Studying the emergence of a new social representation: Changes in thinking about nanotechnologies in early 21st-century Italy

We investigated the emergence of a new social representation (SR) of a techno\u2010scientific innovation\u2014nanotechnologies\u2014among the Italian public. We reviewed how nanotechnologies entered parliamentary debates and the media agenda in the early third millennium. We conducted cross\u2010sectional surveys in 2006 (N = 246) and 2011 (N = 486) to examine the emerging SR of nanotechnologies. We sought to observe processes of anchoring and objectification \u2018in action\u2019, by analyzing roles of (i) social groups, and (ii) neighboring SRs of science and of technology, over time. Several changes from 2006 to 2011 were identified: From a \u2018descriptive\u2019 to an \u2018evaluative\u2019 approach; from a \u2018neutral\u2019 to a \u2018controversial\u2019 issue; from a \u2018concrete\u2019 to an \u2018abstract\u2019 object; and from a \u2018technological\u2019 to a \u2018scientific\u2019 phenomenon. We conclude that nanotechnologies finally became \u2018relevant enough\u2019 by 2011 to be considered a proper object of SR, and an emerging SR can be observed

Social representations theory and critical: Constructionism: Insights from Caillaud's article

he aim of this paper is to highlight therole that Social Representations Theory (SRT) could play in the debate on the criticalpotential of social constructionist perspectives. Wedraw upon some of the arguments raised by Caillaud (this issue), mainly concerning such a sensitive topic as environmental issues, to highlightsomecrucial points of that debate. As is well known, one of the goals of the social constructionist movement has been to takea more critical stance towards taken-for-granted knowledge (Gergen,1985; Burr,1995). It aimsto show that our understanding of the world is by no means neutral or value-free;it is instead the result of historical and cultural specificities, which operate ideologically. In this vein, the social constructionist approach raises the question of social transformation and emancipation, as well as the problems of power and social inequality, in close consonance with the scope of the more general critical approach in psychology (Tolman&Maiers, 1991)

Coping with Territorial Stigma and Devalued Identities: How Do Social Representations of an Environmentally Degraded Place Affect Identity and Agency?

This article examines people-place relationships in a carbon-intensive area-i.e., heavily dependent on the steel industry and marked by severe environmental degradation-involved in the EU Just Transition Mechanism (Taranto, Italy). Drawing upon a psychosocial perspective grounded on social representations theory, this article focuses on intertwining the sense of place, identity processes, and agency to understand the dynamics of place stigma and identity devaluation. In-depth semi-structured interviews with active residents were thematically and discursively analyzed. The results suggest both theoretical and applied insights. Overall, they highlight a widely shared negative representation of the place related to territorial stigmatization, ambivalent place attachments, and devaluation of place-based and social identities. To cope with such processes and dynamics, identity processes seem to act as self-protective mechanisms both at a personal and social level. The article concludes by inviting a more comprehensive conceptualization of just transition, harm restoration, and related territorial planning to include the psychosocial processes underlying the community's well-being and identity

Social Representations of “Normality”: Everyday Life in Old and New Normalities with Covid-19

Several icons express the experiences of daily life at the time of Covid-19. Among them, "astronauts in their own home” recalls a twirl of bodies in a vacuum bubble. Aware of the structuring power of everyday life, we analysed how people were living the experience of lockdown at home and if and how a social representation of a new normality would emerge. We carried out two studies in the Italian context. In the first, 223 participants narrated their lived experience in the first phases of lockdown. By means of textual analysis (Reinert’s method), the corpus returned four lexical worlds focusing on emotions produced by the suspension, need of a new awareness, effort to readjust to the situation, and the organizing power of routines. A thorough reading focused on women’s narratives enhanced the structuring power of everyday life, both at a personal and at a societal level, including new collective rituals and appointments. The second study enrolled 214 participants and explored the advanced phase of the lockdown. Participants answered a free association task to the stimulus-word new normality. The resulting corpus, analysed via correspondence analysis, gave rise to five dimensions pertaining various aspects such as constraints, opportunities, challenges, again both at an individual and at a societal level. In conclusion, underlining the reverberations on the psychosocial plane of the suspension of everyday life and their relation with emotional, cognitive, relational and societal assets, our contributions highlight the relationships between lived experience and social representations

