The anthropological and ethnographic approaches to social representations theory: a systematic meta-theoretical analysis of publications based on empirical studies

This article explores the Anthropological and Ethnographic Approaches to Social Representations Theory (SRT) within a larger research project launched by de Rosa in 1994, aimed at investigating the state of the art of SRT in the social arena faced with social demand. For this contribution, a meta-theoretical analysis was conducted on 174 publications presenting findings of empirical studies and extracted from the So.Re.Com “A.S. de Rosa” @-library. Data and meta-data were constructed by using the de Rosa’s Grid for Meta-Theoretical Analysis to detect bibliographic, conceptual, thematic and methodological elements regarding our sources. The multi-level analysis included: (a) a descriptive profile and geo-mapping of our data; (b) a Multiple Correspondence Analysis followed by Hierarchical Clustering on Principal Components analysis to reduce the dimensionality of the data and identify the trends in the applied research conducted within these approaches. Results showed that a three cluster solution best fits our data, revealing: (1) a first trend in which SRT is employed generically without reference to its specific constructs (mainly related to conference abstracts); (2) a direction of research focused on the transformation of Social Representations through practices via social change, communication and knowledge; (3) a research line adopting the socio-genetic perspective proposed by Duveen and Lloyd (Br J Soc Psychol, 1986. https ://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8309.1986.tb007 28.x). Our findings support the originality and the pertinence-coherence of the contributions from the anthropological and ethnographic approaches to SRT for the development and societal relevance of research in the field, conducted consistently with the initial formulations of the SRT.