Media And Social Representations Of Otherness: Psycho-Social-Cultural Implications 3030360989, 9783030360986, 9783030360993

Table of contents :
Preface......Page 6
References......Page 11
Contents......Page 12
Editors and Contributors......Page 13
1.1 The European Crises......Page 15
1.1.1 The Refugee Crisis and the EU Migration Policy......Page 16
1.1.2 Euroscepticism and the Brexit Referendum......Page 17
1.1.3 The Surge of Populism and the Politics of Intolerance......Page 18
1.2 The Identity-Otherness Dynamics......Page 20
1.3 Media Representations and the Fear of Otherness......Page 23
1.4 Conclusion......Page 25
References......Page 27
2.1 Introduction......Page 31
2.2 Social Knowledge and Social Representations......Page 32
2.2.1 Social Representations as Phenomena in Interaction......Page 33
2.2.2 Social Representations, Common Sense and Scientific Knowledge......Page 34
2.3 Social Representations and Communication. The Importance of the Media in the Genesis of Social Knowledge......Page 35
2.4 Culture, Social Representations, and Symbolic Universes......Page 37
2.5.1 Detecting the Semantic Structures of Social Representations......Page 39
2.5.2 Dataset......Page 40
2.5.3 Procedures and Operative Parameters......Page 42
2.5.4 Interpretation of the Semantic Structures......Page 46
2.6 Conclusion......Page 47
References......Page 48
3.1 Immigration Within and Towards Europe: A Long-Standing Variable Phenomenon......Page 53
3.2 Media Discourse on Immigration......Page 55
3.2.1 Variations in Narratives and Frames......Page 56
3.2.2 The Representations of Immigration and Immigrants in the European National Press......Page 57
3.3 The Present Study......Page 59
3.4.1 Sample, Keywords and Temporal Blocks......Page 60
3.4.2 Data Analysis......Page 61
3.5.1 Synchronic Analysis: The Semantic Structures Underlying the Social Representations of Immigration......Page 62
3.5.2 Diachronic Analysis: The Evolution of the Semantic Structures......Page 66
3.6 Discussion......Page 68
References......Page 70
4.1 Introduction......Page 74
4.2.1 Islamic Values and Culture......Page 75
4.2.2 Migration and Integration......Page 77
4.2.3 Terrorism and Crime......Page 78
4.2.4 The Present Study......Page 79
4.3.1 Sample and Temporal Blocks......Page 80
4.3.2 Automated Co-occurrence Analysis for Semantic Mapping......Page 81
4.4 Results......Page 82
4.4.1 Synchronic Analysis. Latent Semantic Structures Underlying the Press Representations of Islam......Page 83
4.4.3 Diachronic Analysis......Page 86
4.5 Discussion......Page 88
4.6 Conclusion......Page 90
References......Page 91
5.1 Introduction......Page 95
5.2 LGBT—Coming Out from Invisibility......Page 96
5.3 LGBT and the Sexualized Divide in Europe......Page 99
5.4 Method of the Present Study......Page 101
5.4.1 Analyses......Page 102
5.5.1 Synchronic Analysis. Latent Semantic Structures Underlying the Press Representations of LGBT Figures......Page 103
5.5.2 Cross-Countries Comparisons......Page 106
5.5.3 Diachronic Analysis......Page 107
5.6 Discussion......Page 108
5.7 Conclusion......Page 110
References......Page 111
6.1 Affective Sense-Making and Its Salience......Page 115
6.2.1 Method......Page 119
6.3 Results......Page 125
6.3.1 A Synoptic View of the Semantic Structures Underlying the Representations of Immigration, Islam, and LGBT People......Page 127
6.3.2 Relation Between the Semantic Structures and Affective Sense-Making (Lines of Semiotic Force)......Page 128
6.3.3 Interpretation of the Semantic Structures of Health, Participation, and Subjectivity......Page 130
6.3.4 Exposure to Otherness and Similarity of the Semantic Structures......Page 137
6.4 General Discussion......Page 138
References......Page 140
7.1 Introduction......Page 144
7.2 From Rational Choice to Bounded Rationality......Page 145
7.3 The Role of Culture: Homo Semioticus......Page 147
7.4 A Typology of the Roles of Culture for Policy Design......Page 148
7.5 Policy Through Culture Toolkit......Page 150
7.6 Functions and Contexts of Use of the Tools......Page 153
7.7 Final Remarks......Page 155
References......Page 156

Citation preview

Culture in Policy Making: The Symbolic Universes of Social Action

Terri Mannarini Giuseppe A. Veltri Sergio Salvatore   Editors

Media and Social Representations of Otherness Psycho-Social-Cultural Implications

Culture in Policy Making: The Symbolic Universes of Social Action Series Editors Sergio Salvatore, Department of Dynamic Psychology, La Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy Terri Mannarini, Department of History, Society and Human Studies, Università del Salento, Lecce, Lecce, Italy Jaan Valsiner, Psychologie, Aalborg Universitet, Aalborg, Denmark Giuseppe A. Veltri, Department of Sociology, Università di Trento, Trento, Trento, Italy

The book series develops and consolidates the innovative approach to policy-making and politics based on the recognition of the central role played by cultural dynamics, intended as on-going processes of sense making channelled by symbolic resources the cultural environment makes available and through which people make sense to the experience, therefore feel, think, act. It pursues both a theoretical and practical purpose: the development of the conceptual approach to policy and politics based on the view of human being as homo semioticus, as a subject engaged constantly with the need to make meaningful ordinary daily experiences, as well as participation in society.

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/15961

Terri Mannarini Giuseppe A. Veltri Sergio Salvatore •

•

Editors

Media and Social Representations of Otherness Psycho-Social-Cultural Implications

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Editors Terri Mannarini Department of History, Society and Human Studies Università del Salento Lecce, Italy

Giuseppe A. Veltri Department of Sociology Università di Trento Trento, Italy

Sergio Salvatore Department of Dynamic Psychology La Sapienza Università di Roma Rome, Italy

ISSN 2523-7306 ISSN 2523-7314 (electronic) Culture in Policy Making: The Symbolic Universes of Social Action ISBN 978-3-030-36098-6 ISBN 978-3-030-36099-3 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36099-3 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Preface

This volume adopts a psycho-cultural perspective to examine the implications at the societal and institutional level of the social representations of otherness, based on an empirical exploration of media narratives in a group of European countries. In detail, the research focuses on the analysis of press discourses produced over a 15-year period (2000–2015) on three contemporary figures of otherness that challenge the identity of European societies, question the attitudes towards diversity, and pose significant issues to policy makers: immigrants, Muslims, and LGBT people. The data presented stem from one of the lines of research developed within the three-year (2015–2018) Re.Cri.Re. project (Between the representation of the crisis and the crisis of the representation—www.recrire.eu). Re.Cri.Re., which received a grant from the European Commission within the Horizon2020 framework on research and innovation, was developed in an interdisciplinary network involving scholars with different backgrounds, including sociology and communication, cultural, social, clinical, educational psychology, policy studies, urban studies, and economics. When it was proposed, the project mainly aimed at understanding the impact of the 2008 socio-economic crisis on European societies. Specifically, we were interested to know whether an event that had serious consequences for many people, especially in some European countries, also affected the concept that citizens had of themselves—in brief, their identity—and of their life environment. We were convinced, and we still are, that an insight into the ‘sense-making mind’ would produce some appreciable knowledge not only for the academic community, but also for policy makers, and would in the end provide them with guidelines intended to design more attuned and effective policies. The first and primary goal of the Re.Cri.Re. research programme was to map the systems of meanings that were assumed to underpin the notion of identity and to estimate their distribution across Europe, while highlighting their connection with specific ways of feeling, thinking and behaving, as well as with socio-economic aspects. The theoretical framework, the empirical findings, as well as the implications and future perspectives have been thoroughly discussed in What future for Europe? Symbolic Universes in the time of (post)crisis (Salvatore, Fini, Mannarini, v

