts and influences of the immortological imagination, particularly within the digital context.</jats:p>

Description

Peer reviewed: True


Publication status: Published

Keywords

48 Law and Legal Studies, 44 Human Society

Journal Title

Social Sciences

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2076-0760
2076-0760

Volume Title

13

Publisher

MDPI AG
Sponsorship
Leverhulme Trust (RC-2015-067)