How Irish Citizens Negotiate Foreign Policy: A Social Representations Approach to Neutrality

Abstract

The present study investigates the relationship between the foreign policy orientation of Irish neutrality and national identity using a social representations approach (Elcheroth, Doise, & Reicher, 2011; Moscovici, 1961/76). In four focus groups conducted in the Republic of Ireland, 22 participants discussed vignettes in which hypothetical conflicts were described. The findings pointed towards the dynamic relationship between neutrality and Irish national identity and more generally to the importance of macropolitical phenomena for identity construction. The process of categorization was key to participants' decision making regarding the hypothetical conflicts; the decision to support or oppose the Irish state's involvement in the conflicts frequently revolved around a reconsideration of the boundaries of the ingroup. Furthermore, social representations were laden with the possibility of social change; the construction of neutrality as morally ambivalent, motivated by pragmatism rather than principles, opened up a space for younger participants to resist dominant, pragmatic interpretations of the policy and offer alternatives. Theoretical and empirical implications of the findings are discussed. Taken together, the findings demonstrate the critical potential of extending a social representations approach to issues of political psychological significance.

Reading the Public: Political Action and Its Relationship to Constructions of Political Disagreement and Opinion Climate in the Context of Brexit

“…Previous work exploring the impact of public opinion on political behavior and expression has tended to emphasize its negative effects, its potential to silence or close down possibilities for action (e.g., Bassili, ; Noelle‐Neumann, ). However, in line with previous work (Louis et al, ; O'Dwyer et al, ), these findings are suggestive of the empowering potential of perceptions of political disagreement and the prevailing opinion climate. An SRA, by emphasizing the constructed, context‐dependent, and changeable nature of these aspects of the meta‐representational fabric highlights this agentic potential.…”

“…Perceptions of political disagreement and of the prevailing opinion climate can both be considered as components of the meta‐representational fabric of a society; they refer to judgments, conscious or not, of the “sharedness” of one's opinions and the way in which these might be received by others. A social representations approach (SRA) highlights the importance of these meta‐representations (e.g., Elcheroth, Doise, & Reicher, ; O'Dwyer, Lyons, & Cohrs, ) for accounts and explanations of political behavior and opinion but, importantly, acknowledges that these meta‐representations are changeable, context dependent, and mediated (Portelinha & Elcheroth, ) . Furthermore, according to a SRA, they are constructed , which necessarily means that they can be reconstructed to enable and empower, rather than silence.…”

“…Similarly, when Swiss students who identified strongly with their university, which was known for its opposition to the right‐wing populist party (the Swiss People's Party, SPP), read material which emphasized the traditional ideological differences between the university's social science students and the SPP, they were less likely to volunteer for a follow‐up focus group to discuss a vote proposed by the SPP (Goncalves‐Portelinha, Staerklé, & Elcheroth, ). Finally, an analysis of focus group discussions with Irish citizens about foreign policy (O'Dwyer et al, ) demonstrated that younger Irish citizens' awareness of and orientation towards the policy stance of neutrality as widely understood as hypocritical and partial opened up a space for these participants to argue for alternative foreign policy positions. This implies that meta‐representations have the capacity to enable and empower, as well as silence and demobilize, as they can provide the impetus and discursive resources for the advancement of alternative representations and thus social and political change.…”

Basic Human Values and Their Contexts: A Multilevel Analysis of Support for the Use of Armed Drones in the United States, United Kingdom, and Turkey

“…Previous research within political psychology that has explored the way in which people take positions on foreign policy issues and events has tended to focus on individual characteristics or prerequisites including, but not limited to, national identification (Herrmann, Isernia, & Segatti, ), perceived trust (Brewer & Steenbergen, ), perceived threat, (Huddy, Feldman, & Weber, ), and values (Cohrs, Moschner, Maes, & Kielmann, ; Rathbun, Kertzer, Reifler, Goren, & Scotto, ). By contrast, other work has applied a social representations approach (SRA) to shed light on the way in which people come to make sense of, as well as take positions on, foreign policy issues and events (e.g., O'Dwyer, Lyons, & Cohrs, ; Wagner, Valencia, & Elejabarrieta, ). The SRA proposes that knowledge about such issues is socially elaborated and describes particular processes that shape the content of this social knowledge.…”

Patriotism and Nationalism, Left and Right: A Q‐Methodology Study of American National Identity

“…National identity is a powerful and ever‐present social identity, and differences in how this identity is defined can have profound implications for political behavior (Billig, ; Tajfel, ; Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, & Wetherell, ). At a group level, these understandings have the potential to shape domestic and foreign policy (Lieven, ; O’Dwyer, Lyons, & Cohrs, ) and define the boundaries of the “imagined community” of a nation (Anderson, ). At an individual level, they can influence attitudes towards political policy, candidates, and levels of civic participation.…”