Social Constructionism and Social Representation Theory

2021 ◽  
pp. 181-201
Author(s):  
Diego Romaioli ◽  
Alberta Contarello
Keyword(s):  
Social Constructionism ◽  
Reciprocal Cross ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Social Representation ◽  
Social Knowledge ◽  
Aging Society ◽  
Social Representation Theory ◽  
Cross Fertilization ◽  
Different Levels

This chapter considers how the perspectives of social constructionism and social representations theory can overlap and cross-fertilize more than was once recognized, when the study of change is at stake. This applies particularly to the study of meaning-making through practices and relations via social artifacts. Focusing on those scholars considered to be the main initiators and developers of these two perspectives in social psychology—Serge Moscovici and Kenneth J. Gergen—the authors analyze their works on different levels: meta-theoretical, theoretical, and methodological. Grounding their reasoning on research that they themselves and others have conducted on the two frameworks, mainly on aging in an aging society, the authors call for a further erasure of distinctions between the two. They conclude by suggesting a fruitful future enrichment of the dialogue and a reciprocal cross-fertilization that might overcome nominalistic barriers in the study of social knowledge, particularly where change and continuity are concerned.

Serge Moscovici's "Réflexions sur la popularité des conspiracy mentalities"

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivier Klein
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Social Representation ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The People ◽  
Social Representation Theory ◽  
The Masses

This is a pdf of the original typed manuscript of a lecture made in 2006. An annotated English translation will be published by the International Review of Social Psychology. I this text, Moscovici seeks to update his earlier work on the “conspiracy mentality” (1987) by considering the relationships between social representations and conspiracy mentality. Innovation in this field, Moscovici argues, will require a much thorough description and understanding of what conspiracy theories are, what rhetoric they use and what functions they fulfill. Specifically, Moscovici considers conspiracies as a form of counterfactual history implying a more desirable world (in which the conspiracy did not take place) and suggests that social representation theory should tackle this phenomenon. He explicitly links conspiracy theories to works of fiction and suggests that common principles might explain their popularity. Historically, he argues, conspiracism was born twice: First, in the middle ages, when their primary function was to exclude and destroy what was considered as heresy; and second, after the French revolution, to delegitimize the Enlightenment, which was attributed to a small coterie of reactionaries rather than to the will of the people. Moscovici then considers four aspects (“thematas”) of conspiracy mentality: 1/ the prohibition of knowledge; 2/ the duality between the majority (the masses, prohibited to know) and “enlightened” minorities; 3/ the search for a common origin, a “ur phenomenon” that connects historical events and provides a continuity to History (he notes that such a tendency is also present in social psychological theorizing); and 4/ the valorization of tradition as a bulwark against modernity. Some of Moscovici’s insights in this talk have since been borne out by contemporary research on the psychology of conspiracy theories, but many others still remain fascinating potential avenues for future research.

scholarly journals Knowledge About Family and School Contribution in Academic Achievement: The Context of Schooling and Social Representations in India

2021 ◽  
pp. 002205742110259
Author(s):  
Chetan Sinha
Keyword(s):  
Academic Achievement ◽  
Representation Theory ◽  
Common Sense ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Social Representation ◽  
Social Representation Theory

The present paper critically examined the available research on role of family and school contribution in academic achievement and explored their social representations. People adaptation with the prevalent notions and thinking beyond the boundary of common sense is required to explain multidimensional picture of any attribute. Previous research applied social representation theory to understand educability, intelligence, academic achievement and failure, and teachership. This article showed a polysemic understanding of family and school contribution where roles and identity matters.

scholarly journals O significado dos olhos nas representações sociais de clientes transplantados de córnea e suas implicações para o cuidado de si

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 202-205
Author(s):  
Ralrizônia Fernandes Sousa ◽  
Sílvio Éder Dias Da Silva ◽  
Esleane Vilela Vasconcelos ◽  
Lucialba Maria Silva Dos Santos ◽  
Vander Monteiro Da Conceição ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Representation Theory ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Corneal Transplantation ◽  
Self Care ◽  
Social Representation ◽  
Corneal Transplant ◽  
The Social ◽  
De Se ◽  
Social Representation Theory

