From representations to representing: on social representations and discursive-rhetorical psychology

Gibson, Stephen

doi:10.1017/cbo9781107323650.018

Cited by 28 publications

(34 citation statements)

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“…hhFor some time, SRT and discursive psychology were seen as irreconcilably different, with SRT being criticized by discursive psychologists (but see Refs ) for still being ‘too’ cognitive (taking into account its focus on representation) and thus too close to mainstream (socio‐)cognitive and individualistic approaches (e.g., Ref ; also Ref ). However, SRT as adopted in this paper, incorporates some proposals of discourse analysis (both theoretically and methodologically, see Refs , ) and looks at re‐presentation (instead of representation), as a process ‘in the making’ involving the dynamic construction and re‐construction of meanings (see also Ref ).…”

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confidence: 99%

Developing a critical agenda to understand pro‐environmental actions: contributions from Social Representations and Social Practices Theories

Batel

Castro

Devine‐Wright

et al. 2016

WIREs Climate Change

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Debates over the value and compatibility of different approaches to understanding and changing environmental-relevant actions proliferate across the social sciences. This article reviews and discusses some of the (socio-)psychological and sociological approaches in those debates. We will start by critically reviewing the (socio-)psychological perspectives, highlighting two main shortcomings. First, they are often partial in their focus-concentrating on the consumption side of climate-relevant actions and, relatedly in changing these actions at the individual level. They tend to assume that individual change equates to social change and, with that, fail to contextualize 'anti'-environmental actions in current neoliberal, capitalist societies. Second, they usually present the mainstream (socio-)psychological approaches, which are ontologically individualistic and cognitive, as the only existent ones, therefore neglecting other perspectives within Social Psychology which might actually be (more) compatible with sociological perspectives. We then suggest that Social Representations Theory (SRT), as an ontologically socialpsychological approach and a theory of social change, might be reconciled with sociological approaches, such as Social Practices Theory (SPT), in contrast to the more individualistic (socio-)psychological perspectives. After reviewing the main tenets of SRT, its discrepancies and potential synergies with SPT, we discuss how both can be articulated to understand different stages of the social change process toward more environmentally sustainable societies. While SPT might be more suitable to understand stability or how some actions become habitual, SRT might be better equipped to understand how those change, or how individuals and groups negotiate new actions with old ones. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. How to cite this article:WIREs Clim Change 2016. doi: 10.1002/wcc.417 INTRODUCTION'Today, there's no greater threat to our planet than climate change' 1 'And when we dream it, when we dream it, when we dream it Let's dream it, we'll dream it for free, free money' 2 A fter World War II, environmental social movements began to develop in the public sphere to demand the end of the exploitation of the Earth by and for human activity, as this was drastically changing and endangering it. 3 Still today, and as highlighted by the President of the USA, Barack Obama, in his weekly speech just before the Earth Day 2015, climate change is by many-even if not by all 4,5 -seen as the biggest current threat to this planet. Within the social sciences this has led to research into how to understand and change people's environmentally relevant actions a being much shaped by the idea of the anthropocene, that is, that humans are the cause for the destruction of the Earth and its ecosystems (e.g., see . This has led to much research on human behavior relevant to climate change, which can be organized into three main areas: adaptation to climate change (e.g., how do individuals and groups living in coastal areas adapt t...

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confidence: 99%

Developing a critical agenda to understand pro‐environmental actions: contributions from Social Representations and Social Practices Theories

Batel

Castro

Devine‐Wright

et al. 2016

WIREs Climate Change

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show abstract

“…If such a type of discursive analysis is able to provide a descriptive account of differences in, for instance, breaks and interruptions, it is often unable to move on to linking them to self‐other relations and to how they might produce, reproduce, and contest hegemony. On the other end of the continuum stretching from ‘interactional determinism to ideological determinism’ (Gibson, , p. 453), the notion of discourse can also neglect the Other as an interlocutor, when the analysis only takes account of ideological structures, reconstructing them without any connection to the ongoing interaction. In both cases, then, the bridge that is missing is that of communication.…”

