Amédée or how to get rid of It: Social representations from a dialogical perspective

Abstract

The theory of social representations and communication belongs to a broadly conceived family of approaches studying interdependencies between socially and individually shared knowledge, which are based on dialogical epistemology. This epistemology, in order to ask questions about stability in knowledge, presupposes its change. The theory of social representations as a theory of social knowledge is characterized by the following concerns. First, it conceives of the dynamics of thought, language and social practices as interdependent socio-cultural and individual phenomena which are co-constructed by means of tension and polarization of antinomies. The construction of knowledge can be represented as a dynamic semiotic triangle and the change of knowledge can be represented in terms of three-step processes. Second, the theory of social representations and communication is based on the set of interrelated and dialogically defined concepts generating hypotheses, for example themata, anchoring, objectification and communicative genres.