Introduction: Why a Social Representations Perspective?

2021 ◽  
pp. 3-23
Author(s):  
Alberta Contarello

This chapter introduces the social representations perspective that forms the background of the entire volume, presenting the social-psychological gaze (regard psychosocial): the acknowledgment that the knowledge of a social object necessarily requires the mediation of an Alter, a “thirdness.” From this premise, specific ways of studying change and continuity in meaning-making derive, putting change at the forefront as well as concerns about the role of the researcher along the path. After considering these features, the chapter briefly presents the various parts that compose the book and the single chapters. From a social representations stance or from cognate perspectives, several keywords and topics are encountered, both on a theoretical side and with empirical examples, addressing social issues in domains such as health, aging, inequalities, environment, and community.

Rapid changes in the contemporary world are increasing pressure on the social and psychological sciences to try to understand the present and foresee possible futures. Embracing Change: Knowledge, Continuity, and Social Representations focuses on the production of shared knowledge, as interpreted from a social psychological perspective inspired by the theory of social representations that highlights the role of the “Other” in the production of social understanding. Adopting this “socio-psychological gaze” entails bringing the primacy of relationships and communication to the forefront of the knowing processes while taking social and cultural forces into account. Growing streams of research bear witness to the potential of this theoretical and methodological approach, in synergy with cognate perspectives. This volume contains a collection of contributions from leading authors on how social representations theory can help us understand change and continuity in social knowledge regarding hot topics and domains of our time, such as health concerns, environmental issues, aging in an aging society, and intercultural encounters. The state of the art is explored with reference to advances in theory, methods, and the stance of the researcher in the process of inquiry. The volume’s focus is on how change has been studied in social psychology, how common knowledge is organized in everyday life, and how scholars can study and contribute to change in knowledge patterns. Casting light on challenging social issues, this volume will be of interest to students and scholars in social psychology, sociology, and social sciences.


2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  

Conceptualising foreign aid as a controversial social object, this study utilised Social Representations Theory as a social constructionist framework to understand the meanings that arise from people's social interactions in relation to foreign aid practice in a particular historical, political and social context such as the province of Sulu in Southern Philippines. Key informant interviews and group discussions with representatives of various social groups involved in the practice of foreign aid in Sulu were conducted. Research data were examined using thematic analysis. Results showed two interrelated representational systems about foreign aid in the province. First, foreign aid was understood as a valuable resource for peace and development in Sulu. Second, based on narratives of aid practice in the province, the same social object was also represented as a profiteering enterprise that operates at various levels of the aid structure. Results are discussed in terms of meaning-making in aid practice; the possible psychological, social and political consequences of the social meaning of foreign aid as a profiteering enterprise; and the potential of these social representations for reflection, critique and transformation in the practice of foreign aid.


2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 233-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Bonetto ◽  
Fabien Girandola ◽  
Grégory Lo Monaco

Abstract. This contribution consists of a critical review of the literature about the articulation of two traditionally separated theoretical fields: social representations and commitment. Besides consulting various works and communications, a bibliographic search was carried out (between February and December, 2016) on various databases using the keywords “commitment” and “social representation,” in the singular and in the plural, in French and in English. Articles published in English or in French, that explicitly made reference to both terms, were included. The relations between commitment and social representations are approached according to two approaches or complementary lines. The first line follows the role of commitment in the representational dynamics: how can commitment transform the representations? This articulation gathers most of the work on the topic. The second line envisages the social representations as determinants of commitment procedures: how can these representations influence the effects of commitment procedures? This literature review will identify unexploited tracks, as well as research perspectives for both areas of research.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (9) ◽  
pp. 877-882 ◽  
Author(s):  
Blanka Klimova ◽  
Kamil Kuca ◽  
Martin Valis ◽  
Jakub Hort

Background: Currently, there is a significant increase in the number of older generation groups, which may result in serious economic and social issues. Therefore, there is a need to prolong the active life of these older individuals, especially by focusing on modifying lifestyle factors such as healthy nutrition. In fact, recent research has shown that, for example, nuts are an important part of people’s healthy diet because they have appeared to be neuroprotective compounds which might maintain or in some cases even improve people’s cognitive functions. Objective: The purpose of this review study is to explore the role of the nut nutrition in the maintenance and delay of cognitive decline among older individuals. Results: The findings indicate that the nut consumption may contribute to the delay of cognitive decline in aging. However, this nut diet is just one component of the multi-nutrient dietary intervention for health aging. Conclusion: More longitudinal controlled randomized studies have to be performed in this field to prove the efficacy of the nut nutrition for the delay of cognitive decline.


