There are important differences between social imaginaryand social theory. I adopt the term imaginary (i) because myfocus is on the way ordinary people ‘‘imagine’’ their socialsurroundings, and this is often not expressed in theoreticalterms, but is carried in images, stories, and legends. It is alsothe case that (ii) theory is often the possession of a small mi-nority, whereas what is interesting in the social imaginary isthat it is shared by large groups of people, if not the wholesociety.Which leads to a third difference: (iii) the social imagi-nary is that common understanding that makes possible com-mon practices and a widely shared sense of legitimacy.