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Valsiner & Veltri, in press). However, we need to briefly recall here the notion of symbolic universes within the Semiotic-Cultural Psychology Theory (SCPT) (Salvatore, 2016; Valsiner, 2007), to which various references are made throughout the chapters of this volume. Symbolic universes refer to systems of general, intuitive assumptions concerning the inner and the outer environment, as well as their functioning and their relationship. These generalized meanings are affective-laden, shape the entire field of experience, and orient social behaviours. The empirical analysis conducted on 11 European countries (Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Malta, Netherlands, Spain, and UK) (Salvatore et al., 2018) detected five symbolic universes, briefly described as follows: • Ordered universe: generalized positive attitude towards the world; trust in the future; institutions and services perceived as reliable; identification with transcendent values (e.g. justice, solidarity) that rule communities and relationships; and societal commitment. • Interpersonal bonds: positive, optimistic vision of the world, yet confined to the sphere of interpersonal, affective networks. • Caring society: society and institutions are perceived as responsive to individual needs; belief in the possibility of pursuing personal purposes via a societal support system. • Niche of belongingness: the experience of the world is anchored in primary networks, seen as a shelter from an anomic, threatening environment; pessimism, fatalism, and distrust towards institutions. • Others’ world: negative, desperate vision of the world; generalized distrust, hopelessness, lack of agency, anomy. How are symbolic universes related to the social representations of otherness conveyed by the media? The second goal of the Re.Cri.Re. programme was to explore whether and how symbolic universes are reflected in the social representations of socially relevant topics, so as to integrate the abstract map of symbolic universes with concrete forms, in which these universes are instantiated and manifested in situated representational and discursive contexts. Indeed, the anchorage of the specific, situated patterns of meaning-making associated with immigration, Islam, and LGBT issues in the generalized map of symbolic universes provides a deeper understanding of these patterns in terms of their contextualization within the general cultural milieu. The volume presents a comprehensive map of how national presses address such themes both in a synchronic and diachronic perspective, revealing patterns of continuity and discontinuity across time and space. Such patterns are discussed in the light of their cultural meanings and of their influence on social and political collective behaviours. The general scenario within which issues of otherness and identity are addressed is presented in Chap. 1, starting from the review of a variety of socio-political processes currently faced by many European countries: the decrease in solidarity and cooperation among European countries in dealing with the refugee crisis, the spreading of eurosceptic attitudes, and the rise of far-right parties along with waves of xenophobia and populism. All these processes are at risk of undermining social

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cohesion and the general societal development, and all entail, either as a premise or as a consequence, the dramatic increase in intergroup conflicts and the negation of otherness. Indeed, intergroup dynamics is based on the general psychosocial process that connects the construction of self and identity to the construction of otherness, which are two sides of the same coin—as one only exists relative to the other. Media discourses play a key role in the construction, reproduction, and circulation of images of otherness, as the representations that they convey are liable to affect public opinion as well as individual orientations, intergroup relationships, and policy-making decisions. For this reason, the analysis of cultural forms—i.e. media representations—offers the opportunity to look into the construction of the portraits of otherness that are perceived as the most threatening to identity, namely portraits that question power relations and societal structures based on gender and sexual orientations (LGBT people), ethno-cultural (immigrants), and religious belonging (Muslims). The theoretical framework underlying the empirical research whose main findings are presented in the volume is outlined in Chap. 2. This framework integrates Social Representations Theory (SRT) (Moscovici, 1988, 2011) with the notion of symbolic universes drawn from the Semiotic-Cultural Psychology Theory (SCPT) (Salvatore, 2016; Valsiner, 2007). Since its earliest conceptualization, Social Representations Theory (SRT) has cast light on the mechanisms through which media contribute to shaping social thinking and on the dynamic structures that connect the representational forms produced by media discourses so as to generate coherent patterns of cognitions. Daily communicative exchanges filter the representations of relevant societal and political issues, which are in turn shaped and spread by the mass media. Accordingly, social representations originate and are constantly negotiated through an enduring dialogue between society and individuals, the media and the public. In such a perspective, the media are in part responsible for the content of everyday thinking and the set of ideas and cognitions that social actors use to make sense of their social world. Bridging SRT and SCPT, social representations are presented as concrete ‘instantiations’ of abstract, generalized symbolic universes, while media discourses are presented as one of the communicative contexts in which important issues are represented in recursive patterns of meaning-making. The chapter also outlines the method used to analyse the press narratives, consisting of the combination of text mining techniques and multiple correspondence analysis. The social representations of otherness were investigated by means of a quali-quantitative content analysis of newspaper articles, aimed at identifying the semantic structures underpinning the ways ‘immigration’, ‘Islam’, and ‘LGBT’ issues were addressed and represented. Chapters 3, 4, and 5 present the ‘maps of otherness’, each of them discussing the representation of one of the three portraits of otherness around which the volume revolves.1 Chapter 3 focuses on the immigration issues that have been at the core

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The outputs of the statistical analyses (i.e. correspondence analysis) are included in the online annexes to Chaps. 3, 4, 5, and 6.

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of the social and political debate in Europe for a long time, gaining more and more importance in the last decade. Indeed, immigration has become one of the defining policy issues of contemporary politics in Europe, for example, in the case of the British vote on the Brexit referendum in 2016. As the refugee crisis is still in progress, it will play a role in the foreseeable future. Understanding the social representations of immigrations and their evolution in the past years provides valuable data to study the relationship with ‘the other’ in European societies. The findings of the analysis of press discourses related to immigration across several European countries are presented and compared, and some of the national cases discussed, along with implications for policy. The representations of Islam and Muslims communities are addressed in Chap. 4, in connection with the refugee crisis experienced by Europe over recent years and the related widespread concern over migration and the surge of nationalist sentiments. Among European citizens, concerns surrounding the presence and role of Islam in Europe remain acute: hostilities between marginalised Muslim communities in Europe and others who oppose Muslim practices have continued to spiral. Moreover, issues such as the war in Syria, terrorist attacks on European soil, the integration of Muslim communities in Europe, and Turkey’s accession into Europe remain heavily contested and highly debated. The analysis of the representations of Muslims in six European national presses demonstrates changing representations of Muslims over time, with issues concerning violence and oppression becoming more salient in recent years. The findings further demonstrate a polarisation of attitudes that on the one hand recognise the plight of refugees, and on the other remain wary of the threat of Islam to European values. Conceptions about homosexuality, together with the tolerance towards the members of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community, are addressed in Chap. 5. Such conceptions have radically changed worldwide, as homophobic western societies of the early twentieth century were gradually transformed into more liberal socio-cultural environments. However, these conceptions vary substantially among the regions of the world, including European countries. Also, the legal status of homosexuality and homosexual relationships varies a lot. The rise in visibility marked a trend towards transmitting more positive information about LGBT people and coincided with more liberal attitudes towards homosexuality in countries even outside the Western world. However, resistance to such trends has also been noticed, and increased visibility did not necessary guarantee social tolerance and recognition of LGBT groups. The chapter focuses on the social representations of LGBT people, as instances of otherness, articulated through the press discourses produced in six European countries. The results reveal similarities as well as differences in the semantic structures identified across countries, but a general trend towards greater social and legal emancipation of LGBT persons and the acceptance of the ‘other’, portrayed as the LGBT person, emerge. A qualitative meta-analysis of the analyses of the social representations of the three variants of otherness addressed in the volume (i.e. immigration, Islam, and LGBT people) is presented in Chap. 6. The meta-analysis aimed at assessing the

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level of generalization of the latent semantic structures detected by first-level analyses with the purpose of testing two general hypotheses drawn from Semiotic-Cultural Psychology Theory (Salvatore, 2016; Valsiner, 2007). First, that the social representations of social objects are shaped by affective sense-making. Second, that the higher the degree of exposure to otherness conveyed by the specific object of the social representation, the more the salience of affective sense-making, hence its influence over social representations. The findings reveal that the meta-interpretation of the semantic structures in terms of generalized affective meanings reaches a high level of coverage. Moreover, the results indicate that the salience of affective sense-making (operationalized as the similarity between the semantic structures of the representations of the same object across countries) is associated with the degree of exposure to otherness involved in each object: the more the object involves the exposure to otherness, the more similar the semantic structures underlying the social representations of the object itself. On the whole, the outcomes of the meta-analysis suggest that the representations of the three specific portraits of otherness (immigrant, LGBT, and Muslim people) should be regarded as a local expression of the general cultural dynamics. A discussion of the overall findings specifically aimed at highlighting the implication for politics, policy-making, and media is developed in Chap. 7. Authors argue that sense-making processes can play an important role in helping to design policies, as well as in understanding how people interpret social reality and therefore act or react upon it. This perspective aligns with a more realistic understanding of human behaviour and decision-making, which has recently challenged the often-implicit assumptions about people on which policies are most often based. Theorists have shifted from the individual rational choice model to a bounded rationality perspective. A further step outlined by the Re.Cri.Re. project is to take into consideration the interpretative and cultural nature of human behaviour as a fundamental element in the design and implementation of policies. Indeed, mapping and discovering the cultural landscape of a community that is the target of a policy intervention ensures a match between the normative behaviour conveyed in the policy and its cultural compatibility and acceptance. At a transformative level, culture can be become the target of policies itself when cultural change is collectively accepted as necessary. Lecce, Italy Trento, Italy Rome, Italy

Terri Mannarini Giuseppe A. Veltri Sergio Salvatore

Acknowledgement Our thanks to Serena Verbena for the invaluable help in editing the volume.