Babel ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 216-233
Author(s):  
Gemma Andújar Moreno

Cultural referents not only designate specific realities of a given culture which do not always exist in another but they are also semantic elements which trigger social representations. By conveying values and points of view about different social groups, cultural referents become linguistic instruments to build stereotypes. These thought patterns are shared by the members of a social or cultural community and act as a filter of reality. The aim of this paper is to study the role of cultural referents in the construction of social stereotypes, focusing on the socio-cognitive universe they evoke. To this end, we have analyzed the translations techniques applied in the Spanish, Catalan and English versions of a novel which has been very successful on the French literary scene: Muriel Barbery’s L’Élégance du hérisson (2006). As show the results of this textual comparison, the explanations, descriptions and additional information observed in target texts do not trigger the same associations as cultural referents do in the source text. Translational approaches are too limited when it comes to achieve linguistic adequacy to different world visions. Therefore, translation must be conceived as an encounter between two cultural systems, in which the translator must build bridges, not so much between two linguistic systems as between the social perceptions and values of two different cultural communities.


Author(s):  
Quan Gao ◽  
Orlando Woods ◽  
Xiaomei Cai

This paper explores how the intersection of masculinity and religion shapes workplace well-being by focusing on Christianity and the social construction of masculinity among factory workers in a city in China. While existing work on public and occupational health has respectively acknowledged masculinity’s influences on health and the religious and spiritual dimensions of well-being, there have been limited efforts to examine how variegated, and especially religious, masculinities influence people’s well-being in the workplace. Drawing on ethnography and in-depth interviews with 52 factory workers and 8 church leaders and factory managers, we found that: (1) Variegated masculinities were integrated into the factory labor regime to produce docile and productive bodies of workers. In particular, the militarized and masculine cultures in China’s factories largely deprived workers of their dignity and undermined their well-being. These toxic masculinities were associated with workers’ depression and suicidal behavior. (2) Christianity not only provided social and spiritual support for vulnerable factory workers, but also enabled them to construct a morally superior Christian manhood that phytologically empowered them and enhanced their resilience to exploitation. This paper highlights not only the gender mechanism of well-being, but also the ways religion mediates the social-psychological construction of masculinity.


Author(s):  
Beverley Haddad

The field of theology and development is a relatively new sub-discipline within theological studies in Africa. The first formal post-graduate programme was introduced at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa during the mid-1990s. In the early years it was known as the Leadership and Development programme and since 2000, as the Theology and Development programme. Over the past twenty years, this programme has graduated over 160 BTh Honours, 100 MTh, and 15 PhD students. This article outlines the history of the programme, addresses its ideological orientation, its pedagogical commitments and preferences in curriculum design. It further argues that theological reflection on “development” must seek to understand the prophetic role of the church in responding to the complexities of the social issues facing the African continent.  Key to this discussion is the contested nature of “development” and the need for theological perspectives to engage this contestation through a social analysis of the global structures of injustice. This requires an engagement with the social sciences. It is this engagement of the social sciences with theological reflection, the essay argues, that has enabled the students who have graduated from the Theology and Development Programme at the University of KwaZulu-Natal to assist the church and faith-based organisations to become effective agents of social transformation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-122
Author(s):  
Luiz Gustavo Silva Souza ◽  
Emma O’Dwyer ◽  
Sabrine Mantuan dos Santos Coutinho ◽  
Sharmistha Chaudhuri ◽  
Laila Lilargem Rocha ◽  
...  

