At a time of deep political divisions, leaders have called on ordinary Americans to talk to one another: to share their stories, listen empathetically, and focus on what they have in common, not what makes them different. In Inventing the Ties that Bind, Francesca Polletta questions this popular solution for healing our rifts. Talking the way that friends do is not the same as equality, she points out. And initiatives that bring strangers together for friendly dialogue may provide fleeting experiences of intimacy, but do not supply the enduring ties that solidarity requires. But Polletta also studies how Americans cooperate outside such initiatives, in social movements, churches, unions, government, and in their everyday lives. She shows that they often act on behalf of people they see as neighbors, not friends, as allies, not intimates, and people with whom they have an imagined relationship, not a real one. To repair our fractured civic landscape, she argues, we should draw on the rich language of solidarity that Americans already have.

"Imagining the Ties That Bind is a perceptive meditation on the capacities and deceptions of everyday social imaginaries. Polletta has given us a powerful thinking tool to enrich our research with a broader and more piercing sociological imagination." - American Journal of Sociology

"It is challenging to do justice to Inventing the Ties that Bind because it draws adroitly across such a diversity of cases and lines of argumentation, and accomplishes so much. In addition to the book's major contributions to cultural and political sociology, movement scholars interested in culture in general, and solidarity, story, ritual, and emotions specifically, will find the book offers fresh and compelling insights." - Mobilization

"In Inventing the Ties that Bind, Francesca Polletta, a distinguished contributor the literature on social movements, probes what is needed to build solidarity." - Social Forces