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Employing the sensemaking perspective, this paper aims to study the relationship between social innovation and resilience. The study highlights how sensemaking of social innovation is a process that takes place within existing social and economic representations. This study has a qualitative nature and is based on multiple case studies, which is the methodology best suited to highlight the drivers of social phenomena in specific socioeconomic contexts and which characteristics they manifest. The paper contributes to the literature along three different lines. First, it describes social innovation as the resilient outcome of sensemaking or the result of a capacity for collective reorganization following environmental, political, economic, and social disruptions. Second, it provides policymakers with a model to use to establish the intensity of social pressure and the openness of baseline social representations to change. Third, it allows policymakers to jointly observe and analyze the relationship between social representation and economic representation, highlighting the central role of firms in achieving social innovation. Although this paper presents the findings of a wide theoretical analysis, the developed model needs to be empirically tested by firms and policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discussions on the body frequently foreground in empirical studies of social representations. However, there is scarce theoretical literature within social representations theory focusing on embodied social representation. This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of embodied, sensory experiences as part of social representation. More precisely, it attempts to elaborate how individual, social, bodily, and material layers work together in embodied social representation. This paper approaches the topic from four viewpoints: (1) social representation as action, (2) phenomenology, (3) embodied and socially situated cognition, and (4) sensory epistemologies and sensescapes. These approaches are used to provide insight into the conscious and unconscious processes of social representation and the multimodality of social representation. The paper contributes to the understanding of the role of sensory experiences and embodiment in the theory of social representations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To understand social issues and practices such as those related to climate change and technological change that are clearly future‐oriented – collectively experienced events that are "not yet" – and co‐constructed by different actors, we need nuanced conceptualizations of how people think about, negotiate and co‐create futures that allow us to understand not only what people (can) think and do about future‐related issues but also how that happens, what for and with which implications. However, so far, one of the key theoretical approaches that has conceptualised how people make meaning in situations of change and uncertainty – the socio‐psychological social representations theory (SRT) – has not often engaged with the future or with different forms of temporality. By contrast, the French pragmatic sociology of engagements and critique (PS) has engaged with these notions, conceptualising them in relation to materiality and a plurality of moral orientations – two dimensions often seen as key to how collective futures are made and imagined. To offer a more nuanced and systematic conceptualization of how people represent the future and with what consequences, this paper will present, compare and synthesise SRT and PS, as a first step towards an interdisciplinary research agenda on social change and representations of the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small businesses often engage in social responsibility (SR) without knowing it or without referring to their actions as SR. This is particularly the case in developing countries where the idea of SR is seen as synonymous with philanthropy. While the literature on small business social responsibility is growing, our understanding of the context‐specific determinants of responsible practices in microbusinesses (those that employ less than 10 employees) that dominate the business landscape in many developing countries is still limited. In this paper, we address this gap and offer a theoretical understanding of how microbusiness owner‐managers understand and approach SR by drawing on rich qualitative data collected from Nigeria—Africa's largest economy. We utilise Social Representations Theory to understand (1) how and why microbusiness owner‐managers limit their understanding of SR to philanthropic activities and (2) the wide range of practices, including philanthropic activities, that account for their overall Responsible Business Practices (RBPs)—those practices that enable them to act responsibly towards their stakeholders and/or operating environments. We find that owner‐managers' representations of SR are anchored primarily on an idiosyncratic ethical tendency and inclination towards the creation of social/communal harmony by 'giving back to society' and objectified via actions deriving from three 'giving back' orientations, namely Core Philanthropism, Social Problem Solving, and Empowering. We model microbusiness owner‐managers' RBPs, highlighting the intersectional interplay of the voluntary (SR as philanthropy) and non‐voluntary (self‐regulatory and legal) dimensions of RBPs. Finally, we discuss the key findings in relation to the extant literature and to policymakers and managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This preliminary study examined the process of constructing alternative discourses on social work. It focused on the exploration of Buddhist social work by researchers and practitioners in Asian countries, including monks and nuns. The present investigation was grounded in the analytical perspective of the social representation theory posited in the domain of social psychology. Books, reports, and any relevant papers written in English were collected as primary data sources (n = 22), and a qualitatively descriptive analysis was conducted on these data. The scrutiny specifically attended to the mechanism of familiarization, which comprises the process of anchoring and objectifying. The study's findings revealed the process of intentionally (re)naming activities and related events that were previously not necessarily described as Buddhist social work. These practices and occurrences were then classified and positioned within a particular cross‐border paradigm. Additionally, some monks, nuns, and other stakeholders became conversant with discussion and research activities related to Buddhist social work. Objectifying actions, such as (re)discovering and reproducing, thus became taken for granted by such functionaries. These findings suggest that cross‐border Buddhist social work discourses were actively constructed through the usage of relevant terms and concepts. In other words, the results of this study indicate that alternative