1 Meaning, Civilizations, and Ecology: Response to Peter Wagner on Cornelius Castoriadis. 1 Suzi Adams, Johann P Arnason, Paul Blokker, Jeremy CA Smith Introduction The conversation with Peter Wagner invites responses to different aspects of his social theory and several problems in the field of social imaginaries stimulated by his reflections. 2 To begin with, comments on the question of meaning, doing and knowledge extend to another problematic Wagner has treated, interpretation — but they do so by thinking about interpretation with Castoriadis and the problematic of the world. Interpretation, in this sense, is crucial in understanding the relationship of knowledge to social change. In the response, Castoriadis’s notion of the social-historical is also affirmed, but with the caveat that an impersonal concept of praxis has significant value in expanding the theory of imaginary institution as social change. Interpretation can and necessarily must be “proto-critical”, a layer before knowledge and critical thought and action. If Castoriadis’s theory of the imaginary institution of society has implications for how social theory conceptualizes social change, then we ought also to observe that there are implications for how human sciences have grappled with the diversity of historical and modern societies. The response brings this into focus by raising questions about, first, the varieties of modern capitalism and, second, the status of new world modernities. That part of the response gestures towards a global perspective, which must incorporate ecology if is to be at all comprehensive. The response therefore also includes considerations of ecology and autonomy, both in Wagner’s interpretation of Castoriadis and in wider debates on the mode of politics which best addresses the multidimensional character of the ecological crisis. The response focuses simultaneously on both sides of the equation. How autonomy is understood alters in relation to the ecological crisis once the non-human world is incorporated into politics and the political. Likewise, interpretations of the ecological crisis can change once autonomy is reaffirmed. Such a shift is called for 1 Although the response is a collective product by the authors listed in the title, it is not necessarily the case that the authors agree on every subject covered. 2 See our conversation with Peter Wagner, “Thinking with and beyond Castoriadis: Conversation with Peter Wagner”, in this issue.