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References Moscovici, S. (1988). Notes towards a description of social representations. European Journal of Social Psychology, 18, 211–250. Moscovici, S. (2011). An essay on social representations and ethnic minorities. Social Science Information, 50(3–4), 442–461. Salvatore, S. (2016). Psychology in black and white. The project of a theory-driven science. Charlotte, NC: InfoAge Publishing. Salvatore, S., Fini, V., Mannarini, T., Avdi, E., Battaglia, F., Castro-Tejerina, J., et al. (2018). Symbolic universes between present and future of Europe. First results of the map of European societies’ cultural milieu. PLoS ONE, 13(6), e0200223. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0200223 Salvatore, S., Fini, V., Mannarini, T., Valsiner, J. & Veltri, G. A. (in press). What future for Europe? Symbolic universes in the time of (post)crisis. Dordrecht, The Netherland: Springer. Valsiner, J. (2007). Culture in minds and societies. Foundations of cultural psychology. New Delhi, India: Sage.

Contents

1 Identity, Otherness, and Psycho-Cultural Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . Terri Mannarini, Sergio Salvatore and Giuseppe A. Veltri

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2 Theory and Method for the Analysis of Social Representations . . . . Alessia Rochira, Sergio Salvatore, Giuseppe A. Veltri, Rozlyn R. Redd and Franco Lancia

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3 Immigration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alessia Rochira, Evrinomy Avdi, Irini Kadianaki, Alina Pop, Rozlyn R. Redd, Gordon Sammut and Ahmet Suerdem

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4 Islam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Luke J. Buhagiar, Gordon Sammut, Evrinomy Avdi, Ifigeneia Koutri, Anna Mylona, Alina Pop, Alessia Rochira, Rozlyn R. Redd and Alfonso Santarpia

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5 LGBT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alina Pop, Evrinomy Avdi, Irini Kadianaki, Ifigeneia Koutri, Anna Mylona, Alessia Rochira, Gordon Sammut and Rozlyn R. Redd

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6 The Salience of Otherness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Sergio Salvatore, Viviana Fini, Terri Mannarini, Ahmet Suerdem and Giuseppe A. Veltri 7 Implications for Policy-Making and Further Developments . . . . . . . 133 Giuseppe A. Veltri, Terri Mannarini, Anna Krasteva, Marco Cremaschi, Gordon Sammut and Sergio Salvatore

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Editors and Contributors

About the Editors Terri Mannarini is Associate Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Salento, Lecce, Italy, and editor-in-chief of the international journal Community Psychology in Global Perspective. Her research interests cover political, social, and community psychology and focus specifically on community participation and development processes, collective action, acculturation processes, and gender issues. e-mail: [email protected] Giuseppe A. Veltri holds a BA in Psychology of Communication from the University of Siena, an M.Sc. in Social Research Methods (Statistics) from the Methodology Institute of the London School of Economics (LSE) and a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the LSE. He is Associate Professor of Research Methodology and Cognitive Sociology at the Department of Sociology and Social Research of the University of Trento. He was Senior Lecturer at the University of Leicester. He has been Lecturer at University of East Anglia and a scientific fellow at the European Commission JRC Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS). Before joining the IPTS, he has been a research associate at the Institut Jean Nicod (Ecole Normale Supérieure) in Paris. He has published in scientific journals such as Nature, PLOS One, Computers in Human Behavior, Public Understanding of Science, Big Data & Society and others .e-mail: [email protected] Sergio Salvatore is Professor of Dynamic Psychology at the Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, “La Sapienza” University of Rome; President of the European Institute of Cultural Analysis for Policy (EICAP). His scientific interests regard the psychodynamic and semiotic theorization of mental phenomena and the methodology of analysis of psychological processes as field-dependent dynamics. He also takes an interest in theory and the analysis of psychological

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intervention in clinical, scholastic, organizational, and social fields. On these issues, he has designed and managed various scientific projects (e.g. Re.Cri.Re.) and published about 250 works. e-mail: [email protected]

Contributors Evrinomy Avdi Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece Luke J. Buhagiar University of Malta, Msida, Malta Marco Cremaschi SciencePo, Paris, France Viviana Fini ISBEM, Mesagne, Italy Irini Kadianaki University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus Ifigeneia Koutri Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece Anna Krasteva New Bulgarian University, Sofia, Bulgaria Franco Lancia T-LAB, Roccasecca, Italy Terri Mannarini University of Salento, Lecce, Italy Anna Mylona Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece Alina Pop “Dimitrie Cantemir” Christian University, Bucharest, Romania Rozlyn R. Redd Imperial College London, London, UK; University of Leicester, Leicester, UK Alessia Rochira University of Salento, Lecce, Italy Sergio Salvatore “La Sapienza” University of Rome, Rome, Italy Gordon Sammut University of Malta, Msida, Malta Alfonso Santarpia Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada Ahmet Suerdem Istanbul Bilgi University, Istanbul, Turkey Giuseppe A. Veltri University of Trento, Trento, Italy

Chapter 1

Identity, Otherness, and Psycho-Cultural Dynamics Terri Mannarini, Sergio Salvatore and Giuseppe A. Veltri

1.1 The European Crises Since 2008 Europe has been suffering a sequence of turbulent events. Following the global financial crisis, European countries had to face the Greek crisis, the migration and refugee crisis, terrorist attacks, rising support for far-right and populist parties, with the addition of eurosceptic attitudes and intolerance, and the Brexit referendum, which ratified the withdrawal of the UK from the European Union. Almost all these socio-political processes had a disruptive potential, insofar as they brought about the risk of undermining social cohesion, trust, wellbeing, and the general societal development, decreased solidarity and cooperation—both among European countries and, within countries, among different social groups—and, more in general, encouraged defensive attitudes towards otherness, and towards whoever otherness is identified with. Indeed, faced with a number of important challenges, EU institutions have responded in ways that have often nullified universalistic values and neglected rights protection, demonstrating persistent difficulties in cooperating and working together to defend them.

T. Mannarini (B) University of Salento, Lecce, Italy e-mail: [email protected] S. Salvatore “La Sapienza” University of Rome, Rome, Italy e-mail: [email protected] G. A. Veltri University of Trento, Trento, Italy e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 T. Mannarini et al. (eds.), Media and Social Representations of Otherness, Culture in Policy Making: The Symbolic Universes of Social Action, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36099-3_1

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1.1.1 The Refugee Crisis and the EU Migration Policy EU migration policies offered a clear example of ways of dealing with otherness that failed to meet both the societal need for solidarity and the inescapable interconnected nature of the globalized society. Specifically, the EU as a whole failed to assume joint responsibility in addressing the impressive migrant and asylum crisis that in 2015 peaked at 1.26 million people applying for asylum (Eurostat, ec.europa. eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Asylum_statistics), most of them fleeing from war in Syria. The policy debate on how to respond to the crisis revolved mainly around the impact on security and cultural identity, and the EU concentrated almost exclusively on preventing arrivals and shifting the responsibility for asylum seekers and refugees to other regions (Human Rights Watch [HRW], 2017). Moreover, responsibility for asylum seekers was not shared equitably across the Union’s member states; on the contrary, the primary responsibility for processing asylum seekers was bestowed upon the first EU country of entry, in accordance with the Dublin regulation. Indeed, the Dublin Regulation, which was adopted back in 1990 on the grounds that all EU member states are “immigration countries”, affirmed the rule that the member state over whose borders the asylum seeker first accesses EU territory is responsible for considering the asylum applications submitted. This approach has raised many criticisms, since it negates the refugees’ right to mobility, forcing migrants to remain in the country where they first set foot. The European countries that due to their geographical position are most exposed to the migrant arrivals, especially Italy and Greece, have been asking to rescind the Dublin regulation and have proposed the adoption of allotted refugee quotas with the aim of reducing the burden of receiving a great number of asylum seekers arriving from the North Africa and Middle East areas. However, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic (the so-called Visegrád group) opposed this request and rejected the relocation of refugees settled in Italy and Greece. No solidarity mechanisms were adopted to balance the disproportionate pressure faced by some of the member states (Scipioni, 2017). In June 2018, the quota proposal was re-discussed, yet integrated with the clause that member states can refuse to receive asylum seekers pending the payment of a sum for each of the refugees they decide to reject. Once again, EU members failed to reach an agreement, disrupting the ideas of unity and solidarity in the EU, and showing the public the lack of unity of purpose among the governments, and the preponderance of selfish national interests and short-term tactics over cooperative and forward-looking policies that are respectful of both the receiving countries and the migrants and asylum seekers. The refugee crisis amplified the differences among countries, but it also triggered new conflicts that changed and even disrupted relations among member states (Maldini & Takahashi, 2017). At the same time, repeated disagreements and the increased influence of securitarian concerns encouraged nationalist and populist options, and legitimized anti-immigrant sentiments in the population.

