The Generativity and Attractiveness of Social Representations Theory from Multiple Paradigmatic Approaches in Various Thematic Domains

An Empirical Meta-theoretical Analysis on Big-data Sources from the Specialised Repository “SoReCom ‘A.S. de Rosa’ @-library"

  • Annamaria Silvana deRosa Sapienza University of Rome, Social Representations and Communication Multimedia Lab & Research Centre, Rome, Italy
  • Elena Bocci Sapienza University of Rome, Social Representations and Communication Multimedia Lab & Research Centre, Rome, Italy
  • Laura Dryjanska Sapienza University of Rome, Social Representations and Communication Multimedia Lab & Research Centre, Rome, Italy
Keywords: social representations, geo-mapping, paradigmatic approaches, thematic areas

Abstract

This paper is a systematic meta-theoretical literature review of publications inspired by the theory of social representations from diverse paradigmatic approaches in various thematic domains. Descriptive exploratory analysis of 9660 contributions filed in the specialised inventory “SoReCom ‘A.S.de Rosa’ @-library” (mainly articles in scientific journals, but also conference presentations, book chapters, theses and books) including the geo-mapping of the results with Tableau software is enriched by further empirical insight from textual data mining of abstracts and keywords using IRAMUTEQ software to perform descending hierarchical cluster analysis. As a result, four specific clusters emerge, labelled as follows: “Topics, Targets, Thematic Areas”, “Constructs”, “Theories, Disciplines, Authors, Epistemologies”, and “Method Techniques, Data Collection, Data Analysis”. The empirical review of each cluster provides a useful insight about the generativity and the attractiveness of Social Representations theory from multiple paradigmatic approaches along different decades and across various geo-cultural contexts-continents, showing the main trends in diverse thematic domains. The article allows researchers working on the theory of social representation to generate a “mental map” of the theory and highlights its many contributions around the world.

Author Biographies

Annamaria Silvana deRosa, Sapienza University of Rome, Social Representations and Communication Multimedia Lab & Research Centre, Rome, Italy

Professor of Psychology of Social Representations and Communication: laboratory of New Media at Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. Founder and Program Director of the European/International Joint PhD in Social Representations and Communication (http://europhd.eu) and of the SoReCom THEmatic NETwork (http://europhd.eu/SoReComTHEmaticNETwork). Her publications are inspired by the unified modelling approach to various SR research topics including: madness; environment, tourism; national, supra-national, place identity, migration; advertising; social memory, emotions; family relationships; stock market; psychoanalysis in the era of Facebook, social representations, social movements and social media. Among many hundreds of publications, one of her book is entitled Social Representations in the Social Arena (Routledge, 2013). Other publications concern distinct forms of internationalization of doctoral education, ICT innovation and digital library.

Elena Bocci, Sapienza University of Rome, Social Representations and Communication Multimedia Lab & Research Centre, Rome, Italy

ELENA BOCCI, Full Researcher at the Department of Psychology of Developmental and Socialization Processes, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology of the Sapienza University of Rome. Among other areas related to social psychology, she has in particular worked on the following research fields: social representations and enterprise communication strategy, analysis of the behaviour of potential e-commerce clients, social representations and tourism, social representations of Internet and risk, and intergenerational relations.

Laura Dryjanska, Sapienza University of Rome, Social Representations and Communication Multimedia Lab & Research Centre, Rome, Italy

Post-doctoral Researcher at the Social Representations and Communication Multimedia Lab & Research Centre of the Sapienza University of Rome, currently assistant professor of psychology at the Rosemead School of Psychology of the Biola University. Her research interests include social representations applied to diverse fields: place-identity, tourism, marketing, intergenerational solidarity, ageing, migration, and ethical issues.

Published
2018-05-14
Issue
Vol 27 No 1 (2018): Special Issue: Epistemologies of Everyday Life
Section
Special issue