Section: Cognition Action and Representation: A Matter Of Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Still a matter of dialogue: A response to Potter's, Augoustinos's, and Jovchelovitch's commentaries

Batel

Castro

2019

British J Social Psychol

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In their insightful and challenging commentaries, Potter, Augoustinos, and Jovchelovitch interestingly contributed to the debate we sought to promote. They allowed us to further reflect on our proposal of bringing together some strands of theory of social representations and discursive psychology for forging a stronger social psychology, that is, one more prepared to understand social change by better comprehending how meaning is constructed and transformed in discourse and communication. Through the present commentary, we attempt to better clarify this proposal in dialogue with their observations. Potter (2018) opens his commentary, the first of the three, by explaining how TSR let him down back in the 1980s, after failing to help him analyse how the UK crowd disturbances of the time were constructed in texts and talk. In this reply, we take the opposite direction; that is, we will start by stating how the idea that he and others brought to social psychology back in the 1980sthat it could and should analyse discoursedid not fail us. In fact, in our view, this idea made major contributions to the discipline, and we do not intend to give up on itbut we also do not expect it to not need to be complemented by other ideas. However, this idea of analysing discourse for doing social psychology has had since those years many iterations, originating many fragmentations, as Augoustinos, our second commentator, recalls. This means that a stable and fully accepted common denominator and name for those contributions do not exist. This is one-first aspect we will approach here, discussing what is in the name of discursive psychology (DP). Afterwards, we discuss the fact that across the three comments, and as highlighted by Jovchelovitch, the third commentator, the main aspects of theoretical contention and/or concern seem to (still) regard the relation between action and representation, and the ontological and epistemological status of cognition. Finally, another point of contention regards methods, and specifically the role of the researcher in research. We will now discuss these three points in more detail. What is DP: A matter of namesIn Batel and Castro (2018), we used DP as an umbrella word for the many flavours (Billig, 2009) of a social psychology concerned with language and discourse. It seems, however,

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“…In this article, we predominately use CDA as a methodological tool but note that it comes with some key theoretical underpinnings such as power and resistance that resonate with SRT. Gibson (2015) notes in his analysis of the connections between social representations and discourse that discursive approaches can provide us with insight into how social representations are used. This in turn enables us to look beyond their content and structural nature, and instead further understand their broader implications, particularly in terms of the operation of power, within different contexts (Voelklein & Howarth, 2005).…”

Section: Social Representations and Discoursementioning

confidence: 99%

Constructing and contesting threat: Representations of white British Muslims across British national and Muslim newspapers

Amer

Howarth

2018

Euro J Social Psych

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White British Muslims pose a challenge to racialised representations of British Muslims as non‐white, foreign and Other. By drawing on tools from Critical Discourse Analysis to develop Social Representations Theory on a micro‐analytic level, and making connections with other relevant social psychological theories on intergroup relations, this article examines the constructions of white British Muslims as a threat in six national and two Muslim British newspapers. It looks at how discourses are used to create, perpetuate and challenge the ‘hegemonisation’ of social representations in majority and minority press. The findings show that white British Muslims are portrayed as a threat not just despite of, but because of, their position as part of the ‘white British’ ingroup. Consequently, the threat they pose often leads to their Muslimness being emphasised. This was, at times, contested, however, either through direct challenges, or by making the threat ambivalent by drawing on their whiteness.

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From representations to representing: on social representations and discursive-rhetorical psychology

Abstract: Gibson, Stephen (2015) From representations to representing: On social representations and discursive-rhetorical psychology. In: The Cambridge handbook of social representations. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, pp. 210-223

Cited by 28 publications

References 32 publications

Developing a critical agenda to understand pro‐environmental actions: contributions from Social Representations and Social Practices Theories

Developing a critical agenda to understand pro‐environmental actions: contributions from Social Representations and Social Practices Theories

Still a matter of dialogue: A response to Potter's, Augoustinos's, and Jovchelovitch's commentaries

Constructing and contesting threat: Representations of white British Muslims across British national and Muslim newspapers

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