discourse is internationally becoming the familiar form of discussion within the discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at analyzing the communicational dynamics activated by the dissemination of fake news on social media in moments of collective mobilization, in the frame of the dialogic approach of social representations. In order to establish a comparative analysis, three focus groups were created with voters of candidates Fernando Haddad and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, who discussed the content of purposely selected Facebook posts. The study extrapolated the conversational exercise to the dynamics of a social media, concluding that digital ecosystems, in moments of collective mobilization, behave as representational fields guided, from the psychosocial point of view, by relations of identity tension and, from a rhetorical or communicational point of view, by a phenomenon called diatopic tension, characterized by the coexistence of four interdependent variables: (1) topological divergence; (2) situational heteroglossy; (3) affective intensity and 4) apparent perception of factual control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores social representations of wind energy development within reindeer herding lands among the Indigenous Southern Saami living within Norwegian borders. For this matter, the paper combines Social Representations Theory (SRT) with the analytical framework of "circuits of dispossession and privilege" and decolonial approaches within community psychology. Data consisted of seven individual semi‐structured open‐ended interviews, three collective interviews, and observation in three lawsuits, public meetings, protest actions, and reindeer herding activities. The findings suggest that for the subjects in this study, the onset of wind power represents the renewal of historical processes of dispossession through accumulation and colonialism, enabled by harmful knowledge gaps in Norwegian society and institutions, contrasting Southern Saami's values of responsibility and ecological practices. The implication of these findings suggests an urgent need of rethinking renewable energy and including indigenous knowledge in climate change agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hence, Wachelke's ([12]) theoretical framework elaboration seems to be still halfway to the assumption and deployment of a true relational epistemological frame, hindering the possibilities of a real dialogue with the basic assumptions of SR theory and cultural psychology. Does social psychology need a new semiotic overarching framework for grasping social knowledge? Commentary on J. Wachelke: Semiosis, thought and codes: A theoretical framework for social knowledge. [Extracted from the article]

This paper first identifies representations of threats in Greek‐Cypriot newspapers related to the negotiations for a Cyprus settlement. Then, it identifies how alternative representations to these core representations of threats are managed through the use of a number of semantic barriers. Therefore, it problematizes the role (function) that such representations of threats play in undermining the potential for transformative dialogue in a post‐conflict and divided country in need of conflict transformation. Focus is on the editorials of two newspapers during a four‐month period before the collapse of the July 2017 Cyprus peace talks. Both were suspicious and polemic vis‐à‐vis the said negotiations but used different strategies to oppose them. Simerini convened recurrently threats such as Turkification, state dissolution and threats against Hellenism. Phileleftheros focused on the issue of security drawing red lines on various dossiers under discussion in the negotiations. The paper contributes to the theoretical debate of the relationship between social representations and identities and the role of threats and historical narratives in undermining transformative dialogue through the use of semantic barriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The coronavirus crisis reignited the debate over the ethical dimension of employment practices in the hotel sector. This study, which draws on the findings from semistructured interviews conducted with 51 Polish hotel workers during the pandemic, aims to ascertain their views on fairness in the workplace, their well‐being, the attractiveness of hotel employment and collective representation. Our findings were, in many respects, at variance with earlier research and our a priori assumptions. Specifically, most interviewees had regular contracts, were satisfied with their jobs, rated the attractiveness of hotel employment highly and did not complain of emotional labour. Some highlighted managerial disrespectful treatment, especially after the outbreak of the pandemic. Most were indifferent to unions or viewed them unfavourably, doubted the efficacy of collective action and were uninterested in unionisation, with the crisis having little impact on their attitudes. The paper concludes by discussing theoretical and practical implications of the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This theoretical paper explores the role of social representations in the construction of social reality. Even though this question has been the subject of many debates, the actual processes and mechanisms through which social representations contribute to the construction of social reality have rarely been explored. Citing key works on the topic, the paper explores the role of the genesis of social representations in this process. Each stage of the objectification of social representations (selective construction, structuring schematization, and naturalization) is examined in detail. A more in‐depth analysis of the naturalization process is provided by dividing it into four phases: (1) recognition; (2) elimination of contradictions; (3) instrumental use; and (4) validation through experience. These phases are illustrated using the example of the construction of the social object of drugs in our contemporary society. The present examination of the naturalization process in relation to drugs reveals the mechanisms through which the reality of drugs as a social problem has been constructed and reproduced in our society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Please cite this paper as: Smith D, Lavender T. The maternity experience for women with a body mass index ≥ 30 kg/m: a meta-synthesis. BJOG 2011;118:779-789. Maternal obesity (body mass index, BMI ≥ 30 kg/m) is a global public health issue. There is a dearth of evidence regarding an effective maternal care pathway for pregnant women with a BMI ≥ 30 kg/m. This meta-synthesis aims to increase our understanding of the maternity experience for pregnant women with a BMI ≥30 kg/m. Six electronic databases were searched using predefined search terms. English-language studies using qualitative data to explore the maternity experience for women with a BMI ≥ 30 kg/m were included (defined by a quality appraisal framework). An interpretative approach was taken