Mauro Sarrica

ICTs, social thinking and subjective well-being - The internet and its representations in everyday life

Abstract The spread of ICTs constitutes an intriguing phenomenon for studying the interweaving between ways of knowing, thinking and experiencing new ‘realities’. A suitable framework for investigating this topic is the social representations one, which addresses socially shared structures of knowledge, loaded with emotional features and symbolic values. In the present study, we explore how the internet is represented and how it is related to social well-being. The number of participants was 101. The components of the representation – information, attitude, representational field – were investigated using a qualitative–quantitative methodology; social well-being (in general, and after the internet entered one’s own life) was measured through Keyes’ scale [Social Well-Being. Social Psychology Quarterly , 61 ( 2 ), 121–140]; levels of practice were also taken into account. Participants show a medium–high level of social well-being in its various components (integration, acceptance, contribution, actualisation and coherence). A more complex picture appears ‘after internet’, with gains in terms of closeness, contribution, actualisation of society, counterbalanced by diminished trust in people and resort to one’s own group for security and comfort. The representational field opposes an intimate picture to a wider perspective; space to time; functional to experiential features of the internet. Participants take different positions on these dimensions, providing foreseen and unexpected patterns of images and meanings.

Peace, War and Conflict: Social Representations Shared by Peace Activists and Non-Activists*

The article suggests the use of social representations theory to provide a positive approach to peace research and a theoretical framework for understanding peace movements. Studying peace, war and conflict in this perspective enables exploration of these concepts as objects socially constructed, elaborated and shared by different groups. Four groups of activists are compared with people not belonging to any association, in order to investigate the existence of particular social representations of peace, war and conflict. As in previous cross-cultural research, an independent social representation of peace emerges only among activists. The social representation of war is also different in the two groups: non-activists see it as frightening, whereas activists see ways of tackling it. The greatest difference between the two groups is in the social representation of conflict. Conflict is assimilated to war for non-activists, whereas activists represent it as more manageable and normal. The results support the idea of understanding peace activism as a particular form of coping – community coping – based on the group as a whole, rather than on individual capacity to manage problems. At a theoretical level, the article discusses the importance of linking social representations to practice and group identification. At a practical level, it suggests that support for pacifism will be only transient and superficial until these underlying differences in representations can be changed.

War and Peace as Social Representations: Cues of Structural Stability

The present study explores the structural stability of peace and war concepts, adopting a social representation approach. A word association task to the stimuli conflict, peace, and war was submitted to 206 Italian university students in 2004 and 2005. The data were explored through correspondence factor analyses and the analysis of frequency and rank of association. The results show that the social representation of war focuses chiefly on images of death and blood. Peace, on the contrary, is represented in terms of ideals, interpersonal relations, and metaphors. In 2005, new elements functional in peacebuilding, such as respect and cooperation, enter the representation, but the representation of peace is still not as stable and strong as war. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The Future of the Press: Insights from the Sociotechnical Approach

In Europe and the United States, the decline of newspapers started long before the advent of the Internet. However, the spread of the Internet has accelerated this decline. But is the future of newspapers really endangered? To answer this question, the authors propose that a reflection on the insights the sociotechnical system perspective, drawn from organizational studies, can offer for media research. The authors first analyze four of the main principles of the sociotechnical perspective: open systems, dynamic stability, optimization of technical and social functions, and control of boundaries. They then employ these analytical tools to examine the power relationships between journalists, the publishers, editors, and the audiences. The sociotechnical approach proves to be an interesting approach for the interpretation of the changes occurring in the journalism and for the elaboration of future solutions and management strategies.

The early stages of the integration of the internet in EU newsrooms

The current study explores the perceived integration of the internet inside European newsrooms. The authors carried out a survey with 239 journalists working for 40 of the most-read outlets in 11 European countries. The study shows that journalists consider the internet a useful tool mainly for practical functions, rather than to enhance the core values and functions of their profession. However, news production continues to be based on direct interaction, and journalists’ professional identity is still anchored to print newspapers. Moreover, a lack of communication between publishers and newsrooms emerges. Professional and personal profiles and nationality play a relevant role in the development of attitudes towards the implementation of the internet in newsrooms.

