Young Greeks and Democracy: social representations and imaginaries and the impact of the crisis
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Speaker
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Thalia Magioglou
Visiting Fellow, Hellenic Observatory, L.S.E. and Centre Edgar Morin/IIAC, EHESS, Paris France
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Chair
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Rebecca Bryant
A.N. Hadjiyiannis Senior Research Fellow, Hellenic Observatory, LSE
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Date
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Tuesday, 26 January 2016
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Venue
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Cañada Blanch Room, COW 1.11, 1st floor, Cowdray House
European Institute, LSE
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Time
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18:00-19:30
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Abstract
The presentation offered insights from the longitudinal study conducted on the social representations of democracy for the Greek Youth, and the theoretical model grounded on this research. This work is grounded on a cultural and political psychology perspective with qualitative methodology. Three different studies have been realized in Athens, Greece at three “critical” moments, before and during the recent economic crisis: at the end of the 90s, in 2009, and in 2011. The fourth and last study will take place in 2015, because it is hypothesized that the election of Syriza, the left anti-austerity party to power, and the referendum of july 5th represent another turning point for the collective imaginary and the Greek political system. Both the population, (young adults), and the field of the study, (Greece at the turmoil of the crisis), offer insights for a larger debate on the representation of democracy in Europe. The particular context also allows original meaning constructions and innovative combinations with other “hegemonic” representations such as Economy and Religion. The perspective adopted is that of societal and cultural political psychology, with a dialogical and constructivist epistemological approach (Markova, 2003; Valsiner, 2007), through the use of concepts such as social representations, lay thinking, argumentation and narrative. Social representations and imaginaries are conceptualized as networks of meaning: their content and the temporality associated to it, is related to future action (Moscovici, 1961/2008). By comparing past and present representations of democracy, Ms Thalia Magioglou revisited the concept of Hegemonic Social Representation, initiated by Moscovici (1988), drawing on two different layers of the notion of “hegemony”, following the work initiated with Obadia, in our EHESS seminar.
Biography
Thalia Magioglou is a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics, Hellenic Observatory since October 2015, and a researcher affiliated to the Centre Edgar Morin, IIAC of the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Scienes Sociales, in Paris, France. Her perspective is that of Cultural and Political Psychology, combining a “local” field (Greece) to an international and independent research.
After having studied at the University of Athens, Cambridge, Geneva, Sciences Po Paris, EHESS, and Amiens, Thalia completed her PhD on the social representation of democracy for the Greek Youth, stressing the creative dimension of lay thinking. Ever since, she has taught undergraduate and masters courses at the Univ. Paris V, René Descartes, A.U.P., Sciences Po, EHESS and AUP in Paris.
Since 2003, Thalia initiated in Paris, at the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, an international network, EPoPs (European Political Psychology). The purpose of EPoPs is a cultural approach of political psychology which focuses on the study of globalization, at the level of everyday or lay thinking. Publications, international workshops and projects are among the products of this network.
PHOTOS