Epistemology of social representations: Implications for empirical research
Epistemology of social representations: Implications for empirical research

Summary/Abstract: The theory of social representations is based on the interactional epistemology of common sense. This means that knowledge and beliefs are acquired in and through lived social experience; social representations are inseparably linked with language and communication; they shape a range of images, ideas, values and collective visions about which humans communicate; and interactional epistemology is an epistemology of asymmetries, disequilibria, creativity and innovation. Methodologically, the researcher must examine the social representation of the phenomenon (e.g. of psychoanalysis, of AIDS), and, equally important, the relevant situation (social, historical, political) in which the representation is studied.

• Details
• Contents