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The process through which the governments and EU institutions managed the refugee crisis brought the cultural identity-otherness dynamics visibly to the surface. A conception of otherness emerged, which on the one hand objectifies and dehumanizes migrants and refugees by equating them to numbers deprived of subjectivity, whose value can even be monetized. On the other hand, these migrant others were also depicted as a threat to security and to cultural identity, that is to say, they were propagandized as an aggressive mob from which the receiving societies have to take shelter. In addition, the refugee crisis made the categories of identity and otherness relevant to describing relationships among European states, as was revealed by the clashes between single member states and the rest of the community, between one identity and another, with particular interests prevailing over the common destiny. Indeed, identity proved to be a highly sensitive issue for the EU, which is not a state nor a confederation, but an alliance based on the original set of values that was consensually accepted by the founder members when the European integration process started: respect for human dignity and human rights, freedom, democracy, pluralism, tolerance, justice, and solidarity.

1.1.2 Euroscepticism and the Brexit Referendum Although the term euroscepticism is generally used to refer to anti-Europe attitudes, it is customary to differentiate hard and soft forms of euroscepticism (Taggart & Szczerbiak, 2004), with the former implying the complete rejection of European political and economic integration, and advocating withdrawal from the EU, and the latter accepting the project of integration but provided that specific political, social, ideological, or ethnic conditions are met. Euroscepticism is not a new political doctrine, its early appearance dating back to the ‘90s. However, in the last decade hard eurosceptic positions and the political parties that voice them have gained momentum, often in concurrence with the growing consensus of populist forces. The relevance and magnitude of euroscepticism today reveals that European institutions are undergoing a crisis themselves, having turned into a subject of public debate. Not incidentally, any national electoral competition has been transformed into a referendum about accepting or rejecting the process of European integration. In dealing with the crises described above, EU institutions have more than once shown the difficulties of accomplishing a full process of integration beyond the currency union, as the refugee issue has demonstrated. As has been pointed out, the 2008 global financial crisis and the turbulent events that followed have opened the Pandora’s box of integration (Dawson, 2015), bringing to the fore a set of critical questions that can no longer be neglected or postponed—above all the need to reconcile national and supranational institutions and the urgent need to design a shared political project based on common values and goals that alone can be the foundation for truly European policies.

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While the socio-political dynamics triggered by global finance bubbles, immigration waves, and terrorism attacks have exposed the fragility of the European institutions, the EU has been simultaneously weakened by the general decrease in trust and credibility that has invested the entire sphere of politics in democratic regimes (see among others Braun, 2012). Ridden by populist forces, the wave of political distrust has been transformed into the clear-cut opposition between (good) people and (bad) elites. Here again we find traces of the identity-otherness dynamics, with the EU and its representatives transformed and represented as adversaries to be defeated. The case of the Brexit referendum in June 2016, whose results came as a shock if not as a surprise for many European citizens, was not only an indication of how strong euroscepticism had become in the UK, but it was also a way for identities to establish themselves against each other. While the majority of researchers explained the choice to leave the EU as determined by socio-demographic variables, such as people’s education, income, and age (Arnorsson & Zoega, 2016; Curtice, 2016) or as a response to austerity policy (Dorling, 2016), few analysts suggested that values and cultural views played a crucial role (Kaufmann, 2016). Aligned with this perspective, we proposed a cultural interpretation of the outcome of the Brexit referendum based on the analysis of the UK’s cultural milieu (Veltri, Redd, Mannarini, & Salvatore, 2019). Within the Semiotic Cultural Psychology (SCPT) framework (see Salvatore et al., 2018a; Salvatore, Fini, Mannarini, Valsiner, & Veltri, 2019), our research showed that the UK regions where the “leave” vote was dominant were characterized by the higher presence of cultural forms—i.e., symbolic universes, or specific interpretations of the same cultural environment—that were related to identity/belongingness. Specifically, we found that in the “leave” regions two symbolic universes were dominant: one labelled “interpersonal bond”, in which the sociocultural environment is perceived in positive, even optimistic terms, but is circumscribed to primary networks and the sphere of interpersonal, emotional bonds; and the other labelled “niche of belongingness”, which shares the same anchorage to the primary networks but combines it with a negative generalized connotation of the outside world, perceived as anomic and threatening. Both these symbolic universes are characterized by the importance of identity networks, thus suggesting that the decision to leave the EU can be conceived of as an acting out of identity.

1.1.3 The Surge of Populism and the Politics of Intolerance In its 2016 and 2017 annual reports, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI, 2016, 2017) highlighted a general rise in fear and resentment against migrants in Europe, largely due to high levels of migration, religious extremism, and terrorism, but also exacerbated by the austerity-driven socio-economic policies. In addition, ECRI mentioned the rise of xenophobic populism and hate speech—especially on the Internet and social media—and the discriminatory effects

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of political discourses that fuel hatred of minorities. ECRI also highlighted that targets of discrimination are not only immigrants and Muslims, but a variety of ethnocultural minorities, such as Jewish people, Black people, and Roma and travellers. Also LGBT persons in several European countries cannot fully exercise their rights, and are victims of homophobic and transphobic attacks. There is fair consensus that the refugee crisis has had a significant impact on the rise of populism and right-wing political options in many European countries (Maldini & Takahashi, 2017). The integration of foreigners and migration-related questions have become one of the main topics in the majority of European elections and the burning issue of the political debate almost everywhere in Europe. Migration has proved to be an especially powerful lever to mobilize voters and citizens on identity-symbolic issues, and rightist populist forces have been able to exploit to great advantage the evocative potential of otherness, transforming refugees and immigrants into scapegoats. Spreading and legitimizing the politics of intolerance, populist parties have overtly theorized the juxtaposition of identities and the negation of otherness. In more general terms, they have legitimized, both in the public opinion and in the private sphere, the tendency to fight and discriminate against others on the basis of physical, cultural, religious, or even sexual features. Indeed, although populism has been defined as a “thin ideology” (Mudde, 2004; Stanley, 2008), meaning that it can combine with both rightist and leftist ideologies, in Europe populism is most often featured in far right parties (such as Marie Le Pen’s Front National in France and Nigel Farage’s Independence Party in the UK) or in their allies (like the controversial Italian Five Star Movement): the defence of cultural identity, national sovereignty, security, and xenophobia have become the European hallmarks of populism. Nevertheless, there is an intrinsic characteristic of populism itself—be it right or left leaning—that entails the negation of otherness: it is the Manichean distinction between ‘the people’ and ‘the elite’ (Mudde, 2007), which splits society into two alleged homogeneous and antagonistic groups. As has been claimed (see Taggart, 2000), if the reference point is ‘the people’, it is inevitable that those who are perceived as not part of their ‘own people’ become the target of negative judgments and feelings. Like all ideologies, populism appeals to values, visions, and culturally bounded needs. Is culture also relevant in explaining the growing support for populist parties? Some authors have explained the embracing of populist positions as the result of individuals’ personal vulnerability, in terms of their weak economic position or low educational attainment or (Betz, 1990; Kingston, Hubbard, Lapp, Schroeder, & Wilson, 2003). However, explanations that take into account the role of cultural views are starting to gain momentum. Elchardus and Spruyt (2016) found that neither education nor satisfaction with personal life affect populist attitudes. In contrast, they argued that “populism appears primarily as a reaction to a societal diagnosis […] People clearly make such choices on the basis of a vision of the good society and the way to get there or get back there […] People do not opt for populism because they feel anomic or are economically vulnerable; they only opt for populism from the moment they deal with their vulnerability by adopting a discourse or a theory that

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presents society as unjust and interprets their personal situation as the consequence of that injustice” (Elchardus et al., 2016, pp. 125–126). Based on the same Semiotic Cultural Psychology (SCPT) framework (Salvatore et al., 2018a; Salvatore et al., 2019) that underpinned the cultural interpretation of the outcomes of the Brexit referendum (Veltri et al., 2019), we advanced a convergent interpretation of populist support. In a survey among Italian voters (Mannarini, Salvatore, & Rochira, 2018), we found that individuals sharing the same interpretation of their sociocultural environment (i.e., the same symbolic universe) were characterized by specific patterns of socio-political orientation. We also discovered that support for the populist Five Star Movement was more likely to be offered by those people who endorsed democracy, had an egalitarian view of society, and were endowed with civicness, namely by those people who belonged to two specific symbolic universes, both anchored in a systemic view of society: one labelled “ordered universe”, characterized by a generalized positive attitude towards the future and towards institutions, agencies and services, perceived as trustworthy, and by an identification with transcendent values (e.g., justice, solidarity, etc.); and the other labelled “caring society”, characterized by a vision of society and institutions as responsive to individual needs and able to ensure a functional individual-environment fit. Our results suggested that what matters in orienting social behaviour is the global interpretation that people hold of society, and of their own relationship with the social environment: in very basic terms, these generalized cultural forms envelop and shape the identity-otherness dynamics.

1.2 The Identity-Otherness Dynamics The issues touched upon have an apparent common ground, insofar as they represent different forms of rigid closure towards otherness, be the ‘other’ the elite in Bruxelles, the political caste, specific EU member states, refugees, immigrants, Muslims, LGBT people, or other social groups. These confrontational and sometimes even violent forms of social relationship have been interpreted by sociologists and philosophers as a reaction to the deterioration of social bonds. As social bonds disappear, the need for community re-emerges (Bauman, 2001), but it mostly takes the form of a tribal community (Maffesoli, 1988), an endogamic closed community, a resented ‘we’ that excludes and rejects the other, seen as the incarnation of the enemy and evil (Pulcini, 2013). Indeed, enemy images have always accompanied the human need for belonging and group identity, as those who are perceived as different or unfamiliar can be also felt as threatening. Under threat conditions, the need to belong may turn into tribalism, a defensive reaction that drives people to shield themselves. Social psychologists mainly explain conflicts, discrimination and hostility by resorting to a theoretical framework that highlights the entanglement between individuals and groups, personal identity and collective identity, and the cognitive categorization processes that underlie social relationships and behaviours. Based on Social

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Identity Theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979, 1986) and Social Categorization Theory (Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, & Wetherell, 1987), decades of socio-psychological research have demonstrated that social categorization processes affect the ways in which individuals and groups perceive each other and shape their mutual relationships. On the grounds that individual are born and develop within and across a variety of groups—starting from family and going through to peers, sport teams, neighbourhood groups, political groups, and so forth—, and that part of the personal identity is shaped by subjectively important group membership, Social Identity Theory posits that group identification has the main function of fostering individual self-esteem and supporting a positive self-image. At the same time, as postulated by Social Categorization Theory, membership implies a cognitive process, in which people categorize themselves and others as either members of the same group (ingroup) or belonging to different groups (outgroup). This simple act of categorization affects the way individuals perceive both the ingroup and the outgroup. As a general effect, Social Identity Theory and Social Categorization Theory posit that social categorization results in minimizing the differences within the groups and maximizing the differences between the groups. Self-categorization typically results in what is known as ingroup favouritism, that is, the tendency to extend trust, empathy and cooperation to the ingroup but not to outgroup members (Tajfel et al., 1986). Research has revealed that the tendency to positively evaluate the groups to which one belongs and negatively evaluate external groups is general and ubiquitous, even though there are notable exceptions to this dynamics. For example, this tendency, which is referred to as intergroup bias, is more likely to occur in groups that because of their nature or goal interact with other groups, while it is less likely to characterize autonomous groups (Brown, Hinkle, Ely, Fox-Cardamone, Maras & Taylor, 1992). One more exception is represented by cases in which underprivileged low status groups manifest a reversed intergroup bias, characterized by ingroup negativity and favouritism towards privileged high status groups: these cases have been explained on the basis of the System Justification Theory (Jost, Banaji, & Nosek, 2004), according to which people are motivated to justify the status quo and to view it in a favourable light. Moreover, there is fair consensus among authors that outgroup negativity is not an inevitable outcome of categorizing ourselves and the others at the intergroup level: outgroup derogation is triggered, or amplified, by specific factors, including the strength of ingroup identification, the respective ingroup and outgroup status, whether groups feel deprived compared to other groups, or whether they feel they have been wronged, or whether they perceive the outgroup as a threat (see Hewstone, Rubin, & Willis, 2002, for a review). These factors account for different forms of intergroup hostility, from moderate (such as verbal attacks and avoidance) to severe expressions (specifically discrimination, physical violence, and even extermination). In this perspective, racism, xenophobia, anti-Europe and anti-elitist attitudes can all be viewed as manifestations of a basic general intergroup dynamics, which might have become more pervasive than it was in the recent past as the need for identity, anchorages and points of reference has become more and more difficult to fulfil

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in the uncertain and unstable scenario of contemporary societies, where the traditional sources of authority (family, institutions, religion) have been deprived of their capacity to serve as normative devices. The rise of extremism and radicalization clearly displays this dynamics. According to Uncertainty-Identity Theory (Hogg, 2000, 2012), people are motivated to reduce their feelings of uncertainty, especially if uncertainty concerns aspects or objects that are relevant to self or identity. They can choose potentially different ways to minimize uncertainty, but group identification is one of the most effective, because groups offer prototypes, norms and worldviews that through a process of consensual validation stabilize the individual beliefs and self-concept. Not only are individuals more likely to identify with a group when they feel uncertain, but certain qualities of groups, and by consequence certain types of groups, are particularly effective in decreasing uncertainty: namely, groups that are perceived as high in entitativity (Campbell, 1958), that is, with a high degree of similarity among members, intense member interaction, shared goals, common fate, and clear boundaries. Typically, extremist groups have a distinguishing structure and group life, which includes rigid boundaries, internal homogeneity, hierarchy, strong leadership, and distinctive group identity (Hogg & Adelman, 2013). Such qualities make these groups a very attractive option in times of turmoil and turbulence, because they offer a coherent and comprehensible frame to the self and to the place of self in the world. From a psychological cultural perspective, racism, xenophobia, anti-Europe and anti-elitist attitudes, as well as extremism and radicalization, are strategies that both make sense of the outside world and establish a position, a role, an identity, for the self. They do not directly stem from the worsening of European societies’ economies and people’s living conditions, but are the outcome of a specific interpretation of such conditions, felt and represented by people as sources of threat to their way of life, their values, their habits, and their safety. Once again, we sustain the role played by cultural dynamics and the systems of meanings through which people make sense of the state of their life, shape and respond to it. Specifically, we have proposed (see Salvatore et al., 2018b) that one of the features of the contemporary European cultural environment that can account for this generalized negation of otherness is the conspicuous presence of a cultural form (i.e., a symbolic universe) that interprets belonging in paranoid terms. The paranoid qualification refers, as in psychoanalytic theory (Klein, 1967), to a very elementary form of affective sense-making process, in which individuals tend to personify every critical event that hinders their actions and desires, and to perceive it as an active threat. Paranoid belongingness means that identity, i.e. ‘we-ness’, stems from protecting from external threats, but also that identity can develop only by virtue of the enduring perception of others as enemies. If life is experienced as an endless conflict between an attacked us and a threatening them, everything is experienced as either part of the ingroup or of the outgroup. At a cognitive level, the permanent enemization of the other is characterized by hypervigilant and ruminative modes of collective thinking. Such modes, which respond to the need to make sense of opaque and threatening environments, are likely to result in three main judgmental consequences, namely

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the tendency to over-attribute lack of trustworthiness to others, the disposition to interpret others’ actions in a disproportional self-referential way, and an exaggerated perception of conspiracy (Kramer, 1994, 1998). These tendencies have been acknowledged to qualify political attitudes and ways of thinking typical of politics in an age of distrust (Rosanvallon, 2008; Mannarini, Boffi, Brondi, & Sarrica, 2015). Paranoid belongingness, we suggested (Salvatore et al., 2018b), is a way of making sense of otherness, of interpreting and engaging with the outside world: making the other an enemy strengthens the sense of belonging, thus restoring identity and membership, along with safety and gratification. Such a generalized tendency suggests that populism, racism, radicalization, euroscepticism, can be conceptualized as specific manifestations of a broader all-encompassing dynamics of identity-otherness.