and the constructivist framework was central to the synthesis. Searches were conducted in September 2010, and resulted in six papers being synthesised. Three cluster themes (eight initial themes) were highlighted: acceptance and inevitability of weight gain in pregnancy; depersonalisation of care as a result of medicalisation; and healthy lifestyle benefits for self and baby. Pregnancy is an ideal period for health professionals to intervene, as women with a BMI ≥ 30 kg/m perceive their weight as more acceptable than when they were not pregnant, and are aware of the benefits of having a healthy lifestyle. Antenatal care should include postnatal weight management advice, as this is the period when women with a BMI ≥ 30 kg/m want to lose weight; this may enable subsequent pregnancies to start with a lower BMI. Such advice should be sensitive and tailored to the individual. Social representations theory provides a framework for understanding maternal obesity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following Moscovici (1972), this paper addresses the questions: What is the aim of research within a social representations perspective? Is it to support or to criticize the social order? Is it to consolidate or transform it? After a brief overview of social representations theory, I argue that while the theory appears to have the conceptual tools to begin this critical task, there are serious criticisms and points of underdevelopment that need addressing. In order for social representations theory to develop into a rigorously critical theory there are three controversial issues that require clarification. These are (a) the relationship between psychological processes and social practices, (b) the reification and legitimization of different knowledge systems, and (c) agency and resistance in the co-construction of self-identity. After discussing each issue in turn, with illustrations from research on racializing representations, I conclude the paper with a discussion of the role of representations in the ideological construction and contestation of reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive Dissonance Theory seeks to understand inconsistency by situating it within individual cognition. By doing so, it overlooks the role of the social context in the experience and management of inconsistency and dissonance and fails to capture the processes through which it is negotiated when it appears. On the other side, the cognitive polyphasia hypothesis together with a dialogical approach on Social Representations provide a socioculturally situated, process‐oriented understanding of inconsistency. In this paper, meat‐paradox, the phenomenon of simultaneously declaring love and respect towards animals and also consuming animals, mainly studied through Cognitive Dissonance Theory, is used in order to highlight the merits of a sociocultural approach to inconsistency. Four relevant empirical examples from interviews and focus groups with meat‐eaters and vegetarians in Cyprus are used to illustrate the approach. The examples illustrate how meat‐eaters manage dissonance in ways that exhibit coexistence of contradictory representations and ways of thinking. Three different modalities of knowledge coexistence are identified, as proposed by cognitive polyphasia researchers: displacement, selective prevalence and hybridisation. We discuss the importance of a sociocultural approach to studying paradoxes, the epistemological and methodological implications of such a theorisation and we suggest other life contexts in which such an approach can be applied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I make a critical plea for the rehabilitation of the theoretical conception of the intrinsically social dimensions of cognition, emotion, and behavior shared by early social psychologists but progressively neglected and abandoned in the last century. Some critical implications of this theoretical conception are considered, including its relation to contemporary theories of social cognition and the restrictive methodological prescriptions of experimental social psychology. Finally, I consider the relation between this conception and alternative theoretical traditions in social psychology, such as social representation theory and 'social identity' theory, cultural psychology, and social constructionism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I argue for a stronger consideration of the possible relationship between social psychology and architecture and architectural history. After a brief review of some of the ways in which other social psychologists have sought to develop links between social psychology and history, I consider the utility of architecture in more depth, especially to the social psychologist interested in the development of knowledge and understanding. I argue that, especially when knowledge is institutionalised, the design and use of buildings might have a particular contribution to make to the way we can understand how phenomena have been understood and approached in the past. Although many examples are relevant, I consider the case of the psychiatric hospital (or 'asylum') in more detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organ donation is the only available treatment for end-stage failure of organs such as liver, lung, and heart and therefore increasing the number of organ donors is a priority for most countries. One measure that could be taken by a country to increase the number of organ transplants is to introduce the opt-out system of organ donation. Public opinion is divided on this issue and policy makers need to tread with caution before introducing legislation. This paper proposes that understanding the social representations the public has of organ donation is important in taking the right policy decisions. We propose here that an in-depth study of the views held by people on the issue is essential in this regard and that this can best be done by investigating the metaphors people use to describe organ donation, interpreted within the theory of social representation. In this study, the social representations of organ donation were investigated through five focus groups with 57 participants living in Malta. Analysis of the transcriptions of these focus groups yielded pertinent issues related to organ donation. Moreover, metaphors of organ donations and how these were related to social representations of the body and attitudes towards the opt-out system are discussed. It is being suggested that these findings could be of relevance to the present discussion on the opt-out system in the UK and in other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health promotion researchers and practitioners have increasingly turned to community-based approaches. Although there has been much work around the diverse understandings of the term in areas such as community psychology and sociology, I am concerned with how such understandings relate directly to community health research and practice. From a discursive perspective ‘community’ is seen as a socially constructed representation that is used variously and pragmatically. However, from a wider view, community can be seen as a matter of embodied practice. This paper draws on social representations theory to examine the shifting constructions of ‘community’, the functional use of those understandings in social life, and the practices that suggest that it is important to attend to their use in particular contexts. Accordingly, the paper argues that meanings of community in the health promotion or public health context must be seen as representations used for specific purposes in particular situations. Furthermore, the broader notion of embodied practice in social life has implications for community participation in health promotion. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper illustrates the empirical investigation of social representations by means of photographs as stimulus material and the technique of correspondence analysis to study the resulting data. The research was part of a campaign carried out to promote organ donation in Malta. The study tries to find out whether a public communication campaign could change perceptions. Five focus groups were held before the campaign and another five, two months after the campaign. Part of the data collected through these focus groups was analysed using correspondence analysis. The results showed that before the campaign, donors were generally perceived to be either young or important people or public personalities. After the campaign, donors were perceived more to be ordinary family people, educated, generous and religious. On the other hand, before the campaign, non-donors were seen as conservative, uncouth and uncaring, whereas after the campaign non-donors were generally perceived to be older, uninformed and uneducated people. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how dress can be implicated in contests regarding individual and organizational identities. Identities are understood as being constituted within discursive regimes, and to be subjectively available to people in the form of self-narratives. The pluralism and polyphony that characterize organizations means that collective self-narratives are likely to be fractured, contested and multi-layered. It is in this context that attire is an important object symbol that conveys information about the individual and collective self. Here we focus on aspects of dress, especially the Islamic headscarf, and its role in the dynamics of collective identity maintenance and challenge in one all-female Turkish university department. Our ethnographic approach yielded multiple, related and sometimes overlapping story lines centred on dress. These we have chosen to represent as a single though multi-voiced faculty narrative in order to facilitate analysis of what was a particularly rich symbolic milieu. The principal research contribution of this paper is as a discussion of participants' clothing in the constitution of individual and organizational narrative identities, and its importance for understanding the dynamics of identity conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the field of psychology, the topic of everyday life as a specific subject of inquiry has been afforded little attention. Indeed, everyday life has recently been analyzed mainly in psychological studies that examine people's ways of behaving and thinking when they act in situations termed as mundane and ordinary. These studies are mainly carried out in two fields of social psychology which we refer to in general terms as Social Cognition and Social Representation Theory. The aim of this paper is to examine how both these fields treat some of the features commonly attributed to everyday life. In particular, the features of familiarization, continuity and stability over time and automaticity are discussed in order to try to figure out meeting points between the two fields mentioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that people's views of health and illness are best understood as accounts that they give to others. In that sense, such beliefs are neither the expression of fixed inner attitudes, nor evidence for shared social representations. Instead, we emphasise the importance of seeing health talk as both ideological and dilemmatic. The paper explores the way in which individuals who speak of health (or illness) in general must also give an account of their health in particular. Reviewing the distinction between 'private' and 'public' accounts, the article discusses the various rhetorical devices by which this is achieved. This shows how people's talk about health both defines their social fitness and exemplifies their claims to being ill or healthy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The information systems (IS) work practice literature recognises that the use of information technology in organisations and broader social structuring is composed of both human action and the properties of technology. Social representations of work are important as reflexive agents may see contradictions between these and their use of technology in practice, thus providing a trigger for change. However, agents do not always see contradictions, which allows them to endure by favouring practice reproduction. To explain this inconsistency, this paper introduces the concept of doxa as a sensitising device for a practice analysis of call centre work and examines the narratives developed by advisors to represent their call-handling practices. The contributions of our doxa-informed practice analysis to the literature on IS and work practices include the following: firstly, to indicate how a simultaneous presence and absence of agents' reflexivity occurs; secondly, to demonstrate how the sensemaking function provided by social representations of work and technology can be undermined; and finally to show how material conditions of work and organisation may remain hidden, despite being directly implicated in the logic of practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents abstracts of several articles related to sociology. Information on how the themata developments in Social Representations Theory can be linked with the classical process involved in the construction of social representations; Problems of public encounters; Reexamination of the issue of objectivity in sociology.

