Dialogicality and Social Representations
The Dynamics of Mind

Develops a theory of social knowledge based on dialogicality and social representation.

Ivana Marková (Author)

9780521824859, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 27 November 2003

244 pages, 15 b/w illus. 1 table
23.6 x 16.1 x 2.1 cm, 0.55 kg

"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

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 Marková's 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.

Preface
1. An epistemological problem for social psychology
2. Thinking and antinomies
3. Linguistic and dialogical antinomies
4. Thinking through the mouth
5. Social representations: old and new
6. Dialogical triads and three-component processes
7. Understanding themata and generating social representations
Conclusion: social representations and dialogicality.

Subject Areas: Social, group or collective psychology [JMH], Psycholinguistics [CFD]