Abstract
According to Abric’s (1983) structural approach, social representations (Moscovici, 1961) are made of a central nucleus surrounded by peripheral elements. This theoretical approach, based on a hierarchical structure, deals with the idea of a specific internal configuration of every representation. Abric (1994) and Flament (1994), moreover argued that social practices, related to specific social context, were a major factor in the co-construction of a representation. Starting from this theoretical framework, the purpose of this study is to identify the social representations of culture, circulating among young Neapolitan students. The aim is also to verify if these representations are different from each other, starting from the different social environments of production. Two groups of pupils (161 participants, in the age between 8 and 10 years old), belonging to opposite local contexts, both from structural and socio-economical point of view, took part in the study. We choose a quali-quantitative approach using a free associations questionnaire. In particular, we asked the children to freely indicate five words when they think about culture; then we asked them to motivate the words they choose and in the end to organize those words in order of importance. Collected data were analysed by the Hierarchical Evocations Technique (Verges, 1992). The results, discussed from their theoretical, methodological and applicative implications, confirm the presence of stimulating differences between the two SRs. Keywords: Culture, Social Psychology, Social Representations, Development Age, Qualitative-quantitative research, Hierarchical Evocations Technique
Highlights
At the base of the concept of culture it’s possible to recognize a system of symbols and values shared by a specific community that originate tangible actions, and intangible actions
Abric (1994) and Flament (1994), argued that social practices, related to specific social context, were a major factor in the co-construction of a representation. Starting from this theoretical framework, the purpose of this study is to identify the social representations of culture, circulating among young Neapolitan students
In the perspective of psycho-social research concerning the study of culture, Valsiner (2012, 4) claims that: There can be very many different vantage points from where culture could enter into psychology in the twenty-first century
Summary
At the base of the concept of culture it’s possible to recognize a system of symbols and values shared by a specific community that originate tangible actions (as work, behaviors, artefacts production), and intangible actions (as faith, religion, rules, social conventions). Culture is considered as a complex combination of actions and mechanisms produced by continuous social interactions, generating processes of sense making and reformulation of the process of reality – as a variable product and as a result of subjectivities which, from time to time, constitute and reorganize its parameters For these reasons, culture cannot be a paradigmatic, static and defined reference. It follows that functionalities of mind (thought, memory, Self, emotions) - commonly considered as autonomous entities working respecting defined and universal rules - are considered as a reformulated product of the necessary relationships with others Both in everyday life and in the universe of knowledge/meanings that are the basis of social interactions and cultural contexts (Leone, Mazzara, Sarrica, 2013)
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