Imagining Communities

In his groundbreaking Imagined Communities , first published in 1983, Benedict Anderson argued that members of a community experience a Ÿdeep, horizontal camaraderie.Œ Despite being strangers, members feel connected in a web of imagined experiences. Yet while Anderson’s insights have been hugely influential, they remain abstract: it is difficult to imagine imagined communities. How do they evolve and how is membership constructed cognitively, socially and culturally? How do individuals and commu