Children's Agency in Finding Happiness in the ‘Happiest Country in the World’: A Collaborative Drawing and Storytelling Case Study

ABSTRACTResearch into the phenomenon of happiness is often approached from the perspective of adults, yet the sense‐making practice around happiness may not be the same for all age groups. This paper explores the conceptions of happiness and its opposite, unhappiness, among children in Finland—ranked ‘the happiest country in the world’ for 7 consecutive years. Drawing from Social Representations Theory, we analyse how children (10–12 years old) understand happiness and unhappiness and how these conceptions are socially constructed in relation to each other. The research material consists of drawings and written narratives by 254 children. The results show that symmetry exists between the concepts of happiness and unhappiness. The social representations are constructed around five distinct themes, namely: Social relationships, the Environment, Material possessions, Well‐being and Performance. The underlying structure, thema, which guides meaning‐making around happiness, is based on meaning‐producing tension between feeling safe, supported and protected versus feeling unsafe due to lack of support and protection. The results suggest the importance of ‘positive safety’ as a ground for happiness, rather than an understanding of the concept based on the mere absence of threat. In other words, happiness can be experienced even in the face of challenges and hardships, when a sense of safety deriving from feeling supported and protected is being developed.

ABSTRACTIn this paper, I introduce the concept of ‘agile agency’ in children. ‘Agile agency’ is characterised by its non‐linear fluidity that traverses along a sliding scale that is akin to an agency barometer. Its changes in magnitude and nature are responses to contextual factors that may be relational, environmental, and temporal. Using the case study of a four‐year‐old girl pseudonymised as Sophia from my doctoral research on 3–5‐year‐old children‐led play at home and two London nurseries, I posit the following three principles of ‘agile agency’. Firstly, a child's agency is agile as it oscillates along a sliding scale, and it adapts in nature and degree in response to shifts in the immediate environment and to contextual shifts over longer periods of time. As per the second principle, agile agency is interpreted differently when filtered through the role‐driven socio‐cultural lenses of teachers, parents, and researchers. The third principle asserts that the interpretation of a child's agency is not only varied between different adults' lenses but also within an individual adults' viewpoint. Such fluctuations in an individual's viewpoint can result from shifts in contexts that may be physical, relational, and temporal. As child‐initiated play is a vital part of the everyday life in early childhood, Sophia's case study serves as a rich context for examining how children's complex agency unfolds within enabling and restricting environments facilitated by adults. In doing so, the paper proposes broader theoretical generalisability of the three principles as a framework to accommodate agile agency's variability and complexity, and inform how adults working with children in various capacities can better understand and support their complex, and often rapidly changing spontaneous agency.

This paper describes research which provide the context for a discussion of how social representations can circumscribe identity possibilities and render feasible certain groups evaluations. Specifically, a research approach is advocated in which Social Identity and Social Representation Theory are integrated within single complementary paradigm, (Breakwell, 1993). A brief but critical examination of both theoretical traditions is ofered as the backdrop to this. A case study is described as a means of illustrating the unique potential of the integrated paradigm to predict and explain the meaning of social identity and the evaluations it affords. An investigation is then described involving 178 nurses ranging from Trainee to Charge Nurse status. Nurses were invited to use Q‐sorts to describe the meaning of their group membership. As predicted from having identified the types of social representation of nurses available, two diferent identity orientations emerged: a communal‐interpersonal (Patient Centred) and instrumental‐intergroup (Professional Distinctiveness). The communal‐interpersonal identity orientation was most typical of the lower status trainee nurses and also female nurses. In turn, higher status nurses and also male nurses, articulated a primarily instrumental‐intergroup identity orientation. The evaluations signalled by group membership were also predictable from the identity orientations exhibited.

