Social Representation of Violence in Sports (original) (raw)

Social representation is organized around a central nucleus. Initially, Moscovici used the phrase "figurative nucleus" for the complex obtained after the objectification (cognitive process through which individuals or groups transform the abstract into familiar and integrate it to their own knowledge system). In the first phase of elaborating the social representation of an object, the subjects choose the information part circulating within the society, make it familiar, and transform it according to their traditions, culture, and group history. Thus, they become independent in the relationship with the environment, with the context in which they created it, making it adaptable and intelligible. This central "nucleus" or "system" (as it was named during the evolution of the theory) then appears concretely as image, illustrates the life of the individual creating it, being anchored in his thoughts (Neculau & Curelaru, 2003:292). Anchoring, as discussed by the authors, transfers a strange and disturbing thing into our particular category system, confronting this new element with the paradigm of a category seen as suitable (Moscovici, 1997:39). The insertion of the object in a familiar reference framework takes place and follows the social instrumentalization of the object. The social representation provides instruments for communication and common understanding, and the anchoring phenomenon facilitates the sequencing of the environment in significant units and comprehensible systems. The two processes, objectification and anchoring, are fundamental in the formation and functioning of social representations. Using word association technique, the data analysis registered 197 mentions for the group of subjects named non-gallery and 205 specifications for the subjects situated in the gallery group, I tried to identify the social representation of violence in football game and the subjects of research was funs.