Employer branding in nonprofit organizations. An exploration of factors that are related to attractiveness, identification with the organization, and promotion: The case of emergency

This paper explores the application of the Employer Branding model in nonprofit organizations. We focus on attributes of the organization that may affect its attractiveness, identification with the organization, and promotion. We conducted a questionnaire-based survey on actual and potential aidworkers from Emergency, an Italian charity that offers free medical assistance to war victims. The questionnaire included measures of organizational identification, attractiveness, symbolic and instrumental attributes and intentions to promote the organization. Results showed that the attractiveness of the organization depended on symbolic rather than instrumental attributes. Unlike previous research on Employer Branding, however, instrumental attributes did not influence the attractiveness of the organization and, additionally, decreased promotion. These findings may contribute to extending the Employer Branding model by including a psychosocial perspective and also suggest important management implications for nonprofit organizations.

Make (?) Not War! Are the Social Representations of Peace and War Antonyms?

Two main conceptions, parallel to the two main paradigms on health (i.e., as the absence of sickness or as active well-being), describe the relationship between peace and war. Negative conceptions look at peace as the absence of war, that is, as the absence of widespread acts of direct and intense violence. In their narrow perspective, negative approaches allow unfairness and even violence if they are necessary for the stability and order of the society; an example may be the use of violence to sedate riots. Positive approaches, instead, conceive peace as the everyday effort to construct and maintain civil cohabitation. In this second perspective, peace is dynamic and includes the constructive management of conflict. Positive approaches foster a more extensive conception of peace, from developing interpersonal positive relationships, to collective actions aimed at contrasting those elements of structural violence (from sexism to unequal opportunities) that characterize our democracies (Christie, Wagner & Winter, 2001; Galtung, 1996). These two conceptions have been translated also at an applied level, namely, in ‘peace education’, which has been defined by Harris (2004, p. 6) as ‘teachers teaching about peace: what it is, why it does not exist and how to achieve it. This includes teaching about the challenges of achieving peace, developing non-violent skills and promoting peaceful attitudes.’

Processi di regolazione emotiva e benessere emotivo nell’invecchiamento. uno studio sul modello della socioemotional selectivity theory di Carstensen

L’incremento nelle aspettative di vita rappresenta per i Paesi industrializzati una sfida fondamentale. Modelli teorici recenti, come Positive Aging e Active Aging, suggeriscono di controbilanciare gli approcci che si concentrano esclusivamente sul declino fisico e psicologico, sottolineando la capacita che gli anziani hanno di mantenere una qualita di vita soddisfacente, sia a livello individuale che nella sfera delle relazioni sociali. Il presente contributo si riferisce principalmente alla Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (Carstensen, 1991), la quale indica che, con l’eta, l’importanza relativa degli obiettivi cambia al fine di consentire e preservare esperienze emotive positive. L’indagine si concentra su due elementi principali: 1) la relazione tra emozioni ed eta: si ipotizza che emozioni positive e negative non siano correlate e che l’invecchiamento non implichi necessariamente una riduzione delle prime ed un aumento delle seconde; 2) la selezione di partner e scopi significativi: si ipotizza che differenti scelte siano attuate in funzione dell’eta e della condizione di vita, e che queste siano positivamente legate al benessere emotivo. Centocinquantaquattro partecipanti, giovani (n = 53), anziani attivi (n = 50) e istituzionalizzati (n = 51), hanno completato uno strumento carta-matita volto a indagare emozioni positive e negative, soddisfazione emotiva, scelta di partner sociali e obiettivi. Coerentemente con il modello di riferimento, i principali risultati indicano l’indipendenza tra emozioni positive e negative. Inoltre, gli anziani non riportano un decremento di emozioni positive ma, invece, un minor livello di rabbia e preoccupazione rispetto ai giovani. Inoltre, anziani attivi e giovani mostrano modalita di risposta simili. Tuttavia, contrariamente alle aspettative della SST, all’aumentare dell’eta, avere scopi sociali importanti favorisce di per se il benessere emotivo. I risultati indicano la necessita di approfondire i processi di invecchiamento non solo in relazione all’aspettativa di vita ma anche in relazione agli stilli di vita.