In the field of the central core theory of social representations, research which has focused on the normative aspects is relatively recent as it dates back little more than ten years. The theory of conditionality which developed from research into the periphery of representation results from this. It is a particularly fruitful theory to explain 'normative latitudes' and the behaviour accruing to them. One of the particularities of these works stresses the importance of linking the normative aspects with specific methods and/or analyses. In this paper, we will illustrate it via a specific tool developed in the field of traffic psychology: the Conditional Script Questionnaire ( CSQ). This approach makes it possible to highlight the interactions between two systems of norms: the legal system and the social system. The implication of norms is fundamental in different processes already studied such as social influence or identity processes, and this article can be considered as an illustration of the place of norms in the field of social thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To what extent do China's non-profit and voluntary organizations have the capacities to represent effectively the interests of their constituents? In this paper, we examine the prevalence of various representational dimensions in these organizations. Our survey findings provide evidence that, other things being equal, an organization's levels of descriptive and participatory representation have a positive and significant impact on its levels of substantive and symbolic representation. Our findings also show that organizational type matters: social organizations are more substantively and symbolically representative than private non-enterprise organizations, whereas advocacy-oriented organizations are more symbolically representative than those that are not advocacy-oriented. Our case studies further illustrate how the typical advocacy-oriented organization differs from the service-oriented organization in the development of its 'representational mix', how an organization's 'representational mix' evolves over time, and how the relationship between the organization and its supervisory agency affects its various representational dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper advances a critical social psychological approach to the study of citizenship. It builds upon recent social psychological work on the subject, particularly in discursive and rhetorical psychology but also other critical approaches such as social representations theory. The paper also borrows insights from the interdisciplinary field of citizenship studies in order to conceptualise citizenship in both its conventional (enacting well‐established scripts of political action) and its transformative aspects (making rights claims that are disruptive of established scripts). The paper is divided in five sections. The first section considers the relationship between social psychology and citizenship; the second section offers a conceptualisation of citizenship that takes under consideration citizens' practices from the ground up and constraints posed by existing norms and laws; the third section considers the value of adding citizenship into the social psychological conceptual toolkit. The fourth more substantive section advances a critical social psychological approach to citizenship which focuses on the study of the different ways that "ordinary" political actors engage with political matters in the mundane practices of everyday life. The last section concludes the paper and makes some suggestions for future directions, such as the study of emerging forms of citizenship through a more nuanced examination of intersecting political affiliations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite its intuitive appeal and the empirical evidence for it, the hypothesis of cognitive polyphasia (Moscovici, 1961/1976/2008) remains largely unexplored. This article attempts to clarify some of the ideas behind this concept by examining its operations at the level of individuals and by proposing a conceptual model that includes some elements of social cognition. Indeed, calls for a rapprochement between the theory of social representations and cognitive psychology have been made by Moscovici, in particular, in his 1984 paper on The myth of the lonely paradigm and in his paper on La nouvelle pensée magique (1992) in which he argues that the theory of social representations provides an explanatory framework for the descriptions offered by cognitive psychology and that their combining could translate into a finer understanding of contemporary social phenomena. Building on the results of an empirical examination of the controversy that surrounded the MMR vaccination programme in the UK between 1998 and 2005, different ways of engaging into cognitive polyphasia are proposed, including what can be described as cognitive 'monophasia', that is, the exclusive use of one type of knowledge, at least at the level of the individual. A brief discussion about the implications of the proposed conceptual model for our understanding of cognitive polyphasia and of the different ways of making sense of the world around us concludes this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the potential of the notions of reification and consensualization as developed by the theory of social representations as analytical tools for addressing the communication between the lay and scientific spheres. Social Representations Theory started by offering an over-sharp distinction between the reified and the consensual universes of which science and common sense, respectively, were presented as paradigmatic. This paper, however, suggests that the notions of consensual and reified can be considered as describing two distinct communicative formats: reification implying the use of arguments which establish prescriptions for representations and action, and consensualization relying on arguments which recognize the heterogeneity of representation and action. We illustrate this proposal through the analysis of a case in which the expert and the lay spheres of a Lisbon neighborhood opposed each other regarding the new laws of public participation in community matters. This analysis showed how reification and consensualization can be used as discursive formats by both spheres. The implications of the use of reification and consensualization and how they may depend on several power resources and have different impacts on social change are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study “ Psychoanalysis—its image and its public” intimates that common sense is increasingly informed by science. But common sense asserts its autonomy and, in turn, may affect the trajectory of science. This is a process that leads to many differentiations—in common sense, in scientific innovation and in political and regulatory structures. Bauer and Gaskell's toblerone model of triangles of mediation provided a distillation of their reading of “La Psychanalyse.” Here it was argued that representations are multi-modal phenomena necessitating the use of multiple methodologies (comparative and longitudinal; qualitative and quantitative). In this paper we briefly summarise these arguments and elaborate ways in which social representation theory can be considered a progressive research programme. “Progressive” because as the theory has developed it has extended the range and depth of its conceptual basis; it provides a new synthesis for the social scientific understanding of the phenomena of common sense and of representation; it acts as an antidote to the reductionism of public opinion and, finally, it is a stimulus to depart from disciplinary silos. However, there remain unresolved issues: how to segment the relevant social milieus and how to close the feedback loop from common sense to science? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The English edition of Moscovici's classic work on the social representation of psychoanalysis enables us to reflect on the historical origins of psychoanalytic ideas and of social representation theory itself. Moscovici claimed that science was both univocal and abstract and, in these respects, it differs from the social representations of commonsense. This paper explores these notions, especially in relation to Moscovici's claim that psychoanalytic theory is to be found in Freud's first formulations. It is suggested that some of the processes, which Moscovici attributes to the passage of psychoanalytic ideas to commonsense, can be found occur in the early history of psychoanalysis. This can be seen in Freud's criticisms of the way Jung used the concept of “complex”. Moreover, psychoanalytic theory could never be univocal for it incorporated the voices of patients and their representations of the world. An examination of Studies on Hysteria reveals further multivocality as Freud uses both the “action” language of ordinary life and the reified, nominalized language of science. Examples are given in relation to the first formulations of the key psychoanalytic concept of “repression”. Some comparisons are made between Freud's first formulations of “repression” and Moscovici's first formulations of “social representation”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Psychoanalysis, its image and its public (PIP) Moscovici introduced the theory of social representations and took further the project of rehabilitating common sense. In this paper I examine this project through a consideration of the problem of cognitive polyphasia, and the continuity and discontinuity between different systems of knowing. Focusing on the relations between science and common sense. I ask why, despite considerable evidence to the contrary, the scientific imagination tends to deny its relation to common sense and believe that can displace it. I argue that the psychosocial dynamic between common sense and science is revealing of how heavily they are entangled in, and indeed indebted to each other. Even more, this dynamic allows for a full appreciation of what the theory of social representations calls states of cognitive polyphasia. Different systems of thinking and knowing do not displace each other but live side by side, co-existing in a variety of ways, fulfilling different functions and answering different needs in social life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to study the diffusion and transformation of scientific information in everyday discussions. Based on rumour models and social representations theory, the impact of interpersonal communication and pre-existing beliefs on transmission of the content of a scientific discovery was analysed. In three experiments, a communication chain was simulated to investigate how laypeople make sense of a genetic discovery first published in a scientific outlet, then reported in a mainstream newspaper and finally discussed in groups. Study 1 (N = 40) demonstrated a transformation of information when the scientific discovery moved along the communication chain. During successive narratives, scientific expert terminology disappeared while scientific information associated with lay terminology persisted. Moreover, the idea of a discovery of a faithfulness gene emerged. Study 2 (N = 70) revealed that transmission of the scientific message varied as a function of attitudes towards genetic explanations of behaviour (pro-genetics vs. anti-genetics). Pro-genetics employed more scientific terminology than anti-genetics. Study 3 (N = 75) showed that endorsement of genetic explanations was related to descriptive accounts of the scientific information, whereas rejection of genetic explanations was related to evaluative accounts of the information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the December 2004 tsunami tragedy was used as a background to investigate beliefs about intergroup helping. The general aim of the research was to test the proposal that helping can be used to reaffirm a threatened social identity. Two experiments conducted with Dutch participants (N = 78 and N = 73) tested the hypothesis that a threatened Dutch national identity would result in stronger preferences for help to the victims of the tsunami, but only in a domain that is positively and distinctly related to that national identity (i.e. water management). Results from both studies confirmed this hypothesis. Study 2 also showed a reversal of this effect in a domain negatively related to that identity. Moreover, perceived identity threat in Study 2 reduced over time in the high threat condition but not in the low threat condition, and this reduction was positively associated with the endorsement of water management help. Also, as predicted, in both studies a threatened national identity resulted in stronger beliefs that Dutch relief organisations should stay in control over their aid. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transformation and change of social knowledge in Modern Turkish Republic has begun with the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Whilst the transformation of knowledge took place in daily knowledge, the change that took place in the political structures had a broad influence in the language, religion and tradition. The appearance of a new form of daily knowledge created a new common sense and this has opened the road towards the possibility of investigating social representations of various phenomena. Among these the social representations of madness in daily knowledge have already existed in common sense knowledge for a long time. With this in mind, the main goal of this paper is to explore contemporary urban Turkish social representations of madness. This study has shown that both scientific and common sense knowledge exist at present in citizens’ daily knowledge and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using material from three qualitative studies into the social and psychological consequences of racism, this paper explores the insights gained from conceptualizing race as stigma. Not only does this shed light on the construction and contestation of racism in the lives of the research participants, the material presented raises important issues for a social psychology of stigma more generally. These include an assessment of the embodiment of stigma, the ideological construction of stigma within particular histories, the impact of stigma on identity and the ways in which we collectively contest and resist stigma. While acknowledging how stigma, particularly the stigma of race, acts to deny humanity, agency and liberty, I illustrate how stigma is collectively constructed, institutionalized and resisted in social and political relations. I conclude that a crucial part of the psychology of stigma must be a focus on the possibilities for communities to contest and transform representations and practices that stigmatize; that is, we need to explore the possibilities and conditions for stigmatized communities as agents and not (only) as objects or victims of stigma. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the historical development of cricket in America and seeks to explain why, despite having a significant initial impact, the game ultimately became culturally marginal. It is argued that class and cricketing relations in England in the mid-nineteenth century had a significant and hitherto unacknowledged impact on the diffusion of the game to America, and that this unplanned social process can only be understood in the light of the specific interdependencies between the British and Anglo-Americans, between upper and lower class English immigrants, and between English immigrants and “Native White Americans”. Correlatively, this analysis spreads new light on the establishment of baseball as America’s national game, illustrating a greater level of dependence on the English and English sport than is traditionally attributed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a critical overview of the controversy between the Radical approach to Discursive Psychology (RDP) and the Social Representations Theory (SRT). After having analyzed several positions, the first part of the article aims to show what is potentially complementary and contradictory in Discursive Psychology (DP) and the Social Representations Theory, when and why they are incompatible. In the second part of the article, we examine some of the main pillars of the RDP's antagonistic dispute and confutations and describe how the radicalism of the socio-constructionist thesis upheld by Radical Discourse Analysis can give rise to several hard-to-solve problems, which may then be translated into a boomerang effect: a) making relativism relative; b) reflecting on reflexivity; c) reducing the subject's role in a radical "contingentism" perspective; d) affirming the "totalising" and "reifying" role of discourse-action; e) assuming a "tautological" model of the binomium communication and representations, rejecting the concept and metaphor of communication. The paper concludes by arguing for a "dialogical" perspective not only in the terms peculiar to the SRT, but also for a "cross-fertilization" between the researchers inspired by the less radical approach to discursive psychology and those inspired by Social Representation Theory, highlighting the effect of the methodological implication that this would entail if researchers with various "school" memberships would instead of speaking and writing for their own academic circles would also learn to listen and read each other with respect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why and under what conditions do subjects from diverse political orientations tend to offer different explanations of a social problem? Past studies have found evidence of a connection between political orientations and explanations of delinquency, for example. However, observing such differences among subjects with diverse political orientations is not enough to prove the existence of an organic link between social differentiation and the representations of delinquency. The aim of this paper is to provide an experimental proof of such a link. The results show that: (a) right-wing and left-wing subjects tend to offer different types of explanations of delinquency, but they refer to several common organizing principles; (b) divergence increases when social comparison between groups is activated; (c) differences are bigger if this comparison induces a discrimination; (d) the bigger the differences the more likely are the groups to resort to their ideological principles. Results are discussed in terms of theoretical, methodological, deontological, and practical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social representations research is often undertaken by scholars who seek to 'give voice' to knowledge(s) that are held by socially disenfranchised individuals and groups. However, this endeavour poses a number of problems in practice, not least because it assumes that the 'voices' voiced by individuals and/or groups in social research will be unambiguous and uniform, and unchanged by the research encounter. Despite the growth of attention to the critical potential of social representations theory, there remains a lack of scholarship on the relationship between the theory's emphasis on the relational, or dialogical, nature of social life (the Ego-Alter-Object relation) and the implications of this for critical research. In this article, I argue that the dialogical epistemology from which social representations research must depart incites reflection upon (i) the design of empirical studies, which must equally attend to both 'Ego' and 'Alter', and (ii) the researcher-researched relationship, which may itself be best viewed as an Ego-Alter interaction. I make the case for adopting dialogical epistemology in critical social psychology, and argue that this is essential to undertaking ethical social research. I conclude by suggesting that claims to 'giving voice' have little place in critical social psychology in general, and social representations scholarship in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Into the conventional framework of the state civil-society relationship, which usually includes the state's autonomy and the state's strength, this paper adds a dimension -- the identity of the collectivity. The collective identity is from one side the common 'symbolic space' for both the state and the actors of the civil society, and from the other side the 'battlefield' between the state, the society and the different components of the civil society. These tensions stem in a great measure from the emphasis of some aspects over others (for example the primordial vs. civic ingredients) of the collective identity. These interpretations have far reaching implications on the rules-of-the-game in the state and on the state-society relationship. Its identity is central to the determination of the various societal boundaries of the collectivity. This approach is exemplified through analysis of the building of the Israeli state and its transformation from a community to a nation-state, and again from a nation-state to a community state, in a perspective of about 75 years. The article fundamentally challenges the conventional presentation and analysis of the social and political history of Israel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes research which provide the context for a discussion of how social representations can circumscribe identity possibilities and render feasible certain groups evaluations. Specifically, a research approach is advocated in which Social Identity and Social Representation Theory are integrated within single complementary paradigm, (Breakwell, 1993). A brief but critical examination of both theoretical traditions is offered as the backdrop to this. A case study is described as a means of illustrating the unique potential of the integrated paradigm to predict and explain the