META-THEORY AND THE (COUNTER-) IDEOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY: THE CASE OF SOCIAL REPRESENTATIONS THEORY

The objective of this Dissertation is to contribute to the debate regarding the utility of meta-theoretical investigations for exposing and resolving paradigmatic crises in the social sciences. The meta-theory of Social Representations Theory (SRT) is taken as the central case study of the present work, which forms a part of a wider research program led by de Rosa dedicated to the meta-theoretical analysis of SRT (European/International Joint PhD in S.R & C. Research Centre and Multimedia Lab, Sapienza and funded by the EU FP/2013 PITN-GA-2013-607279). Drawing on insights from the philosophy, sociology and (social) psychology of knowledge, a conceptual frame is constructed to aid the meta-theoretical analyses over the interplay between ideology and social psychology understood as societal common sense, as well as Social Psychology understood as an academic discipline, as they play out in relation to SRT. It is argued that ideology influences and is influenced by: the paradigmatic choices made; the broader neoliberal academic context; as well as the form and content of knowledge production in social psychology. It is concluded that meta-theoretical insights in SRT if supplemented with closer collaborations with critical approaches, could serve as the basis for a progressive evolution of SRT toward a more critical and ideologically conscious direction