ABSTRACTThis paper examines some of the main processes in the evolution of triangulation in qualitative research (QR) and social representations theory (SRT) in social psychology in recent decades. By adopting a cross-historical approach, we seek to outline how SRT can strengthen its epistemological approach by embracing triangulation, and to highlight that an examination of past and current debates on SRT can provide relevant insights for QR in psychology. We show how, progressively over time, in both fields (SRT and QR), discrepancies between data obtained by different methods were no longer considered a threat to scientific validity of the data but as a way to deepen understanding of the phenomenon being studied. Thus, developing systematic triangulation, which combines the various epistemological, theoretical, and methodological backgrounds of different methods (data collection and/or analysis), enables SRT to fulfill its potential even more in contributing to a societal social psychology. Reciprocally, SRT provides a framework in which QR can develop some of its full potential, for example, in the areas of multi-method studies, multidisciplinarity, and engagement with social change.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how social representation theory (SRT) can be used to understand the concept of resistance to change. SRT is a growing theory in social psychology research. SRT is about how individuals co-construct representations of various objects in different social settings. These social representations govern the attitudes and actions of individuals and groups. In spite of the growing interest in SRT in various fields, no studies have used SRT to understand resistance to organizational change.Design/methodology/approach– This study reviews the relevant literature on resistance to change and SRT to develop a conceptual framework for understanding resistance from the standpoint of SRT.Findings– The authors develop a model that illustrates how three interrelated objects, i.e. the organizational process and the pre-and post-change situation, are co-constructed in social contexts. Also, the authors discuss how representations of these objects can co-exist (cognitive polyphasia). Our study illustrates the complexity of resistance to change by deconstructing the concept.Originality/value– Application of SRT to analyze resistance to organizational change is a novel approach that provides several new insights. For example, where most publications regard advocates of change as sense-givers in the change recipient’s sense-making process, the authors argue for a more constructionist approach. Thus, all actors involved in the change process will affect each other and together co-construct the social representations. These social representations govern attitudes to change.

Creating a stimulating social theory with long-lasting influence for generations of scholars is driven by multiple interacting factors. The fortune of a theory is determined not only by the author's creative mind but also by the ways in which principal concepts are understood and interpreted. The proper understanding of a social theory requires a good grasp of major historical, political, and cultural challenges that contribute to its making. Considering these issues, Marková explores Serge Moscovici's theory of social representations and communication as a case study in the making of a dialogical social theory. She analyses both the undeveloped features and the forward-moving, inspirational highlights of the theory and presents them as a resource for linking issues and problems from diverse domains and disciplines. This dialogical approach has the potential to advance the dyad Self–Other as an irreducible intellectual, ethical, and aesthetic unit in epistemologies of the human and social sciences.

The concept of social representation (SR) was developed by Serge Moscovici in 1961 as a social psychological approach articulating individual thinking and feeling with collective interaction and communication. SRs are conceived as symbolic forms that come about through interpersonal and media communication. They are the ways individuals think, interact with others, and shape social objects in their interaction with the local world. This text presents an outline of the history of social representation theory (SRT), using a four-period model: first, creation and incubation in France starting with Moscovici’s first book; second, the opening to the English-speaking academe around 1980; third, institutionalization and proliferation with the start of the journal papers on SRs and regular conferences in 1992; and, fourth, normalization, approximately from 2000 onwards. The first period (1961–1984) started with Serge Moscovici’s first presentation of his ideas in a French-language volume on “La psychanalyse son image et son public.” This was republished in an updated version in 1976 and translated into English in 2008. The theory postulates cognitive and social factors in the genesis and structure of SRs. These are accompanied by specific styles of communication that reflect the communicators’ identity and ideology. Together these aspects constitute common sense. The first period was a time of incubation because Moscovici and his first PhD students, Claudine Herzlich, Denise Jodelet, and Jean-Claude Abric, tried the concept in different domains. The second half of this period saw Moscovici and collaborators extend SRT’s theoretical frame to include the idea of consensual vs. reified domains. A consensual domain of communication is characterized by the free interchange of attitudes and opinions, while a reified domain is determined by institutionalized rules. Moscovici also postulated a process of cognitive polyphasia. By cognitive polyphasia he described a phenomenon where individuals use different and even contradictory thoughts about the same issue depending on the social setting they are in. The year 1984 marked the publication of a book for English-speaking scholars edited by Robert Farr and Moscovici that collected papers from an international conference in 1979. It was the first book-length collection of works on SRT and highlighted empirical research by a variety of international scholars. The period following 1979 through to 1992 saw a broadening of the base of scholars becoming interested in SRT. The 1980s brought Willem Doise’s conceptualizing of anchoring as a process of social marking, Abric’s theory of core and peripheral elements of a representation, and Hilde Himmelweit’s founding of a societal psychology. Proliferation was boosted 1992 by the founding of the journal Papers on Social Representations and the beginning of a biannual series of International Conferences on Social Representations, starting in 1992. This increased the international visibility of SRT and helped scholars to organize themselves around topics and form cross-national research groups. The period from 1992 to the first decade of the new century was characterized by an increasing number of empirical and theoretical studies. A series of theoretical branches emerged: there was research on the micro-genesis of SRs on the individual level, an extension of the structural theory of SRs, the discussion of the socially constructive aspects and sociopolitical uses of SRT, the design of a dialogical approach to the mind and social life, and Moscovici’s suggestion to consider large-scale themata as a factor in social thinking. If the period after 1992 was a time of institutionalization, the time after the turn of the century can be called a period of normalization. That is, a period when SRT was presented in chapters for handbooks of social psychology and when dedicated handbooks and monographs were published. From this period onward it becomes virtually impossible to give even a superficial account of the most important contributions to SRT’s burgeoning field of research and theory development.

