'Where do we come from and where are we going?' A study about the transformation of knowledge related to long-term care

The care crisis manifests the tensions and profound changes which are taking place in contemporary long-term care systems, leading to new care views and modalities in society. Through 26 interviews conducted with caregivers, family members and elderly people with care needs, this study aims to make visible the transformation in the conceptions of care in the Basque Country. First, the results show the displacement of familiarist ideas and values. Second, we describe the daily management of the social and moral tensions associated with outsourcing and the meaning of care work. Third, the findings indicate the emergence of new perspectives on the modalities of care. The contribution of cognitive polyphasia towards analysing the management and integration of new knowledge associated with care in a specific socio-cultural context is discussed. Finally, we consider the applicability of our findings in terms of relevant solutions for care management and innovation in this field.

From one new law to (many) new practices? Multidisciplinary teams re-constructing the meaning of a new disability law

This paper explores how a new French law incorporating a new conceptualization of disability formulated at the international level by the WHO is appropriated at the local level by multidisciplinary teams of professionals in charge of the assessment of disability. Drawing on social representations theory, its concept of cognitive polyphasia and its conceptualization of legal innovation, the paper specifically examines how the teams deal with the tensions between the old and the new models of disability and how the group dynamic is associated with how they do this: by hybridization of old and new models, by selective prevalence according to context, or by displacement of one model. Focus groups with the teams (n = 65 from 10 groups), analysed with indicators of interaction, bring evidence of the three forms. They show how different groups, by drawing differently, depending on their relational dynamics, from a variety of meaning systems circulating at the cultural level, reach different decisions that may lead to different practices in the local implementation of the same laws. We finish by discussing how social representations theory, linking the cultural/global and the interactional/local levels, can enhance our understanding of how socio-psychological processes intervening in the appropriation of legal innovations may produce different practical implementations of the same new laws.

Social Representations of Insects as Food: An Explorative-Comparative Study among Millennials and X-Generation Consumers

Simple Summary

In recent years, a remarkable number of studies have investigated entomophagy from different perspectives. Nevertheless, the theoretical framework of social representations (SRs) has never been used. SRs are organized sets of opinions, knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about a social object—such as novel foods—co-constructed and shared by a social group. The present research is the first attempt to study entomophagy in the theoretical and methodological framework of SRs. We followed a double trajectory corresponding to two different ways to imagine the contribution of SRs to entomophagy studies. The first one focuses on the role of SRs in the social construction of meanings attached to entomophagy and on their introduction in individuals’ and groups’ thinking frameworks. The second proposes SRs as predictors, even if non-deterministic, of consumers’ behaviors. The results stimulate consideration of social knowledge and cultural variables in food studies using the theoretical framework of SRs.

Abstract

The aim of the research here presented is to describe and compare the social representations of entomophagy co-constructed and circulating among different groups of consumers. Social representations theory (SRT) allows us to understand a social reality that the individual builds based on his own experience in everyday life symbolic exchanges, whose primary function is to adapt concepts and abstract ideas using objectification and anchoring processes. We carried out this research within the structural approach methodological framework. We explored the structure (central core and peripheral schemes) and the content (information, opinions, attitudes, and beliefs) of the social representations of entomophagy by using mixed methodological strategies (hierarchized evocations, validated scales, check-list, projective tool, open-ended questions). Data were processed employing different R packages. The main results show an essential role played by generative processes (objectification and anchoring) as well as cognitive polyphasia and thémata in the co-construction of the social representations of entomophagy. Data could help in understanding the sensory characteristics of “insects as food” that should be used or avoided, for example, in communication aimed to promote entomophagy.

'I have faith in science and in God': Common sense, cognitive polyphasia and attitudes to science in Nigeria

This study, of modern common sense in Nigeria, combines questionnaires and interviews to examine the compatibility and incompatibility of religion and science. Nigeria is a large country with a complex diversity of religious, ethnic and cultural practices that condition the reception and elaboration of science in everyday life. We find evaluative attitudes to science structured as 'progress', 'fear' and 'mythical image'. Scientific knowledge and religiosity have a direct bearing on expectations of progress and feeling of fear and worry about science; mythical image is independent of this. Nigerians trust both scientific and religious authorities in contrast to other social actors. Many of the results are consistent with the hypothesis of cognitive polyphasia of scientific and religious knowing manifesting as a 'hierarchy', when one form is elevated over the other; 'parallelity', when both serve separate functions; and 'empowerment', where one enhances the other.

Public understanding of cyclone warning in India: Can wind be predicted?

In spite of meteorological warning, many human lives are lost every year to cyclone mainly because vulnerable populations were not evacuated on time to a safe shelter as per recommendation. It raises several questions, most prominently what explains people's behaviour in the face of such danger from a cyclonic storm? How do people view meteorological advisories issued for cyclone and what role they play in defining the threat? What shapes public response during such situation? This article based on an ethnographic study carried out in coastal state of Odisha, India, argues that local public recognising inherent limitations of meteorological warning, fall back on their own system of observation and forecasting. Not only are the contents of cyclone warning understood, its limitations are accommodated and explained.