El Método ALCESTE y su Aplicación als Estudio de las Representaciones Sociales del Espacio Urbano: El Caso de la Ciudad de México

Abstract

The objective of this work is twofold: on the one hand, we present Alceste as a method of text analysis (in French: Analyse des Lexèmes Coocurrents dans les Enoncés Simples d’un Texte), whose utility and interest can be  attested by its rapid diffusion and application in different fields, not only within the social sciences but in all the different disciplines that deal with discursive materials. On the other hand we express the reasons why this program is an adequate analytical tool in the study of social representations. The utility of Alceste will be exemplified through the examination of results obtained from a survey on social representations of Mexico City. The results show that Alceste is not only a method of textual data analysis that aids in the understanding of the structure and organization of discourse, but it also allows the detection of relationships between lexical worlds that would be difficult to find by traditional methods of content analysis.