Computational approaches have grown in prominence amidst advancements in new media and technologies and ever-increasing amounts of digital data. This article critically examines these automated techniques, especially the analytical affordances and concerns that such methods introduce to the study of online migrant and mobility discourses. The paper further argues for a mixed methodology anchored on social representations theory—a contextually sensitive framework that enables reflexive use of computational approaches, i.e., quantitatively analyze but also explore different layers of cultural and linguistic meanings in online diasporic interactions. With Filipino migrants in Germany as a case study and partner community, the study then demonstrates the combined application of topic modeling and ethnographically inspired qualitative analysis on migrant posts in Facebook. The findings are discussed in the form of a cultural reflection on Filipino values and expectations and an advocacy for mixed methodologies grounded on critical, social, and practice-oriented theories.

Social representations theory (SRT) is considered a theory of social change, accounting for democratic transformations in knowledge. However, its applicability in the Global South, where there is a long history of subjugation, has not been sufficiently explored. This essay integrates the contributions of postcolonial theorists with the tools of SRT to track changes in knowledge structures among Southern youth. In doing so, it shows the limits imposed by an enduring colonial legacy and modern cultural imperialism on Southern youths’ ability to challenge hegemonic representations on their own terms. This is further illustrated by a case study on youth perspectives on homosexuality in India which utilizes data from interviews conducted in Bengaluru with three generations of middle-class families representing India’s three major religions. While the youth accepted homosexuality, elders displayed their resistance. Yet tolerance was perceived as a Western import, revealing an East-West divide in understandings of homosexuality.

This article examines the material and ideational conditions in academia and broader society under neoliberalism and their effects on social psychology, both as an academic community and as a source of knowledge production. Social representations theory (SRT)—embedded in the discipline of social psychology—is taken as a case study, which mirrors not only the specific impacts of neoliberalism on the theory and scientific community of SRT, but by extension also on social psychology as a whole. Specifically, we observe how neoliberalism has impacted SRT's ability to address those features of social psychology which led many scholars to label it “a discipline in crisis” by the 1960s and which included its reliance on a realist ontology, positivist epistemology, and quantitative methods, as well as the absence of an axiological frame which led to its distancing away from a humanistic, action‐oriented social psychology. Rather than lessening these challenges, it is argued that neoliberalism has, in fact, further entrenched them in two interconnected ways. First, at the level of academic practice, neoliberalism has structured academic work or labor in the neoliberal university/academia in ways that are more consistent with the production of knowledge that subscribes to positivist principles. Second, on a conceptual level, the hegemony of neoliberalism has been accompanied by a corresponding hegemony of conceptual and methodological individualism in the social sciences. This in turn has led to an environment conducive to and encouraging of positivist approaches in social psychology.

Abstract. Due to the difficulties of understanding all the aspects of creativity, the study of this complex phenomenon has been placed at the crossroads of various disciplines. Among these, social psychology has been interested in this exploration. Incidentally, various approaches in creativity research highlighted the importance of social factors in the production, judgment, and acceptance of creative ideas. Contributions adopting such a social perspective naturally convoked different social psychological theories, among which is the Social Representations Theory. This theory focuses on the collective construction of shared knowledge and beliefs (social representations) within social groups. Interesting perspectives about the contribution of social representations to the study of creativity have been described in previous works. Nevertheless, these works remain rare despite the many possibilities offered by the theoretical and methodological framework of social representations. Consequently, the present contribution recalls briefly the main objectives that these previous works have pursued in order to highlight several unexplored lines of research that could promote theoretical, methodological, and applied advancement. These lines could enrich research related to the evaluation of creativity, the study of creativity as deviance, the stimulation of group creativity, and promote interdisciplinary work. This contribution aims to draw the attention of researchers to these under-exploited perspectives and stimulate the creation of many others to understand better the complex phenomenon of creativity.

