Theme

Just as the 1974 democratic revolution brought hope to Portugal, a country which had suffered for nearly half a century under the yoke of a brutal dictatorship, so we chose our logo so as inspire all peoples to pursue their aspirations and imaginations of a more just world.

Building on recent advances in the anthropology of imagination, this congress foregrounds imagination as a relational and generative faculty that connects experience, knowledge, and the making of possible futures
. Rather than treating imagination as a secondary or subjective domain, the Congress approaches imagination as more than a representation or fantasy. Rather, it proposes that imagination is a socially situated practice through which people produce futures, negotiate realities, and contest dominant orders. In this sense, imagination becomes a central analytical category for anthropology in the 21st century.

Life, as it is lived, and life as it is imagined exist in constant dialogue.


Life imagined is not simply an escape from reality—it is a terrain where reality itself is negotiated.

Anthropology has long been concerned with this interplay. Imagined dimensions are not mere fantasies or illusions; they are active forces that shape social structures, accepted norms, and dominant identities.
Everywhere, persons seek to construct a “good life” by interacting with the dominant narratives of their society, thus constantly opening a door to change. Such narratives are not simply descriptive, but performative: they orient action, legitimize institutions, and open or foreclose horizons of possibility. They can take the form of mythic constructs, religious discourses, political or ideological rhetoric, scientific argumentation, or other individual and collective evocations. These collectively shared imagined worlds guide behavior, justify institutions, and are modulated in the course of history.

In contexts of economic hardship or political instability, people often turn to alternative visions of reality—utopian futures, spiritual realms, or nostalgic pasts. These imagined spaces can serve as coping mechanisms, offering hope or a sense of control. At the same time, they can become sites of contestation, where different groups promote competing visions of what life should be. In contemporary conditions, marked by overlapping drastic crises (ecological, sanitarian, political, technological, war, genocide, large-scale displacement, epistemicide) imagination emerges simultaneously as a resource of resilience and a terrain of struggle.

Imagination is not separate from power. Though universally present, imagination is a resource unevenly allotted. It can unfold spaces of alienation and disengagement from life, shaping political subjectivities and forms of exclusion that run counter to a human ethics of co-responsibility. The ability to define what is imaginable and unimaginable (or unthinkable…), “normal,” “possible,” or “desirable” is often unevenly distributed. Dominant groups impose their visions. Meanwhile, marginalized communities often resist by cultivating alternative imaginaries that challenge prevailing norms and open up new possibilities for living. Imagination, in this sense, is both a site of domination and a tool of resistance, deeply entangled with questions of epistemic justice, inequality, and the politics of representation.

To understand how people live, we must also understand how they imagine their life to be. The WAU 2027 Congress invites scholars, practitioners, and activists to collectively interrogate and redefine how anthropology can matter in a world where the balances in world powers are discarding inclusive and ethical approaches to life, and imaginative hope is badly needed.