1.3 Media Representations and the Fear of Otherness Otherness is the consequence of power and discursive strategies. The process of creation of otherness includes two apparently opposed mechanisms (Jervis, 1999): exclusion/distance, based on the negation of any possible continuity or similarity between the self and the other; and incorporation, assimilation of the other, deprived of any independent existence and subjectivity. These devices, which often operate simultaneously, generate three consequences for the other: a shift from a central to a peripheral position (i.e., marginalization), dualistic split (good/bad), and objectification and homogenization. These latter processes are involved in one of the most prominent facets of othering discourses, that is, the production of stereotypes (Jervis, 1999). The media play an important role in the discursive construction of otherness, including but not limited to stereotype activation and transmission. They contribute to shaping representations of groups and political issues (Hamlin, Bloemraad, & de Graauw, 2016), and actively influence public opinion and social behaviours. Specifically, when media representation concerns social groups, and most often minority groups, they influence the ways audience members perceive and respond to members of those groups (Hart, 2007). Such an influence is rarely direct, yet it is conveyed by the frames used, the importance attributed to specific issues (i.e., the agenda setting), the visibility given to certain positions, which can trigger the spiral of silence effect in public opinion (Noelle-Neuman, 1984), and finally by representation. In media studies the notion of representation has been elaborated within the cultural-critical paradigm (see Hall, 1997) to account for the constructive nature of media messages, which cannot be viewed as descriptions that mirror reality, but as knowledge products that establish norms and common sense about groups and institutions in society. Specifically, the cultural-critical perspective highlights that representation is a signifying practice that generates shared meanings about ourselves and the surrounding world: it is a process of creating reality and also a process of normalization of specific ideologies and worldviews. These qualities considered, media representation matters for two fundamental reasons. First, because social knowledge,

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that is, common sense or lay knowledge, derive at least partially from media representation (Gross, 1994). Second, because representation involves the production of meanings that have performative, tangible effects, and therefore it is itself a form of social action. The cultural-critical paradigm in media research has interesting convergences with the theory of Social Representations (Moscovici, 1984, 2000), which defines social representations as collective forms of socially constructed knowledge that make sense of the reality and provide a practical guide to people in everyday life. Social representations are a way individuals and groups transform significant objects of knowledge, which are perceived as abstract and somewhat vague, or unusual and even disturbing, into something familiar and concrete, something that can be understood and used. Communication is at the core of the genesis, circulation, and change of social representations: the latter originate from the communicative exchanges between individuals and within groups, but through communication social representations provide individuals and groups with shared meanings, shared views and shared social practices. Different communicative forms contribute to the production and reproduction of social representations: micro-interactions (i.e., everyday talk, one-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-one exchanges), as well as cultural artefacts, such as ideologies, institutions, norms, historical and political events, advertising, and the media. If media representation is a signifying practice that produces shared meanings about ourselves and the surrounding environment, it is particularly relevant when portraying and framing minorities and unequal social relations. Indeed, through representation people are invited to construct “a sense of who ‘we’ are in relation to who ‘we’ are not, whether as ‘us’ and ‘them’, ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’, ‘colonizer’ and ‘colonized’, ‘citizen’ and ‘foreigner’, ‘normal’ and ‘deviant’, ‘friend’ and ‘foe’, ‘the west’ and ‘the rest’” (Cottle, 2000, p. 2). A remarkable body of research has been focusing on media representation of race, racism, and ethnicity (e.g., Bleich, Bloemraad, & de Graauw, 2015), LGBT people (e.g., Castaneda & Campbell, 2006), gender and feminism (e.g., Gauntlett, 2002; Dines & Humez, 2003), and more recently on Muslims and the post September 11 ‘new others’, (e.g., Bleich, Stonebraker, Nisar, & Abdelhamid, 2015; Brown, Brown, & Richards, 2015; Jaspal & Cinnirella, 2010). On the whole, this body of research, mainly based in the UK and the US, reveals persistent under-representation and stereotypical featuring, as well as negative problem-oriented depiction, along with a tendency to underestimate issues related to structural inequalities and discrimination. Such persistence has been explained on the basis of the constraints that the media have to face (Fürsich, 2010): their ubiquity, saturation and repetitiveness; the alignment between traditional biased representations and mainstream audiences, which commercial media industries cannot afford to lose by conveying more complex representations; and finally, the contiguity of the media to the elites interested in maintaining the status quo through the reiteration of stereotyped representations of diversity. As media representation also has performative effects, there are consequences: though often in a nonlinear way, people’s attitudes and behaviours are affected. As far

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as ‘others’ are concerned, research has shown that media representation can enhance prejudice, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, and anti-LGBT sentiment. A radical position is expressed by Hamelink (2011, p. 126), who considers the media an active tool of misinformation about ‘others’, suggesting to their audiences that they “‘pose fundamental threats to security and well-being of the society and that the only effective means of escaping this threat, is the elimination of this great danger”. However, even without agreeing with such an extreme standpoint, and being aware that the media are neither homogeneous nor static, few examples of research can offer empirical support to this thesis. Studies on minorities have suggested that media depiction of third-world people as naive, traditional, or less civilized, helps maintaining the Western paternalistic prejudice toward them (Ramasubramanian, 2005). In a similar vein, media portraits of African Americans as criminal and aggressive have been proved to strengthen antiblack prejudice (Dixon & Linz, 2000). The role of the media in promoting fear of foreigners, immigrants, refugees, and LGBT people has been extensively explored. For example, Kearns, Betus, and Lemieux (2018) have shown that terrorist attacks receive more media coverage depending on the perpetrator’s religion, and stressed that the disparities in news coverage may explain why people tend to fear the ‘Muslim terrorist’ more than other threats. The media representation of British Muslims as a ‘hybridised threat’ to the ethno-national ingroup, has been discussed as a potential cause of Islamophobic prejudice (Jaspal & Cinnirella, 2010). Again, examining Austrians’ political orientations and media use, Plasser and Ulram (2003) detected a correlation between people’s fear of foreigners and the tabloid style newspapers. Boomgaarden and Vliegenthart (2007) found a significant influence of news on vote intention for anti-immigrant parties. They demonstrated that the salience given in the news to immigration-related issues not only sets the public’s agenda, but also leads the audience to consider these issues problematic and important. Since immigration is a central issue in anti-immigrant populist parties, the high level of coverage in the news, irrespective of the frame used, results in people voting for them. These few examples are sufficient to highlight the key role of the media in the construction, reproduction and circulation of portraits of otherness, along with the social and political effects involved. Although we have emphasized biases and distortions, which persist in mainstream media, we should also consider the possibility that media could play a role in the opposite direction (Cottle, 2007): as the media environment is heterogeneous and evolving, it must be acknowledged that it has the potential to change the current traditional representations of others, and to advance alternative representations that can foster social and cultural diversity.

1.4 Conclusion Support for populism, euroscepticism, xenophobia, lack of solidarity: despite their specificity, all these phenomena call into play the common root of the dynamics of

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identity-otherness, and the demonization of others. Media narratives of otherness are part of this picture. To understand the way the contemporary identity-otherness dynamics functions, and the related phenomenology of intergroup relationships, which in the current European scenario is likely to evolve into a myriad of scattered micro-social conflicts, the analysis of cultural forms can produce results. Indeed, the examination of media discourses offers a unique opportunity to look into the construction of profiles of otherness that are perceived as especially threatening to the self, namely profiles that question power relations and societal structures based on ethno-cultural and religious membership, and on gender and sexual orientation. However, the analysis of the contents of media narratives of ‘others’—i.e., immigrants, Muslims, and LGBT people– may not be sufficient per se to shed light on the general self-other process, and specifically on the conflictual, paranoid connotation that it has been assuming in the last few decades. Although it is certainly interesting to show how minority groups are represented, and to detect the stereotypes and biases conveyed through media discourses, for a more comprehensive level of explanation we need to go beyond the manifest contents and to consider the fundamental latent signifying dimensions that organize them. The semantic structures that underlie the contents of the representations of social objects are basic, affect-laden categories of meaning, which most often take the form of a dichotomy or an antinomy (Markova, 2003). After all, making distinctions and understanding events and processes as antinomies is one of the fundamental features of human thinking. As the research documented in this volume shows, the search for the semantic structures that underpin the (media) representation of others—either immigrants, Muslims, LGBT people, or any further group we may wish to consider—in different countries, and also at a different time points, enables us to find connections between apparently separate social objects, and also between different socio-political contexts. Still, to conceptualize and account for these connections, a general theory of sensemaking is needed. The Semiotic Cultural Psychology Theory (SCPT) (Valsiner, 1998, 2007; Salvatore, 2016) enables us to see how the media representation of ‘others’ is embedded in a cultural milieu made up of a few affect-laden generalized meanings (i.e., symbolic universes), and how the contents, the shape, the connotation, and the evolution of the representation of otherness can be acknowledged as a spacetime manifestation of a broader sense-making dynamics. Indeed, sense-making is what shapes the experience of both the inner and the outer environment, that is, the image individuals and groups have of themselves and of their relationship with the surrounding context. To conclude, the lens of SPCT, along with the contribution of theory and research on Social Representations, opens up the possibility of connecting the media representation of otherness to the symbolic universes that currently permeate European societies, the very same cultural forms that contribute to the surge of intolerance, rejection, closure, and discrimination towards diversity.