The ever-changing nature of consumers' understanding of local food highlights the need for in-depth research. This study explores how Gen-Z consumers define, perceive and experience local food. Through the analysis, we extend the existing conceptualization of local food by differentiating three aspects of proximity: geographical, value, and relational proximity. We contribute novel insights into the differentiation of proximity to the established understanding for this specific consumer group. Methodologically, we use a free association game played with Gen-Z consumers in Hungary. Theoretical frameworks, including social representation, central core and proximity theories, are used to uncover implicit knowledge about local food. The results reveal a consumer understanding that associates health, freshness, taste, quality and trustworthiness as the central core of the local food concept. Surprisingly, value and relational proximity gain importance, while geographical proximity takes a peripheral role. This study facilitates a re-evaluation of the local food concept in light of evolving consumer understanding, while also establishing a link between proximity theories and social representation theory. The findings provide practical implications that distinguish different aspects of proximity that are relevant to farmers and policy makers in light of evolving consumer understandings.

This paper attempts to forge links between two recent approaches in social cognition research: Moscovici's theory of social representations and social schema theory. These two theories or concepts converge in that both schemata and representations are conceptualized as existing knowledge structures which guide and facilitate the processing of social information by the use of cognitive short‐cuts or heuristics. Furthermore, both schemata and representations are viewed as memory traces with an internal organizational structure, and both are viewed not only as cognitive structures but also as evaluative and affective structures. However, the two theories diverge importantly on the social dimension. Social representations theory views these structures as being collectively shared, as originating and developing via social interaction and communication, and as being autonomous entities with an independent life force once created. In Doise's terms, social representations theory attempts to understand individual social psychological functioning by making links with societal and collective processes. By contrast, social schema theory is essentially an information‐processing model studied predominantly within an individualistic framework. The two theories, therefore, are articulated at different levels of explanation. Whilst it may not be possible to integrate fully the two theories, it is at least desirable for an articulation between these two levels of explanation for what are, essentially, similar social cognitive phenomena.

Recent developments in the psychological and social sciences have seen a surge of attention to concepts of embodiment. The burgeoning field of embodied cognition, as well as the long‐standing tradition of phenomenological philosophy, offer valuable insights for theorising how people come to understand the world around them. However, the implications of human embodiment have been largely neglected by one of the key frameworks for conceptualising the development of social knowledge: Social Representations Theory. This article seeks to spark a dialogue between Social Representations Theory and embodiment research. It outlines the position the body occupies in the existing theoretical and empirical social representations literature, and argues that incorporating concepts gleaned from embodiment research may facilitate a more comprehensive account of the aetiology of social representations. The value of analytic attention to embodiment is illustrated with reference to a recent study of social representations of neuroscience, which suggested that embodied experience can shape the extent to which people engage with certain topics, the conditions under which they do so, and the conceptual and affective content of the ensuing representations. The article argues that expanding Social Representations Theory's methodological and conceptual toolkit, in order to illuminate the interplay between embodied experience and social communication in the development of common‐sense knowledge, promises productive directions for empirical and theoretical advancement.

Social Representations Theory provides a comprehensive theoretical model for researching translators’ socio-cognitive processes. Developed in social psychology in the 1960s, the theory offers an integrative view of both individual and social processes in the construction and re-construction of knowledge. It draws attention to embodied meaning-making and the effect of material surroundings in perpetuating and disseminating social representations. Importantly, Social Representations Theory does not see representations as individual, solely conscious, or static mental constructions but as dynamic social–psychological phenomena that are enacted in discourse and social interaction. This article discusses Social Representations Theory as an approach to the empirical study of translators’ cognitive processes. Introducing the main concepts of the theory and using translators’ conceptualizations of source-text authors and target-text readers as an example, the article suggests avenues for using the theory in Cognitive Translation Studies.