Objetivou-se identificar o significado dos olhos nas representações sociais de clientes transplantados de córnea e suas implicações para o cuidado de si. Tratase de uma pesquisa descritiva qualitativa, adotando a Teoria das Representações Sociais na perspectiva de Moscovici. Fizeram parte deste estudo, 15 clientes submetidos a transplantes de córnea e que se encontravam em acompanhamento no Consultório de Oftalmologia do Ambulatório do Hospital Ophir Loyola, em Belém, PA. Os depoentes atribuíram significados diversos aos seus olhos, substanciados por sentimentos de tristeza e insatisfação, que contribuíram para mudanças significativas no cuidado de si. Há necessidade de se cogitar sobre o compromisso do enfermeiro com o cliente transplantado de córnea que, muitas vezes, encontra-se fragilizado, necessitando de um olhar mais atento.Descritores: Enfermagem, Transplante de Córnea, Cuidado de Si.Eye on the meaning of social representations corneal transplantation customers and it’s implications for the care of youThe aim of this study was to identify the meaning of the eyes of customers in the social representations of corneal transplant and its implications for self-care. It is a descriptive and qualitative study, adopting the Social Representation Theory in the context of Moscovici. The sample comprised 15 clients who underwent corneal transplantation and were followed up in the office of the Ophthalmology Clinic of the Ophir Loyola Hospital, in Belem, Pará. The respondents attributed different meanings to their eyes; substantiated by feelings of sadness and dissatisfaction, that contributed to significant changes in self-care. There is need to think about the commitment of the nurse with the client cornea transplant, which often is fragile, requiring a closer look.Descriptors: Nursing, Corneal Transplantation, Self-care.Los ojos sobre el significado de los clientes representataciones sociales transplante de córnea y sus conscuencias para el cuidad de ustedEl objetivo fue identificar el significado de los ojos de los clientes en las representaciones sociales de trasplante de córnea y sus implicaciones para el autocuidado. Se trata de un estudio descriptivo cualitativo, adoptando laTeoría de las Representaciones Sociales en el contexto de Moscovici. La muestra es compuesta por 15 clientes que se sometieron a trasplante de córnea que se siguió en la oficina de la Clínica de Oftalmología del Hospital Ophir Loyola, en Belem, Pará. Los encuestados atribuyen diferentes significados a sus ojos, motivada por sentimientos de tristeza e insatisfacción, que han contribuido a cambios significativos en el auto-cuidado. Hay que pensar en el compromiso de la enfermera con el trasplante de cornea del cliente, que a menudo es frágil, lo que requiere una mirada más cercana.Descriptores: Enfermería, Trasplante de Córnea, Cuidar de si.

scholarly journals Teoria reprezentacji społecznych w interdyscyplinarnych badaniach nad dyskursem edukacyjnym – potencjał zbiorowego pisania biografii

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-243
Author(s):  
Zuzanna Zbróg
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Social Representation ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Educational Discourse ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Representation Theory ◽  
Collective Biography ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
Theoretical Analyses

The aim of the article is to present the theory of social representations which is not well-known in the Polish pedagogy and which may constitute an interesting theoretical and methodological perspective for the study of the educational discourse. The theory itself is interdisciplinary and therefore may be useful in research carried out within various academic disciplines both in the humanities and social sciences. Theoretical analyses will also concern the possibilities of conducting research of educational discourse within the framework of the social representation theory with the application of the collective biography writing which may be perceived as the critical discourse analysis.

scholarly journals Representações sociais da enfermagem elaboradas por profissionais de saúde não enfermeiros

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Érick Igor dos Santos ◽  
Yasmin Rayanne Alves ◽  
Antonio Marcos Tosoli Gomes ◽  
Aline Cerqueira Santos Santana da Silva ◽  
Diego Bonfante Mota ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Professionals ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Social Representation ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Representation Theory ◽  
Nursing Health ◽  
Nursing Professional

Aims:  To  analyze  the  social  representations  of  nursing  by  non-nursing health professionals. Method: This is a descriptive, exploratory research, with a qualitative  approach,  using    Social  Representation  Theory  as  a  structural  approach.  A total of 53 non-nursing health professionals participated in this research. The technique used to collect the data was based on free and hierarchical opinions, using the inductor terminology “nursing”. D ata analysis was treated through the software E VOC  2005. Results:  The  following  are  among  the  core  terms  used  to  socially  represent  nursing: care,  team,  responsibility  and  work.  Discussion:  It  was to  form  a  balance  between the functional,  normative,  and  perceived  image  of  the  representation,  which  includes cognitive  and  evaluative  elements.  There  is  a  positive  view  towards  the  study  object. Conclusion:  This  representation has  been  carefully  presented  as  professionals  relate to concrete  and  tangible  formats  to  express  the  nursing  professional,  and  then  they  are able to reconstruct the object nursing.