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Terri Mannarini is Associate Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Salento, Lecce, Italy, and editor-in-chief of the international journal Community Psychology in Global Perspective. Her research interests cover political, social, and community psychology, and focus specifically on community participation and development processes, collective action, acculturation processes, and gender issues. Sergio Salvatore is Professor of Dynamic Psychology at the Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, “La Sapienza” University of Rome. President of the European Institute of Cultural Analysis for Policy (EICAP). His scientific interests regard the psychodynamic and semiotic theorization of mental phenomena and the methodology of analysis of psychological processes as field dependent dynamics. He also takes an interest in theory and the analysis of psychological intervention in clinical, scholastic, organizational and social fields. On these issues he has designed and managed various scientific projects (e.g., Re.Cri.Re.) and published about 250 works. Giuseppe Alessandro Veltri holds a B.A in Psychology of Communication from the University of Siena, an M.Sc in Social Research Methods (Statistics) from the Methodology Institute of the London School of Economics (LSE) and a Ph.D in Social Psychology from the LSE. He is Associate Professor of Research Methodology and Cognitive Sociology at the Department of Sociology and Social Research of the University of Trento. He was Senior Lecturer at University of Leicester. He has been Lecturer at University of East Anglia and a scientific fellow at the European Commission JRC Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS). Before joining the IPTS, he has been a research associate at the Institut Jean Nicod (Ecole Normale Supérieure) in Paris. He has published in scientific journals such as Nature, PLOS One, Computers in Human Behavior, Public Understanding of Science, Big Data & Society and others.

Chapter 2

Theory and Method for the Analysis of Social Representations Alessia Rochira, Sergio Salvatore, Giuseppe A. Veltri, Rozlyn R. Redd and Franco Lancia

2.1 Introduction Contemporary European societies are experiencing a variety of vicissitudes and turmoil and, whether political, economic, humanitarian or social, a common formula seems to apply: who are the ‘others’ and how is one to deal with them. Individual, group and systemic responses to the numerous changes and challenges threatening Europe’s future present difficult issues that more or less directly revolve around the theme of ‘otherness’ (see Chap. 1 in this volume). Required to cope with the increasingly complex European environment, the EU Commission has adopted a strategic approach to otherness by compelling its member States to promote “inclusive and participatory societies” (Joint Communication to the European Parliament and the Council, 2017, p. 4). At the same time, outside institutional and professional circles, citizens establish their own understanding of otherness that allows them to find their way through many compelling questions marking the reality in which they live, A. Rochira (B) University of Salento, Lecce, Italy e-mail: [email protected] S. Salvatore “La Sapienza” University of Rome, Rome, Italy e-mail: [email protected] G. A. Veltri University of Trento, Trento, Italy e-mail: [email protected] R. R. Redd University of Leicester, Leicester, UK e-mail: [email protected] F. Lancia T-LAB, Roccasecca, Italy e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 T. Mannarini et al. (eds.), Media and Social Representations of Otherness, Culture in Policy Making: The Symbolic Universes of Social Action, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36099-3_2

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for instance: who are the individuals allowed to remain on European territory and those who are excluded from it? Who are those who have to pay for the economic breakdown and those who deserve to be compensated? Who are those entitled to get married by the law and those who are forbidden to be recognized as a family? Who are those who have to repudiate their cultural heritage and those who are authorized to maintain it? Whatever point at issue one chooses to consider, numerous discourses have emerged concerning where the boundaries between oneself and others should be drawn (Delanty & O’Mahony, 2002; Holmes 2006; Delanty, Wodak, & Jones, 2007). As the situation of uncertainty and instability has grown in many EU societies, otherness has taken shape in particular concerns that are either tangible or abstract. The issues of security and the fear of terrorism, the claim for nationalism and rejection of ethnic variety, the demand for conventional reference points and values, just to mention a few examples, are combined with the social construction of otherness, with certain social categories becoming the target of resentment and even hatred (Delanty, 2008). Generally speaking, the terms ‘others’ and ‘otherness’ have taken a central place in the context of everyday conversation and raise questions relating to the nature of the emerging social knowledge about these complex issues, its formation, diffusion, and transformation.

2.2 Social Knowledge and Social Representations The systematic investigation of social knowledge, its genesis, transmission and renewal, is a central topic in Theory of Social Representations (hereafter SRT) (Moscovici, 1988, 2011). Although over the last fifty years the theory has been subjected to many expansions (Abric, 2001; Doise, Spini, & Clémence, 1999) and revisions to overcome criticisms and address underdeveloped concepts (Howarth, 2006a), it remains a prominent psychosocial approach for the study of common sense (Sammut, Andreouli, Gaskell, & Valsiner, 2015). Indeed, since the early conceptualization of SRT, much research has been devoted to the explanation of common sense as a systematic and autonomous mode of knowledge that evolves in the social arena and is not to be considered a simplified version of science (Palmonari & Emiliani, 2009; Bauer & Gaskell, 1999, 2008). Actually, the quest to understand common sense has stimulated a concerted effort to ascertain what facts give rise to social knowledge, how it progresses and changes across diverse social contexts and to what extent societal dynamics and emotional forces mould it (Jovchelovitch, 2007). At the same time, as SRT has established itself as a social psychology of common sense, various studies have addressed the interconnection between social knowledge and other core concepts, such as identity (Breakwell, 1993; Gillespie & Cornish, 2010), attitudes (Howarth, 2006b), dialogicality (Markovà, 2003), social cognition (Augoustinos, Walkerm, & Donaghue, 2005), intercultural relations (Sammut & Gaskell, 2009) and acculturation (Rochira, Fasanelli, & Liguori, 2015). All

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the theoretical and methodological perspectives in the study of social representations share the same core presuppositions: • psychological phenomena are not separate from social phenomena and the relational texture of social life; • social knowledge is produced and exchanged at the intersection of the individual and societal levels, and it constitutes an autonomous mode of knowledge that is public, rooted in the flow of social life and contingent on the social context of its production.

2.2.1 Social Representations as Phenomena in Interaction SRT has focused attention on the interdependencies between social and psychological phenomena, the variability and relativity of the everyday knowledge and the significance of the interaction between individuals and groups. Indeed, the concept of interaction is central to SRT and “what makes for the specificity of interaction in the theory of social representations is its ontological significance. Just like the concept of electromagnetic field in physics of relativity, so the concept of interaction constitutes a new reality” (Markovà, 2008, p. 471). Social knowledge is the product of a recursive process that involves the agentive social actor vis-à-vis Others—i.e., individuals, groups, institutions, broad social units (e.g., the society or the environment) or even immaterial entities such as culture— and the object of knowledge (Voelklein & Howarth, 2005). According to the SRT, this basic interaction is understood as the semiotic triangle (e.g., Ego-Alter-Object) and it constitutes the condition for the formation of social knowledge. Given this epistemological tenet, there can be no production, diffusion or transformation of common sense outside a given interactional context (Castro, 2015) and, at the same time, any act of mental activity through which an individual (Ego) tries to make sense of the reality (object) presupposes a social interaction with someone else (Alter). Two major corollaries follow from the semiotic triangle. First, any time people form common sense concepts, they position themselves towards each other in the social field, allowing for a plurality and diversity of opinions that ultimately enables the social order to be negotiated (Sammut & Gaskell, 2009). In this view, the process of construction of social knowledge integrates the dynamics of social identification and belonging (Walmsley, 2004), as individuals cognitively adjust their knowledge by engaging with others and acknowledging that they are part of a group with an identity and repertoire of norms and habits that is either different from or similar to the repertoires of the other groups that inhabit the same social field. Second, as social representations are formed in interaction with actual and symbolic Others, it is not only the inter-individual and inter-group dynamics, but also the societal forces that serve to organize the social positioning. In fact, by shedding light on “the relation between society in general, or social relations in particular,

