The attractiveness of the social representation theory for various disciplinary, thematic domains and topics characterized by differently shared Social Representations

Research background and sources: This empirical contribution addresses the dynamics of the knowledge epidemiology via the meta-theoretical analysis of diversified body of literature on Social Representations, extracted from a larger number of more than 10000 bibliographic references filed in the repositories of the SoReCom”A.S.de Rosa”@-library, built up over two decades with an enormous effort of work team coordination and assessment by the project leader (de Rosa, 2014a, 2014d, 2015a, 2015b). The sources have been analysed using the specific tool, the last version (v.2014) of the Grid for meta-theoretical analysis developed by de Rosa. Objectives: We will present empirical evidence of the relevance of the SRT in various thematic domains in order to show its attractiveness for various disciplinary, thematic domains and topics. Five main macro-thematic areas, highly relevant from the societal point of view and core objects of study for other disciplinary and applied fields, have been considered, each of them including a large variety of sub-topics and even cross-cutting thematic topics: a) Social Representations, Science, Education and Communication, b) Environment, c) Economy, Advertising, Marketing and Organizational Contexts, d) Politics Multidimensional identities, intergroup relations, social movements and active minorities, e) Health and Community. Furthermore, the typology of social representations (polemical, emancipated and hegemonic: Moscovici, 1988) will be analysed across the referenced thematic fields in order to explore the differently shared Social Representations in relation to the consensual/controversial nature of the debate around them in the media and society in different time periods and across geocultural contexts. We will show on the basis of empirical analyses whether - and to what extent in the various thematic domains in different decades - the literature on social representations is driven by the interest for investigating new objects emerging in the public sphere in controversial debates, which engage polarised ideological positioning and group identities. In particular we will question our big-data sources in order to know which are in the different fields of Science, Economy, Environment, Politics, Health the societal issues arisen a hot debate in the public and what is the destiny of popularity in the literature over the decades when the polemical social representations become emancipated if not yet hegemonic. At this purpose we will interview our data and meta-data in order to explore to what extent in different thematic areas the paradigmatic conjunction of social representation with other theories and constructs has stimulated the impetus for a methodological pluralism that can be pursued by scholars that do not comply with the dominant trend. Guiding Hypotheses: From a cross-thematic perspective, we expect more studies on polemical representations in the field of Science - driven by some hot societal issues concerning the applica- tion of innovative technology to the manipulation of the relation between science, society, nature - and in the field of politics and identity, due to the inclusion of studies on active minorities and on social movements, and the role played by controversies for potential societal changes.