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SUMMARY:Social representations and political thought - Prof Christian Stae
 rklé\, University of Lausanne\, Switzerland
DTSTART:20170124T130000Z
DTEND:20170124T140000Z
UID:TALK69427@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Johanna M Lukate
DESCRIPTION:This talk addresses the question what social representations t
 heory (SRT) can contribute to a social psychological analysis of political
  thought. I will argue that SRT provides the epistemological foundation of
  a theory of democratic thought that can be captured with three basic prem
 ises rooted in the analysis of everyday thinking as proposed by SRT: (1) P
 eople are no fools: What appears as “irrational” or “emotional” (e
 .g.\, contradictory or normatively incompatible attitudes) is often better
  viewed as outcomes of different sense-making strategies based on shared r
 epresentations of social order\; (2) People think through opposites becaus
 e it helps them to understand and to define their own and other people’s
  place in society\; and (3) People do not make up and express their opinio
 ns in a vacuum\, but refer to what others think in doing so. Asymmetric in
 tergroup relations give rise to structurally contingent representations on
  the basis of which people develop their own understanding of how society 
 works (and should work). These broad principles will be illustrated with r
 esults from selected survey and experimental research on social representa
 tions of democracy\, the welfare state and multiculturalism.
LOCATION:Ground Floor Lecture Theatre\, Department of Psychology\, Downing
  Site
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