Action and representation – A comment on Batel and Castro ‘Re-opening the dialogue between the theory of social representations and discursive psychology’

Jonathan Potter

doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12275

Action and representation – A comment on Batel and Castro ‘Re-opening the dialogue between the theory of social representations and discursive psychology’

Jonathan Potter

Rutgers, The State University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment/debate › peer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

Batel and Castro propose a reconciliation of social representation theory and discursive psychology. This comment highlights the continuing relevance of long-standing critiques of social representation theory from discursive psychologists as well as their central focus on both how representations are built to appear factual and the role of representations in practices. It suggests that the analytic approaches proposed by Batel and Castro (e.g., focus groups and thematic analysis) are not sufficient to the analytic task. The proposed ‘Pragmatic Discourse Analysis’ falls short on its central task of identifying pragmatics. The virtues of working with naturalistic data using methods that attend to the action orientation of talk and text are pressed.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	410-414
Number of pages	5
Journal	British Journal of Social Psychology
Volume	58
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12275
State	Published - Apr 2019

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Social Psychology

Keywords

action
communication
conversation analysis
discourse analysis
discursive psychology
interviews
naturalistic data
qualitative research
thematic analysis
theory of social representations

Access to Document

https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12275

Cite this

@article{10d37093c51847e1a2c6867330177499,

title = "Action and representation – A comment on Batel and Castro {\textquoteleft}Re-opening the dialogue between the theory of social representations and discursive psychology{\textquoteright}",

abstract = "Batel and Castro propose a reconciliation of social representation theory and discursive psychology. This comment highlights the continuing relevance of long-standing critiques of social representation theory from discursive psychologists as well as their central focus on both how representations are built to appear factual and the role of representations in practices. It suggests that the analytic approaches proposed by Batel and Castro (e.g., focus groups and thematic analysis) are not sufficient to the analytic task. The proposed {\textquoteleft}Pragmatic Discourse Analysis{\textquoteright} falls short on its central task of identifying pragmatics. The virtues of working with naturalistic data using methods that attend to the action orientation of talk and text are pressed.",

keywords = "action, communication, conversation analysis, discourse analysis, discursive psychology, interviews, naturalistic data, qualitative research, thematic analysis, theory of social representations",

author = "Jonathan Potter",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018 The Authors. British Journal of Social Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Psychological Society",

year = "2019",

month = apr,

doi = "https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12275",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "58",

pages = "410--414",

journal = "British Journal of Social Psychology",

issn = "0144-6665",

publisher = "Wiley-Blackwell",

number = "2",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Action and representation – A comment on Batel and Castro ‘Re-opening the dialogue between the theory of social representations and discursive psychology’

AU - Potter, Jonathan

PY - 2019/4

Y1 - 2019/4

N2 - Batel and Castro propose a reconciliation of social representation theory and discursive psychology. This comment highlights the continuing relevance of long-standing critiques of social representation theory from discursive psychologists as well as their central focus on both how representations are built to appear factual and the role of representations in practices. It suggests that the analytic approaches proposed by Batel and Castro (e.g., focus groups and thematic analysis) are not sufficient to the analytic task. The proposed ‘Pragmatic Discourse Analysis’ falls short on its central task of identifying pragmatics. The virtues of working with naturalistic data using methods that attend to the action orientation of talk and text are pressed.

AB - Batel and Castro propose a reconciliation of social representation theory and discursive psychology. This comment highlights the continuing relevance of long-standing critiques of social representation theory from discursive psychologists as well as their central focus on both how representations are built to appear factual and the role of representations in practices. It suggests that the analytic approaches proposed by Batel and Castro (e.g., focus groups and thematic analysis) are not sufficient to the analytic task. The proposed ‘Pragmatic Discourse Analysis’ falls short on its central task of identifying pragmatics. The virtues of working with naturalistic data using methods that attend to the action orientation of talk and text are pressed.

KW - action

KW - communication

KW - conversation analysis

KW - discourse analysis

KW - discursive psychology

KW - interviews

KW - naturalistic data

KW - qualitative research

KW - thematic analysis

KW - theory of social representations

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85052798151&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85052798151&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12275

DO - https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12275

M3 - Comment/debate

SN - 0144-6665

VL - 58

SP - 410

EP - 414

JO - British Journal of Social Psychology

JF - British Journal of Social Psychology

IS - 2

ER -

Action and representation – A comment on Batel and Castro ‘Re-opening the dialogue between the theory of social representations and discursive psychology’

Abstract

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this