Natural hazard insurance: dissemination strategies using geological knowledge

During the last decades, natural hazards, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, floods, storms, droughts, and cyclones, have increased in frequency and severity, influenced by climate change and population growth. These natural hazards can become sudden-onset disasters, causing human losses and property damages that affect economic stability and growth. Although there is a pressing need for risk decrease and adaptation strategies to these unexpected events, targeted natural hazard insurance would be a valuable tool to counteract governmental and individual consequences. This paper summarizes an overview of risk assessment and mitigation strategies based on geological, geomorphological, and meteorological factors. The study includes an examination of monitoring systems for movement and gas emissions, risk and emergency maps, and highlighting the vulnerability of different areas at national and regional levels. Furthermore, the paper addresses the importance of promoting comprehensive geological and geotechnical knowledge among citizens of every socio-economical group and proposing the tools to effectively deliver the message, aiming at increasing the willingness for natural hazard insurance at both individual and governmental scales for human and property protection

Communication role on perception and beliefs of EU citizens about science

Este documento presenta un conjunto de recomendaciones basadas en el conocimiento de las consultas públicas de CONCISE. Los puntos se enumeran según los diferentes destinatarios: comunicadores científicos, responsables políticos, científicos y público en general. El principal objetivo de CONCISE es determinar el papel que desempeña la comunicación científica en la formación de creencias, percepciones y conocimientos sobre cuestiones científicas. Para lograr este objetivo, CONCISE llevó a cabo cinco consultas públicas en Lisboa (Portugal), Valencia (España), Vicenza (Italia), Trnava (Eslovaquia) y Lodz (Polonia) con la participación de cerca de 500 ciudadanos. Esto permitió al consorcio recopilar testimonios de diferentes regiones de la UE, proporcionando así a CONCISE información comparable y fiable sobre las percepciones generales de los ciudadanos de la UE sobre los cuatro temas científicos candentes en estudio, a saber, las vacunas, la medicina complementaria y alternativa, el cambio climático y los organismos modificados genéticamente.This policy brief presents a set of recommendations based on the knowledge of CONCISE's public consultations. The points are listed according to the different target: science communicators, policymakers, scientists and general audience. CONCISE’s main objective is to determine the role that science communication plays in shaping beliefs, perceptions and knowledge of scientific issues. To achieve this aim, CONCISE carried out five public consultations in Lisbon (Portugal), Valencia (Spain), Vicenza (Italy), Trnava (Slovakia) and Lodz (Poland) with the participation of near on 500 citizens. This allowed the consortium to gather testimonies from different EU regions, thus providing CONCISE with comparable and reliable information on EU citizens’ general perceptions of the four burning science issues under study, namely, vaccines, complementary and alternative medicine, climate change and genetically modified organisms

El papel que desempeña la comunicación de la ciencia en la opinión de la ciudadanía europea

El documento recoge las recomendaciones políticas recomendadas a partir de los resultados de investigación del proyecto europeo H2020 CONCISE. En este proyecto se llevaron a cabo cinco consultas ciudadanas, en cinco ciudades europeas de España, Italia, Eslovaquia, Portugal y Polinia), en las que participaron alrededor de 100 ciudadanos en cada una de ellas, para hablar sobre ciencia. Concretamente a los ciudadanos se les preguntó cómo se informaban y en qué fuentes o canales confiaban más para informarse de temas como las vacunas, el cambio climático, las medicinas complementarias o alternativas, y los organismos modificados genéticamente. Los debates arrojaron información muy valiosa para el diseño de políticas públicas.H2020 CONCISE G.A. No 824537The document includes the suggested policy brief recommendations based on the European H2020 CONCISE project's research results. In this project, five citizen consultations were carried out in five European cities from Spain, Italy, Slovakia, Portugal and Poland, in which around 100 citizens participated in each of them to talk about science. Specifically, citizens were asked how they were informed and how sources or channels they trusted the most to find out about vaccines, climate change, complementary or alternative medicines, and genetically modified organisms. The debates yielded very valuable information for the design of public policies

Partecipazione pubblica, memoria collettiva e conflitti ambientali: Un'analisi psicosociali sul territorio della Valle del Chiampo

