Speculation now pervades economic, social, and political life as an imagined collective enactment

Evidence

But imagining, as I have already shown, is now inexorably linked with speculation, a defining feature of economic, social, and political life. The concern of Imagined Communities with the contingent, materially grounded routines of national imagining invites a Durkheimian reading of the new collective enactments of the speculative imagination, one that stresses “close interrelation between symbolic classifications, ritual processes and the formation of social solidarities” (Alexander 1990, 2). — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 85

Categorization

• XREF: Bridges to the reader’s core thesis: speculative communities as ritual formations, echoing Durkheimian solidarity themes in the sacrifice article. — connects to: Planned chance serves as an alibi for rationalized society — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 113; 2008’s crisis installed speculation as the defining modern economic subjectivity — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 25; Digital speculation platforms amplify populist mobilization beyond traditional social movements — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 698 (+12 more)
• SEED: Could feed an essay arguing that financialized populism is best read as a Durkheimian ritual solidarity formation, not a failure of rational interest.