Exploring the immortological imagination: advocating for a sociology of immortality

Nowaczyk-Basińska, Katarzyna and Kiel, Paula (2024) Exploring the immortological imagination: advocating for a sociology of immortality. Social Sciences, 13 (2). ISSN 2076-0760

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Abstract

The 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.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://www.mdpi.com/journal/socsci
Additional Information:	© 2024 The Authors
Divisions:	Media and Communications
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HM Sociology H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman
Date Deposited:	12 Mar 2024 14:00
Last Modified:	25 Apr 2024 23:45
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/122353

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