Hegemonic, Emancipated and Polemic Social Representations: Parental Dialogue Regarding Israeli Naval Commandos Training in Polluted Water

Abstract

This study examines how a dialog functions when new information constituting emancipated social representations and involving external threat, undermines the confidence of parents of reserve naval commandos in their hegemonic representations. They get together as a group and through joint dialogue coconstruct polemic representations from the former hegemonic and emancipated ones. This chain of events followed news regarding high incidence of cancer and other virulent diseases in soldiers who during their military service trained in the waters of a river contaminated with hazardous petrochemicals. This news was incompatible with the hegemonic representations that acknowledge the existence of an underlying contract with the state, according to which the state undertakes parental responsibility for soldiers’ well being. A group of parents of elite naval commandos, whose previous representations were shaken, got together to take action. Through the communication among parents the new emancipated and the former hegemonic representations were constructed into polemic ones, which also enabled them to construct also new action scenarios for fighting against the authorities. Their aim was to get the state to acknowledge its responsibility for the health of the soldiers who fell ill. Consequently, the parents were able to re-adopt previous hegemonic representations that enabled them to resume their lives as civilians who have faith in the traditional contract between the individual and the state.