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)

The making of a civic discourse on controversial historical past: from denial to parrhesia

This contribution discusses the pragmatic effects of different rhetoric strategies conveying evidence of past ingroup violence after a long lasting social denial (Cohen, 2001). In particular, a case study is presented on the making of a civic discourse on controversial historical past: war crimes committed by the Italian Army during the colonial invasion of Ethiopia (1935-36). Although very well proved (Del Boca, 2005), these facts were only recently inserted in Italian history textbooks (Leone & Mastrovito, 2010; Cajani, 2013). In this same period, evidence of these crimes was officially presented during discussions of the Italian Parliament. In spite of these recent acknowledgments of the Italian responsibilities for these crimes, a social myth is still widely shared by the public opinion, representing Italians as good fellows (Italiani, brava gente: cfr. Del Boca, 2005), unable to be cruel both in everyday life and in wartimes (Volpato et al., 2012). This specific situation, denying even the reality of facts happened, has been defined literal social denial, i.e. the deepest among the three possible states of denial (literal, interpretive, implicative: cfr. Cohen, 2001). The issue of literal social denial of past ingroup violence is at the intersection among theories on narratives on national past (László, 2003), social representations of history (Liu et al., 2014), conflict ethos (Bar-Tal et al., 2012; Kelman, 2008), group-based emotions (Allpress et al., 2010; Leone, 2000) and intergroup reconciliation processes (Nadler et al., 2008). Namely, understanding how a social denial could break down implies the theorization of human mind’s reflexivity as grounded on historical awareness (Ortega y Gasset, 1930), and the notion of social change as primarily rooted in natality, i.e. the fact that each birth represents a new beginning (Arendt, 1958). Drawing on this theoretical background, we will present an ongoing research program (Leone, in press) on the literal social denial (Cohen, 2001) of war crimes committed by the Italian army during colonial period and on the pragmatic effects of different kinds of communication on this controversial past. In order to address this issue, we will particularly focus on the concept of parrhesia as defined by Foucault (1983): the communicative choice of «frankness instead of persuasion, truth instead of falsehood or silence, [...] the moral duty instead of self-interest and moral apathy » (Foucault, 2001, p.19). Studies we conducted in this line tested the change in beliefs and the emotional reactions of young citizens confronted with mild or parrhesiastic descriptions of socially denied war crimes (Leone & Sarrica, 2014, 2012). Empirical evidence will be discussed in order to reflect on our core idea: that a parrhesiastic communication is a risky tough necessary pragmatic move to break long lasting denial of ingroup wrongdoings, to trigger critical civic discourse in the place of social myths and to start reconciliation processes

Shared narratives and individual paths towards inter/transdisciplinarity in research centres for urban sustainability

Funding Information: This research was funded by TrUST—Transdisciplinarity for Urban Sustainabilty Transition. TrUST is research project and researchers’ platform that aims at understanding how to achieve a more efficient and effective inter- and transdisciplinairity for urban sustainability transition in current higher education institutions. Find out more at http://ww.trustcollaboration.com . Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s).Inter/transdisciplinarity (ITD) is a pillar of sustainability studies, often presented as the way to conduct research and practice especially in conflictual and politicised real-world stakeholder constellations. Several studies emphasise the need to consider the communicative processes through which it is put into practice. However, there is still a dearth of research that explores the meanings key actors associate with ITD and how they account for the material, practical and communicative facets of their everyday experience. This work seeks to collect the voice of leaders of inter/transdisciplinary research centres, identify shared repertoires used to interpret their experience in the field, and reflect on how shared narratives could inspire or impede researchers engaged in ITD. A discursive analysis was applied to 23 semi-structured interviews conducted with leaders of research centres on urban sustainability. Results identified diverse interpretative repertoires used to define ITD and to interpret the barriers that, in the eyes of these key actors, have to be crossed to become ITD researchers. These elements are combined into three main narratives used by participants to position themselves and the researchers involved in ITD. Despite being functional to self-representation, these shared narratives contribute towards depicting ITD as an individual escape, and interdisciplinary research centres as sanctuaries of a sort, thus paradoxically preserving the status quo. A third narrative advocates structural shifts and is coherent with the need for deeper changes and persistent recognition of ITD in sustainability studies.publishersversionpublishe

What do humans feel with mistreated humans, animals, robots and objects? Exploring the role of cognitive empathy

