People in Action and Social Representation: A Comment on Jaan Valsiner’s (2003) “Theory of Enablement

Abstract

This comment on Valsiner’s (2003) theory of enablement appreciates the theory’s contribution to fill the lacuna of social representation theory in dealing with individual reasoning and behaviour through a mechanism of semiotic mediation. It is shown, however, that the experimental illustration of the theory falls slightly short of providing evidence for the claims. In re-interpreting the experiment it is argued that action justification and social representation is one and the same, that social representations in the public sphere appear as holistic in comprising mental content as well as behaviour and that representational change comes about through collective controversy instead of semiotic mediation through internal dialogue as suggested by the author.