Introduction: The Good between Social Theory and Philosophy

Over the past two decades, dark and apocalyptic tones have come to dominate many areas of social and cultural theory. This chapter argues that understanding social life calls not only for focus on the darkness of our current times but also for bringing the question of the good to the centre of social science inquiry as a way of studying the workings of aspirational and imaginative endeavours in people’s lives. Drawing on the history of social theory and a rapidly growing interest in morality, ethics and values within and beyond the social sciences, we present the first interdisciplinary engagement with what it means to study the good as a fundamental aspect of social and cultural life.