Dialogicality and Social Representations: The Dynamics of Mind

Description

The theory of social knowledge developed in this book is based on dialogicality and the theory of social representations. It is argued that dialogicality, the capacity of the human mind to conceive, create and communicate about social realities in terms of, or in opposition to otherness, is the sine qua non of the human mind. Social representations are sharply distinguished from mental and collective representations. Being embedded in history and culture, social representations manifest themselves in public discourses and social thinking about phenomena, which touch in some fundamental ways upon social realities, e.g. political, ecological or health related. The theory of social representations places communication and the concept of change in the centre of social psychology. Ivana Markova's new book is unique in bringing together the concept of dialogue and social knowledge and will make an important contribution to social psychology, social and human sciences and communication studies.

Ivana Markova was born in Czechoslovakia but has lived in the UK since 1967. She is Professor of Psychology at the University of Stirling and has been a visiting professor at the Universities of Oslo, Bern, Paris, Linkoping, Mexico and Bologna. She directs three international research groups in the European Laboratory of Social Psychology at the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme in Paris. She is also a Fellow of the British Academy, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and of the British Psychological Scoiety. Previous books include Paradigms, Thought and Language (1982), Human Awareness (1987), Mutualities of Dialogue ed. (1995).

"There is much that I am willing to take from DSR and incorporate into my own research. I share Markova's concerns about our so-far insufficient understanding of the dynamics of social thinking and about the rather unhelpful theorizing grounded in the sharp distinction between the individual and the social. I also empathize with her aversion to monological discourses and join her in her call for conceptualization of human thinking and knowing in terms of communication and language." - Anna Sfard, Michigan State University