Social Representations Explorations in Social Psychology

Serge Moscovici first introduced the concept of social representations into contemporary social psychology nearly forty years ago. Since then the theory has become one of the predominant approaches in social psychology, not only in continental Europe, but increasingly in the Anglo-Saxon world as well. While Moscovici's work has spread broadly across the discipline, notably through his contributions to the study of minority influences and of the psychology of crowds, the study of social representations has continued to provide the central focus for one of the most distinctive and original voices in social psychology today.

This volume brings together some of Moscovici's classic statements of the theory of social representations, as well as elaborations of the distinctive features of this perspective in social psychology. In addition the book includes some recent essays in which he re-examines the intellectual history of social representations, exploring the diverse ways in which this theory has responded to a tradition of thought in the social sciences which encompasses not only the contributions of Durkheim and Piaget, but also those of Lévy-Bruhl and Vygotsky. The final chapter of the book consists of a long interview with Ivana Marková, in which Moscovici not only reviews his own intellectual itinerary but also gives his views on some of the key questions facing social psychology today.

The publication of this volume provides an essential source for the study of social representations and for an assessment of the work of a social psychologist who has consistently sought to re-establish the discipline as a vital element of the social sciences.

Acknowledgements.

Introduction: the Power of Ideasby Gerard Duveen.

Chapter 1: The Phenomenon of Social Representations.

Chapter 2: Society and Theory in Social Psychology.

Chapter 3: The History and Actuality of Social Representations.

Chapter 4: The Concept of Themata (with G. Vignaux).

Chapter 5: The Dreyfus Affair, Proust and Social Psychology.

Chapter 6: Social Consciousness and its History.

Chapter 7: Ideas and the Development: a Dialogue between Serge Moscovici and Ivana Markova.

References.

Index

2nd and 3rd year undergraduate students and scholars in social psychology
and sociology

Edited By:

Serge Moscovici is Director of Studies at the +cole des Hautes +tudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris

Gerard Duveen is lecturer in Social Psychology at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge