GEO-MAPPING THE GLOBAL DISSEMINATION OF THE SOCIAL REPRESENTATIONS THEORY: Paradigmatic, Geo-cultural and Thematic Foci

Grounded in the framework of the project for an empirical meta-theoretical analysis of the SR literature created and developed by de Rosa (1994, 2008, 2013a, 2013b, 2015a, forthcoming), the present study was conducted within the European PhD on Social Representations and Communication Research Centre and Multimedia Lab with inputs from the 13 early stage researchers currently enrolled in the SoReComJoint-IDP (http://www.europhd.eu/SoReComJointIDP). The widespread uses and applications of the SR theory across cultures, languages and generations have been well acknowledged in the scientific community (Almeida, Trindade & Santos, 2011; de Rosa, 2008, 2013a, 2013b, 2015a, forthcoming; de Rosa, Dryjanska, 2015; de Rosa, Dryjanska, Bocci, 2015; Jodelet, 2005, 2011), being also perceived as a powerful indicator of its potential as a theoretical framework open to multiple paradigmatic/methodological approaches and applied in diverse interdisciplinary research fields and distinct cultural settings. Tracing the evolution of the theory throughout time and geographical contexts, the considerable development and vitality of studies in Latin America in the last 30 years is clearly noticeable (Arruda, 2009; de Rosa, 2013, 2015b, forthcoming; de Rosa, Dryjanska, 2015; Jodelet, 2005, 2011; Jodelet & Tapia,2000; Sa & Arruda, 2000; Sa, 2007; Valentim, 2013). This fertilization is not only corroborated by historical and theoretical perspectives of how the theory evolved in and from this geographical context ( e.g. Jodelet, 2005, 2011; Sá e Arruda, 2000), but also empirically proven by big data and meta-data drawn from metatheoretical analysis (de Rosa, 2013, 2015a, 2015b). Taking into account the major role of the scientific production in this geographical area, which is, for instance, the second geo-cultural area in the world in what regards the author´s institutional affiliation (de Rosa, 2015a), the present study aims to shed some light on the underlying dynamics of the dissemination of the literature inspired in the SR theory. With this purpose, it is aimed at describing and exploring the theory´s diffusion in the multi-countries and multi-language geo-cultural contexts of Latin America in regards of the type of publication; bibliometric indexes (Impact Factor and SJR) of the journals; authors’ countries and 1 Teresa Forte is one of the 13 SoReCom Joint IDP fellows, collaborating to the unified research program: Carlos Miguel Aguilar Filiberto, Laura Arhiri, Filomena Berardi, Borja De Madeira, Mihaela Alexandra Gherman, Marija Adela Gjiorgjioska, Ioana Guraliuc, Maryia Kukharava, Gabriela Monica Panzaru, Agnese Pastorino, Aminat Ramazanova, Ana Tomicic (http://www.europhd.eu/SoReComJointIDP) institutional affiliations, inter- institutional collaborations (inter-continental and intra-continental), language, and evolution by decades. This mapping of “how” and “by whom” the diffusion of the theory is occurring in Latin America can contribute to a better understanding of its evolution and the paths in which it is currently developing. The data was extracted from the SoReCom “A.S.de Rosa”@-Library bibliographic repository specifically related to social representations and communication (including books, book chapters, journal articles, conference presentations ,etc..) and analysed with the last version (v. February 2014) of the Grid for metatheoretical analysis developed by de Rosa. In this analysis we have only considered the first part of the Grid, comprising variables, which may be a profitable venue for constructing a sort of epidemiology of knowledge diffusion (de Rosa, 2013, 2015a, forthcoming). Overall, this contribution shall provide a theoretical and methodological insight of how to work with the “almost” big data (de Rosa, 2015a) strictly related to the theory of social representations. Such mapping of the theory’s development in Latin America may enable the researchers to reflect upon their own position in relation to the diffusion of social representations.