The dialogicality of cleanliness ‘thematizing’ the clean/dirty antinomy in the background of the theory of social representations

Abstract

Speltini and Passini manuscript points to a theoretical framework for exploring the psychosocial dimensions of the issue of cleanliness addressing the clean/dirty and pure/impure antinomies. In particular, the authors discuss the symbolic and normative valence of the issue of cleanliness and demonstrate its social and cultural rootedness feeding negative attitudes and adverse emotions towards persons and groups. Elaborating on the arguments of Speltini and Passini, I endorse the conceptual overlapping between the issue of cleanliness and the dialogical notion of basic themata. In the background of social representation theory, the process of anchoring serves as context for addressing this conceptual overlapping and for challenging the profound interrelationship between the issue of cleanliness and the theme of intergroup dynamics and inter-ethnic encounters.