In the last years, public participation in debates on environmental issues is required by local, national and international political institutions. Moreover, according to recent Italian and European researches, citizens consider environmental threats as one of the most relevant problems and thinks that they are a responsibility of every person. This psychosocial research aims to interpret citizens’ disengagement from decision-making processes organized by Administrations in an attempt to mend the rift between economic development and environmental sustainability, specifically in contexts historically marked by environmental criticalities. Recent studies in social psychology have contributed to the debate on environmental issues and public participation: both with the formulation of theoretical models aimed at identifying the psychological processes that underlie opinions, experiences, practices 'environmentally' significant; both with potential applications and concrete proposals in terms of actions aimed at those sectors equally committed to finding a more efficient environmental management for ensuring sustainable development. Following a constructionist perspective, this research finds its epistemological framework in the theory of social representations (Moscovici, 1961/76). Related domains are: studies on collective memory (Halbwachs, 1925, 1950), as well as social identity theory (Tajfel, 1981) and processes of place identity (Proshansky, Fabian, Kaninoff, 1983). Research aims to investigate the role of psychosocial constructs of collective memory and social and place identity in contributing to co-construct a shared representation of the territory, as well as in their relations with citizens’ participation in debates on environmental issues in contexts marked by widespread environmental criticalities. Examined case is the the Chiampo Valley, near Vicenza (North-East Italy), characterized by the activity of the tanning industries so much that the area is one of the most prosperous industrial districts in this sector worldwide. Research design involves integration of some aspects of the case studies with those of retrospective and longitudinal studies; adopted methodological approach is multimethod (with particular attention to strategies of triangulation) and quali-quantitative. Main findings emerged from the four studies that comprise the plan of research show that the considered constructs (collective memory and social and place identity) contribute to the co-construction of a representation of the territory shared by the members of the community under study, that indicates their non-priority to a direct involvement in the discussion of environmental policies. In order to clarify this statement three dimensions - knowledge, methods and applications - are discussed as well as accurate and adequate reasons to support it are provided.La partecipazione pubblica su questioni ambientali costituisce oggi un tema centrale di sempre maggior attualità nel dibattito politico e programmatico, nazionale e internazionale. Parallelamente, la crescente sensibilità sulle tematiche ambientali ha prodotto negli anni una diffusa consistente domanda di informazione da parte dei cittadini stessi, inducendo le Istituzioni ad affrontarle con particolare cura e attenzione. La presente ricerca si propone la finalità di rileggere con uno sguardo psicosociale la ridotta partecipazione dei cittadini ai processi decisionali proposti dalle Amministrazioni nel tentativo di ricomporre le fratture venutesi a creare tra sviluppo economico e sostenibilità ambientale, particolarmente in contesti storicamente già ampiamente segnati da criticità in questo senso. La psicologia sociale nei suoi sviluppi recenti ha contribuito ampiamente alle riflessioni su questioni ambientali e partecipazione pubblica, sia con la formulazione di modelli interpretativi teorici che mirano a individuare i processi psicologici che sottostanno a opinioni, vissuti, pratiche ‘ambientalmente’ rilevanti sia con risvolti applicativi concreti in termini di proposte di linee di intervento indirizzate a quei settori ugualmente impegnati nella ricerca di una più efficiente gestione ambientale per consentire uno sviluppo sostenibile. Fondando i suoi presupposti in una prospettiva costruzionista, la presente ricerca trova la propria cornice epistemologica nella teoria delle rappresentazioni sociali (Moscovici, 1961/76). Altri domini ad essa strettamente intrecciati sono gli studi sulla memoria collettiva (Halbwachs, 1925; 1950), la teoria dell’identità sociale (Tajfel, 1981) e il costrutto di identità di luogo (Proshansky, Fabian, Kaninoff, 1983). La ricerca si pone l’obiettivo di indagare il ruolo dei costrutti psicosociali della memoria collettiva e dell’identità sociale e di luogo nel contribuire alla co-costruzione di una rappresentazione condivisa del territorio, oltre che nelle loro relazioni con la partecipazione dei cittadini al dibattito su questioni ambientali in un contesto diffusamente industrializzato e fortemente segnato da criticità in questo senso. Il caso di studio è quello della Valle del Chiampo, in Provincia di Vicenza, la cui principale attività economica è quella della concia delle pelli, tanto che la zona costituisce uno fra i più caratteristici e prosperi distretti industriali in tale settore a livello mondiale. Il disegno di ricerca prevede l’integrazione degli aspetti caratteristici degli studi di caso con quelli di studi retrospettivi e longitudinali; l’approccio metodologico adottato è multimetodo (con una particolare attenzione alle strategie di triangolazione) e quali-quantitativo. La rilettura unitaria dei principali risultati emersi dai quattro studi che compongono il piano della ricerca permette di rispondere che i costrutti considerati contribuiscono alla co-costruzione di una rappresentazione del territorio condivisa dai membri della comunità presa in esame, tale da far ritenere non prioritario un loro diretto coinvolgimento nella discussione di politiche ambientali. Per chiarire in modo esaustivo questa affermazione si sono approfondite tre dimensioni - di conoscenza, metodologica e applicativa - e fornite precise e adeguate motivazioni a ciò che si intende sostenere