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the lives of billions of people worldwide. Individuals and groups were compelled to construct theories of common sense about the disease to communicate and guide practices. The theory of social representations provides powerful concepts to analyse the psychosocial construction of COVID-19. This study aimed to understand the social representations of COVID-19 constructed by middle-class Brazilian adults and their ideological implications, providing a social-psychological analysis of these phenomena while the pandemic is still ongoing. We adopted a qualitative approach based on semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted online in April-May 2020. Participants were 13 middle-class Brazilians living in urban areas. We analysed the interviews with thematic analysis and a phenomenological approach. The social representations were organised around three themes: 1) a virus originated in human actions and with anthropocentric meanings (e.g., a punishment for the human-led destruction of the environment); 2) a dramatic disease that attacks the lungs and kills people perceived to have “low immunity”; and 3) a disturbing pandemic that was also conceived as a correction event with positive consequences. The social representations included beliefs about the individualistic determination of immunity, the attribution of divine causes to the pandemic, and the need for the moral reformation of humankind. The discussion highlights the ideological implications of these theories of common sense. Socially underprivileged groups are at greater COVID-19-related risk, which the investigated social representations may contribute to conceal and naturalise.


Author(s):  
А.А. Костригин

Изучалась биография и творчество выдающегося отечественного психолога, философа и представителя российского психологического зарубежья В.В. Зеньковского (1881-1962 гг.). Рассмотрены его ранний период эмиграции и работа в г. Белграде (Королевство сербов, хорватов и словенцев) и г. Праге (Чехословакия) (1920-1926 гг.). Проанализированы фундаментальные психологические идеи В.В. Зеньковского в общей, детской и педагогической психологии, сформулированные им в его монографии «Психология детства» (1924 г.) и курсах лекций «Педагогическая психология» (1924 г.) и «Курс общей психологии» (1925 г.) (на основе архивных материалов). Рассмотрены также его научные концепции в области теории и методологии психологии (структура психологической науки, строение душевной жизни, о ведущей роли эмоциональной сферы в психике человека), детской психологии (педологические основы психологии ребенка, задачи и методы детской психологии, проблемы понимания и самостоятельности феномена детства, роль игры в биологическом, психическом и социальном развитии ребенка) и педагогической психологии (социально-психологические основы педагогической психологии, социально-психологические феномены педагогического процесса, классификация социальных ролей ученика и учителя, психология поведения класса). В.В. Зеньковский представляется как оригинальный теоретик и методолог психологии, разработчик основ изучения психики ребенка, создатель социально-психологического подхода в педагогической психологии. Его концепции этого периода могут быть востребованы в настоящее время при решении методологических вопросов психологии, социально-психологических проблем педагогики, проблем социального воспитания личности, при изучении развития психических процессов и личности ребенка. The author refers to the biography and work of the outstanding Russian psychologist, philosopher and representative of the Russian psychological abroad community V.V. Zenkovsky (1881-1962 y.). The early emigration period of his life and work in Belgrade (the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes) and Prague (Czechoslovakia) (1920-1926 y.) is considered. The author discusses the fundamental psychological ideas of V.V. Zenkovsky regarding general psychology, child psychology and pedagogical psychology, which he formulated at that time in his monograph “Psychology of Childhood” (1924) and lecture courses “Pedagogical Psychology” (1924) and “The Course of General Psychology” (1925) (based on archival materials). There are significant scientific concepts of V.V. Zenkovsky in the field of theory and methodology of psychology (the structure of psychological science, the structure of mental life, the leading role of the emotional sphere in the human psyche), child psychology (pedological foundations of child psychology, tasks and methods of child psychology, the problem of understanding and independence of the childhood phenomenon, the role of the game in biological, mental and social development of the child) and pedagogical psychology (social-psychological foundations of pedagogical psychology, social-psychological phenomena of educational process, the classification of social roles of student and teacher, the psychology of class behavior). V.V. Zenkovsky is presented as an original theoretician and methodologist of psychology, pedologist, developer of the basics of studying the child’s psyche and creator of the social-psychological approach in pedagogical psychology. Nowadays the analyzed concepts of the Russian psychologist can be demanded when solving methodological issues of psychology, social-psychological problems of pedagogics, problems of social education of a person, when studying and designing the development of child’s mental processes and personality.


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