The aim of this paper is to present a study in which we compare the degree of empathy that a convenience sample of university students expressed with humans, animals, robots and objects. The present study broadens the spectrum of elements eliciting empathy that has been previously explored while at the same time comparing different facets of empathy. Here we used video clips of mistreated humans, animals, robots, and objects to elicit empathic reactions and to measure attributed emotions. The use of such a broad spectrum of elements allowed us to infer the role of different features of the selected elements, specifically experience (how much the element is able to understand the events of the environment) and degree of anthropo-/zoomorphization. The results show that participants expressed empathy differently with the various social actors being mistreated. A comparison between the present results and previous results on vicarious feelings shows that congruence between self and other experience was not always held, and it was modulated by familiarity with robotic artefacts of daily usage

More than a common place: a social representations approach to the Internet

This article aims to investigate the common sense knowledge about the Internet across social groups from the perspective of social representations theory. We inquired 1013 participants (students, teachers, and guardians) from three schools, using the ranked association technique, the General Internet Attitudes Scale and the Web-Use Skill Measure Index. Prototypical and textual correspondence analysis were run on the verbal data. Results showed that the Internet's representation vary across social groups, being organized along a media-message axis and a personal-social axis. While students, participants with lower education level and positive attitudes toward the Internet have a personal media usage representation, teachers and participants with higher education levels showed a greater focus on the social message. The study is significant because it shows that the Internet is still not consensual, suggesting a connection with social identity that future research should explore to better understand and bridge digital divide

Are e-bikes changing the social representation of cycling? An exploration of articles on cycling in Italian online publications

Despite policies aimed at increasing bicycle use, and the health benefits identified in the literature, cycling mobility is still quite limited in most cities. A cultural transformation is needed to change this situation. E-bikes might be capable of triggering this change, and turning the proposition of cycling into the preferred choice for everyday mobility. To explore this possibility, the present study extends a previous analysis conducted on the representation of cycling in Italian media, and further investigates its content as regards e-bikes. We identified a textual corpus of 3,239 articles dealing with bicycles published in Italian online publications in 2017 and subjected them to lexicometric analyses. The representation of cycling was found to be stable and only marginally fit the envisaged change in the mobility paradigm. Coverage revolved around a few main themes: infrastructure, mobility, and security and safety. The subcorpus relating to e-bikes (N = 200) showed that the representation of e-bikes added to the dominant representation of cycling without transforming it. Despite their still largely utilitarian and structural contents, the appearance of new perspectives relating to sustainable urban mobility associated with e-bikes introduces novelty in the representation of cycling that deserves to be carefully monitored

A Cross-regional Comparison of Selected European Newspaper journalists and their Evolving Attitudes and Beliefs about the Internet - including a single-country focus on the UK.

This study approaches how journalists in the United Kingdom might compare with individuals working in print journalism in 10 other European countries, to assess role perceptions and beliefs in relation to the internet. The continental Europeans were grouped into north and south, and the UK set was independently compared with each. In all, 270 journalists across 44 newspapers in Europe gave scaled reactions to a questionnaire about their role conceptions, the internet, and the future. It appears the sampled UK journalists, despite some historical conceptions about the distinctively separate evolution of their press, conform strikingly with their European counterparts but in a specific and patterned way: the UK journalists align with their counterparts from the north of Europe but have significant differences to those in the south. The principal ingredient of the division is the degree to which the journalists find the internet useful, positive and a worthwhile extension of their working opportunities. The findings conform in some respects to academic studies taking a historical and cultural approach to comparative journalism

The Early Stages of the Integration of the Internet in EU Newsrooms

The current study explores the perceived integration of the internet inside European newsrooms. The authors carried out a survey with 239 journalists working for 40 of the most-read outlets in 11 European countries.The study shows that journalists consider the internet a useful tool mainly for practical functions, rather than to enhance the core values and functions of their profession. However, news production continues to be based on direct interaction, and journalists’ professional identity is still anchored to print newspapers. Moreover, a lack of communication between publishers and newsrooms emerges. Professional and personal profiles and nationality play a relevant role in the development of attitudes towards the implementation of the internet in newsrooms

The Influence of the Internet on European Journalism

This study investigates how European journalists evaluate the changes that have occurred in their profession since the Internet has been integrated in newsrooms. How do journalists perceive the features and innovations associated with the Internet? What are the principal changes in the profession? Do practitioners believe that the quality of journalism has been raised or lowered? To answer to these research questions, we carried out a survey across 11 European countries–Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, United Kingdom, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden–of 239 journalists, working for 40 of the most-read print/online news outlets in these countries. The survey shows that the opportunity to use the Internet to reinforce the social functions of journalism has not been fully recognised