scholarly journals Social representations of marketing work: advertising workers and social media

2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (5) ◽  
pp. 830-847 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Cluley ◽  
William Green
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Representation Theory ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Media Analysis ◽  
Social Representation ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Marketing Managers ◽  
Social Representation Theory

Purpose Informed by social representation theory, the study aims to explore how marketing workers represent their activities on social media. Design/methodology/approach A naturalistic data set of 17,553 messages posted on Twitter by advertising workers was collected. A sample of over 1,000 unique messages from this data set, incorporating all external links and images, was analysed inductively using structured thematic analysis. Findings Advertising workers represent marketing work as a series of fun yet constrained activities involving relationships with clients and colleagues. They engage in cognitive polyphasia by evaluating these productive differences in both a positive and negative light. Research limitations/implications The study marks a novel use of social representation theory and innovative social media analysis. Further research should explore these relations in greater depth by considering the networks that marketing workers create on social media and establish how, when and why marketing workers turn to social media in their everyday activities. Practical implications Marketing workers choose to represent aspects of their work to one another, using social media. Marketing managers should support such activities and consider social media as a way to understand the lives and experiences of marketing workers. Originality/value Marketing researchers have embraced digital media as a route to understanding consumers. This study demonstrates the value of analysing digital media to develop an understanding of marketing work. It sheds new light on the ways marketing workers create social relationships and enables marketing managers to understand and observe the social aspects of effective marketing.

scholarly journals Mirrored Social Representations of Canadian Caseworkers with Migratory Paths Intervening with Refugees in the Host Country

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (16) ◽  
pp. 8648
Author(s):  
Lilian Negura ◽  
Corinna Buhay ◽  
Annamaria Silvana de Rosa
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Inductive Reasoning ◽  
Social Representation ◽  
Syrian Refugees ◽  
Foreign Born ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Representation Theory

In 2015, the resettlement of 25,000 Syrian refugees in Canada placed a strain on social services. Caseworkers employed in these agencies often come from similar migratory trajectories to those of the refugees. This experiential proximity requires an understanding of the subjective perspectives that caseworkers with migratory paths have of refugees in the context of their professional practice. We analyzed fifteen individual interviews with Canadian caseworkers and conducted field observations of resettlement activities in the Ottawa-Gatineau region using inductive reasoning inspired by grounded theory. Adopting a sociogenetic approach to social representation theory, this qualitative study illustrates how the social representation of refugees among foreign-born caseworkers is highly informed by their migratory past experience, as well as by the social identity and social context from which that representation was socio-generated. Our analysis reveals the mirror effect of the caseworkers as a fruitful concept for understanding the identity-otherness dynamics in the encounter between the distant other (refugee) and the self.

Social Representation Theory: An Historical Outline

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Representation Theory ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Theory Development ◽  
Social Representation ◽  
International Visibility ◽  
Social Representation Theory ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Cognitive Polyphasia

