"Imagined communities" is a concept coined by Benedict Anderson. He believes that a nation is a community socially constructed, imagined by the people who perceive themselves as part of that group. Anderson's book, Imagined Communities, in which he explains the concept in depth, was first published in 1983, and reissued with additional chapters in 1991.
Famous quotes containing the words imagined and/or communities:
“War was then no longer this noble and unified outburst of souls in love with glory that he had imagined from Napoleon’s proclamations.”
—Stendhal [Marie Henri Beyle] (1783–1842)
“The horror of class stratification, racism, and prejudice is that some people begin to believe that the security of their families and communities depends on the oppression of others, that for some to have good lives there must be others whose lives are truncated and brutal.”
—Dorothy Allison (b. 1949)