Representations, collective effervescence and social reproduction. Traces for a contemporary debate

Abstract

The article proposes a reflection on some key concepts of The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (ritual, collective effervescence, belief) in order to build a dialogue with contemporary writers (Louis Althusser, Ernesto Laclau, Judith Butler) who have reflected on the role of imaginaries in the production and reproduction of society. The paper is organized into three sections. In the first one, we explore the notion of “collective effervescence”, vital to understand the process by which societies represent and found themselves. In the second section, we discuss the productivity of collective effervescence regarding the creation of signs, imaginaries and communities of belief. In the third section, we analyze the ambivalence in the production and reproduction of imaginary orders, both regarding their constitutive contingence and the specific paradoxes of belief communities under the sign of modern pluralism and individual difference. Finally, we will propose some concluding remarks.