meaning of social identity and the evaluations it affords. An investigation is then described involving 178 nurses ranging from Trainee to Charge Nurse status. Nurses were invited to use Q-sorts to describe the meaning of their group membership. As predicted from having identified the types of social representation of nurses available, two different identity orientations emerged: a communal-interpersonal (Patient Centred) and instrumental-intergroup (Professional Distinctiveness). The communal-interpersonal identity orientation was most typical of the lower status trainee nurses and also female nurses. In turn, higher status nurses and also male nurses, articulated a primarily instrumental-intergroup identity orientation. The evaluations signalled by group membership were also predictable from the identity orientations exhibited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports a series of four experiments conducted to gain insight into students' social representation of the firm. The results suggested a possible revision of the central core theory. They showed that the central elements of the representation were treated differently by the subjects. More specifically, the notion of profit and Hierarchy, both central, did not play the same role in the representation. The subjects were found to grant evaluative power to the nation of profit but no to the notion of Hierarchy, This differences by evaluative potential was also found for two peripheral elements. These differences suggest that independently of their central or peripheral nature, the various elements of a representation can be placed along an evaluative continuum. By combining the evaluative dimension and the central or peripheral dimension of the elements, we obtain a two-dimensional model of representations which divides discourse and cognition into four fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper examines social representation in the European Parliament using a model which uses the demand, the supply and the structure of opportunities as factors explaining differential recruitment. Analysis of the experiences of candidates suggest that supply-side factors proved more strongly related to candidates gaining winnable seats than demand-side factors. Results also confirm the importance of institutional structures in widening or narrowing opportunities, and suggest the European Parliament will remain social unrepresentative in the foreseeable future, a characteristic that serves only to add to the already considerable problems of legitimacy in the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I present a theoretical social psychological framework for social knowledge based mainly on the triadic concept of sign relations and the process of semiosis. The framework is based on concepts from authors aligned with interpretative semiotic approaches, such as Peirce, Deely and Eco. After defining signs and sign relations, I propose to conceive social knowledge as sign relations happening in communication processes, and employ the notion of code to account for socially shared group conventions. I suggest that the analysis of code properties such as content, social acknowledgment and history can identify differences in social knowledge forms and the concrete contexts that sustain them. The framework is discussed in comparison with other social and cultural psychological approaches based on semiosis. Finally, methodological implications are commented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarly literature on municipal councillors in urban India has variously labelled them as 'lords', 'captains' and 'shrewd operators' who have the power to mobilize resources and act as political intermediaries between the state and ordinary citizens. Conversely, voters are seen as collectively trading their votes to secure access to the state's resources. In this article, empirical fieldwork in the city of Ahmedabad, India, suggests that while traditional modes of patron–client relationships continue to exist at the municipal urban governance level, there has been a shift in the roles as perceived by municipal councillors themselves. The 'state at the roadside' model of urban governance is being expanded to include new modes and sites of mediation with citizens. Drawing from the literature on political representative claims and social representation theory, this article argues that the changes in the practices of municipal councillors are driven partly by political aspirations that are distinct from their identity as a party karyakarta (worker) and partly as a response to a better‐informed citizenry, referred to as jagrukt janta (public awareness). These shifts create the conditions for new modes of civic engagement and political accountability within existing patronage‐based networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cooperations or transfers of the German technical and vocational education and training (TVET) system have taken place in different cultural contexts in recent decades. In Mexico, the so‐called Modelo Méxicano de Formación Dual has been adapted to Mexico's cultural conditions. Yet, it still seems to be largely unknown in society, the education system and the labour market. Attitudes, perceptions or so‐called 'social representations' are culturally anchored in a society and can be identified in artefacts and individual narratives. Especially social representations of company gatekeepers, such as human resources employees are focused because they regulate access in companies and to higher positions. Although this happens on the basis of organizational transition policies, decision‐making processes are shaped by culturally anchored individual perceptions. The target group of company gatekeepers from the tourism sector was interviewed within the framework of a qualitative study during eight semistructured 'face‐to‐screen' interviews, analysed according to grounded theory methodology. Based on social representation analysis, the Mexican labour market seems to be dichotomized. Academic titles have a high symbolic value, promising prestige. TVET options are given little focus, lack a high social esteem and are still largely unknown. Those produce técnicos, while holders of oficos often do on‐the‐job training within their families. Both depend upon their employers and have to accept unfavourable working conditions. This implies physically demanding, often gender‐specific work. Promotions are possible, even without academic degrees. Because of a lack of institutionalization, these are subjective, depending on the goodwill of company gatekeepers. Promotions are possible to a certain extent, so nonacademic workers are facing a glass ceiling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents abstracts of research on social behavior. "Mathematical Relativism: Logic, Grammar, and Arithmetic in Cultural Comparison"; "Seeing the Market: Technical Analysis in Trading Styles"; "The "boomerang" Effect of Radicalism in Discursive Psychology : A Critical Overview of the Controversy with the Social Representations Theory."