New imaginary travels and global flows

Arjun Appadurai, one of the world’s leading anthropologists and thinkers, is an eminent scholar of globalization and global flows.
Humans have always traveled to seek a better life elsewhere, but with the advent of technology and the onset of what he calls “modernity at large”, the panorama has radically changed, creating new flows and patterns of migration. Also, in today’s world both people and images travel; sometimes such travel is voluntary and sometimes it is involuntary, if not forced. But in either case, a change of location dims some parts of the imagination and sets other parts free. In cultural studies, writes Appadurai, “we do not have a good understanding of this duality, which cannot simply be reduced either to economics or to psychology”. Professor Appadurai’s lecture will explore the dualism of the person travelling and of the social imagination they can tap into to sustain their journeys.