Description
Book SynopsisCreating 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.
Table of ContentsPart I: 1. Socio-political Sources of the Theory of Social Representations; 2. A Political Refugee in Paris; 3. The 'Age of Intellectual Innocence' in Psychoanalysis 1961; 4. The Durkheimian in Psychoanalysis 1976; 5. The 'Great Smoky Dragon'; 6. Pseudo-dialogues and Building Bridges; Part II: 7. Social Representations and Common Sense; 8. Meanings and Knowledge as Semiotic Processes; 9. They 'Made Flowers Grow Where It Seemed Impossible'; 10. Social Representations as Unique Phenomena: Dynamics and Complexity; 11. Social Theories as Dialogues; Afterword; References; Index.