The concept of social representation (SR) was developed by Serge Moscovici in 1961 as a social psychological approach articulating individual thinking and feeling with collective interaction and communication. SRs are conceived as symbolic forms that come about through interpersonal and media communication. They are the ways individuals think, interact with others, and shape social objects in their interaction with the local world. This text presents an outline of the history of social representation theory (SRT), using a four-period model: first, creation and incubation in France starting with Moscovici’s first book; second, the opening to the English-speaking academe around 1980; third, institutionalization and proliferation with the start of the journal papers on SRs and regular conferences in 1992; and, fourth, normalization, approximately from 2000 onwards. The first period (1961–1984) started with Serge Moscovici’s first presentation of his ideas in a French-language volume on “La psychanalyse son image et son public.” This was republished in an updated version in 1976 and translated into English in 2008. The theory postulates cognitive and social factors in the genesis and structure of SRs. These are accompanied by specific styles of communication that reflect the communicators’ identity and ideology. Together these aspects constitute common sense. The first period was a time of incubation because Moscovici and his first PhD students, Claudine Herzlich, Denise Jodelet, and Jean-Claude Abric, tried the concept in different domains. The second half of this period saw Moscovici and collaborators extend SRT’s theoretical frame to include the idea of consensual vs. reified domains. A consensual domain of communication is characterized by the free interchange of attitudes and opinions, while a reified domain is determined by institutionalized rules. Moscovici also postulated a process of cognitive polyphasia. By cognitive polyphasia he described a phenomenon where individuals use different and even contradictory thoughts about the same issue depending on the social setting they are in. The year 1984 marked the publication of a book for English-speaking scholars edited by Robert Farr and Moscovici that collected papers from an international conference in 1979. It was the first book-length collection of works on SRT and highlighted empirical research by a variety of international scholars. The period following 1979 through to 1992 saw a broadening of the base of scholars becoming interested in SRT. The 1980s brought Willem Doise’s conceptualizing of anchoring as a process of social marking, Abric’s theory of core and peripheral elements of a representation, and Hilde Himmelweit’s founding of a societal psychology. Proliferation was boosted 1992 by the founding of the journal Papers on Social Representations and the beginning of a biannual series of International Conferences on Social Representations, starting in 1992. This increased the international visibility of SRT and helped scholars to organize themselves around topics and form cross-national research groups. The period from 1992 to the first decade of the new century was characterized by an increasing number of empirical and theoretical studies. A series of theoretical branches emerged: there was research on the micro-genesis of SRs on the individual level, an extension of the structural theory of SRs, the discussion of the socially constructive aspects and sociopolitical uses of SRT, the design of a dialogical approach to the mind and social life, and Moscovici’s suggestion to consider large-scale themata as a factor in social thinking. If the period after 1992 was a time of institutionalization, the time after the turn of the century can be called a period of normalization. That is, a period when SRT was presented in chapters for handbooks of social psychology and when dedicated handbooks and monographs were published. From this period onward it becomes virtually impossible to give even a superficial account of the most important contributions to SRT’s burgeoning field of research and theory development.

scholarly journals The social representations of climate change: comparison of two territories exposed to the coastal flooding risk

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 389-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Constance Mambet Doue ◽  
Oscar Navarro Carrascal ◽  
Diego Restrepo ◽  
Nathalie Krien ◽  
Delphine Rommel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Representation Theory ◽  
Quantitative Study ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Social Representation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Representation Theory

Purpose Based on social representation theory, this study aims to evaluate and analyze the similarities and differences between social representations of climate change held by people living in two territories, which have in common that they are exposed to coastal risks but have different socio-cultural contexts: on the one hand, Cartagena (Colombia) and on the other, Guadeloupe (French overseas department, France). Design/methodology/approach A double approach, both quantitative and qualitative, of social representation theory was adopted. The data collection was undertaken in two phases. First, the content and organization of social representation of climate change (SRCC) was examined with a quantitative study of 946 participants for both countries, followed by a qualitative study of 63 participants for both countries also. Findings The study finds unicity in the SRCC for the quantitative study. In contrast, the qualitative study highlights differences at the level of the institutional anchoring of the climate change phenomenon in these two different socioeconomic and political contexts. Practical implications These results are relevant for a reflection in terms of public policies for the prevention and management of collective natural risks, as well as for the promotion of ecological behavior adapted to political and ideological contexts. Originality/value The use of a multi-methodological approach (quantitative and qualitative) in the same research is valuable to confirm the importance of an in-depth study of the social representations of climate change because of the complexity of the phenomenon.

Games in Health Education

2010 ◽  
pp. 106-118
Author(s):  
Margot Kaszap
Keyword(s):  
Health Education ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Research Team ◽  
Educational Games ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Representation ◽  
Social Representation Theory ◽  
Learning At Home ◽  
Health And Well Being

Studies indicate that teachers are not effectively encouraging appropriate health and well-being strategies among their students (Turcotte, Gaudreau, & Otis, 2007). Because educational games offer many advantages in promoting health, motivation, and active participation in learning, (Sauvé, Power, IsaBelle, Samson, & St-Pierre, 2002), it is important to determine which types of games health education teachers can use best. Building on health education needs and social representation theory, this chapter presents a study of pre-service (student) teachers to identify social representations that pre-service teachers have about games, including whether they perceived games as supporting learning at home and in school, and which types and aspects of games they preferred. The answers to these questions helped the research team to create games to meet the needs of future teachers in enhancing their students’ health education.

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