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and psychological function” (Gillespie, 2008, p. 3), SRT sheds light on the way economic phenomena, ideologies, social institutions, norms, historical and political facts and mass-media communication contribute to the formation of common sense and therefore of the social identity. More specifically, the theory opens up a route to comprehend how customs, social conventions, narratives and cultural artifacts contribute to creating conventional Others that are transmitted in each instance as part of the established system of collective knowledge. For example, in their investigation of the social representations of gender, Duveen and Lloyd (1990) cast light on the institutionalized contexts, social spaces (e.g., homes for girls and playgrounds for boys) and cultural materials (e.g., dolls for girls and guns for boys) through which the social representations of gender were produced and maintained as a basis for the formation of social identity of children who were compelled to compare themselves with institutionalized Others. Indeed, far from being a mere object of knowledge, the idea of Otherness emerges as a constituent of the formation and transformation of social representations and social knowledge, as well as a basic drive to the dynamics of social identification. Importantly, SRT emphasizes that this relational social drive is always vivid and ceaselessly questioned, with its contents being transformed over time.

2.2.2 Social Representations, Common Sense and Scientific Knowledge Within the SRT, the reflection on social knowledge has featured the difference between scientific and common sense knowledge that in turn mirrors the distinction between “reified” and “consensual” universes (Rochira, 2014). The former resembles the realm of science in which knowledge is generated and reproduced according to rigid schemes, unchallenged rules and hierarchical roles; conversely, the consensual universe corresponds to the sphere of common sense (Moscovici, 1984) and designates a routinized type of knowledge. To be more precise, the consensual universe embodies an inter-subjective reality encompassing “certain patterns of thinking, actions and interactions” (Wagner, Valencia, & Elejabarrieta, 1996), which works as a code for the communicative and social exchanges between individuals, groups and communities (Jovchelovitch, 2002). Within consensual universes, social representations constitute the specific modalities of understanding social objects and are created, maintained and changed by ‘amateur scientists’ (Moscovici & Hewstone, 1983) through everyday discourses and practices to meet their practical needs. In specific terms, social representations (hereafter SRs) designate both the process of formation of social knowledge and its products. The former concept refers to the process by which people create relatively enduring views of important objects and significant events that constitute their reality. As for the latter, SRs indicate the structures of knowledge that enable individuals

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to “classify persons and objects, to compare and explain behaviors and to objectify them as parts of [their] social setting” (Moscovici, 1988, p. 214). In fact, the formation of a social representation rests on the personal and socially coordinated effort to get a clear vision of an object that appears vague by adhering to established assumptions, discourses, arguments, and conventional views. In particular, through the process of anchoring, the unfamiliar is integrated into the pre-existing schemes and structure of knowledge, via people’s experience and memory (Moscovici, 1984), “by giving it priority (time), value (assessment), hierarchy (classification), and a name (denomination)” (Kalampalikis & Haas, 2008, p. 454). At the same time, the process of objectification turns abstract contents into actual forms and gives them concreteness. In spite of the associations with images, concepts and languages that are already known, SRs are not unchanging phenomena. Rather, they convey common sense knowledge in communicable forms that “last only as long as a group believes in them” (Moscovici, 2001, p. 19). Indeed, tension and dialectics characterize the whole process of formation of SRs and social knowledge, thereby stimulating “negotiation, resistance, innovation, and transformation” (Howarth, 2006a). At last, common sense has been conceived as a particular mode of knowledge that is not poorer than the scientific mode but that follows different logics and is shaped by societal forces (e.g., historical occurrences, political events, economic breakdowns, etc.) (Nuno-Gutierrez, Alvarez-Nemegyei, & Rodriguez-Cerda, 2008). In this regard, several researchers have examined the factors that play a critical role in the production and circulation of SRs in the social realm (Jovchelovitch, 2001; Wagner, Duveen, Themel, & Verma, 1999). From this perspective, communication has been recognized as a powerful source that leads to the creation and change of social representations over time and across diverse social environments.

2.3 Social Representations and Communication. The Importance of the Media in the Genesis of Social Knowledge One of the most common critiques to the notion of social representation concerns its vagueness and the lack of a well-established definition (Jahoda, 1988; Potter & Litton, 1985). In this regard, Markovà (2000) contends that SRs cannot be defined but characterized because of their in the making nature (Valsiner, 2003) by virtue of which they exist in relation with something else—e.g., an object of knowledge. In contrast, there is a robust consensus among researchers that communication is a defining characteristic of SRs. Indeed, “communication guides both the production and the evolution of social representations over time” (Sammut et al., 2015, p. 8), at least at a twofold level. More specifically, on the one hand, social representations are framed, transformed and conveyed by communication. To be precise, communicative exchanges serve as the context where individuals practice meaning-making, negotiate

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viewpoints about a relevant social object, address the ambiguities regarding a new matter and modify existing representations to cope with the ruptures of the ordinary flow of daily life (Sammut, Tsirogianni, & Wagoner, 2012). On the other hand, SRs facilitate communication among individuals since they work as a “system of interpretation” that regulates social encounters (Abric, 1994) and enable people to discuss and exchange understandable meanings. SRs are maintained and transformed through diverse communicative genres (Liu, 2004). In particular, together with informal and everyday communication, media communication has been recognized as playing a leading role in the way new objects, and above all technical and scientific subjects, are transformed into understandable and pragmatic forms of social knowledge that people use in their daily life. In the seminal work, La Psychoanalyse, son image, son public. Étude sur la representation sociale de la psychoanalyse (1961), Moscovici introduced the notion of social representations expanding their interconnection with mass communication. The author highlighted that mass communication is a distinct social reality, and diverse communicative strategies contribute to the formation and evolution of social knowledge within a social environment. Indeed, Propaganda, Propagation and Diffusion were illustrated as formalized genres that encode particular versions of the issues that are significant in a given social milieu. More importantly, these modes define three different ways in which people, as receivers, and the media, as producers, relate to each other (Rouquette, 1996). More specifically, Propaganda refers to the more formalized and ideological communicative strategy that conveys a stereotypical view of reality, rejects unconventional interpretations and opposes any possibility of evolution and change. Propagation denotes a communicative mode that is associated with the exchange of ideas but retains novel representations by accommodating them into a well-established framework, hence creating consensus and limiting the possibility for divergence. Finally, the Diffusion mode of communication pursues the aim of updating the public and disseminating information in an undifferentiated manner, allowing for a variety of opinions. Although SRT is not a communication theory, it highlights the role of communicative practices in the formation and, above all, the transmission of social knowledge (Howarth, 2011). Indeed, the distinction between the three modes of mass communication express three diverse informant-receiver relationships and highlights the extent to which the process of reception of information and meaning-making can be constrained by the secondary genres of communication, namely media and institutional discourses (Moscovici & Markovà, 2000). Precisely, Propaganda, Propagation, and Diffusion would give rise to distinct psychosocial phenomena, respectively stereotypes, attitudes and opinions, suggesting that distinct forms of mass communication are related to distinctive individual positioning towards significant objects of knowledge. However, individual positioning does not vary only depending on the form and contents of the messages that people receive. In fact, people integrate, classify, and retain the messages they are exposed to and, at the same time, they exchange them with other interlocutors, ultimately shaping convergent versions of the reality.

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In line with SRT, a conspicuous number of investigations have examined the representational contents disseminated by the media about various “objects” circulating in the social arena, above all technical and scientific topics, for instance science and technology (Christidou, Dimopoulos, & Koulaidis, 2004), nanotechnology (Veltri, 2012), biotechnology (Bauer & Gaskell, 2002), organ donation (Lauri, 2009; Moloney & Walker, 2002), AIDS (Labra, 2013), genetically modified organisms (Castro & Gomes, 2005), food irradiation (Gauthier, 2009), climate change (Moloney et al., 2014; Uzelgun & Castro, 2015), and recycling (Castro, Garrido, Reis, & Menezes, 2008). These investigations indicate that the public understanding of abstract and technical issues incorporates a variety of meanings, and that it is possible to influence citizens’ perception. Further, they suggest that the study of the social representations of technical and scientific objects can be useful in policy making decisions.

2.4 Culture, Social Representations, and Symbolic Universes Every topic that becomes socially relevant in a specific time and in a specific social environment can initiate a process of knowledge production that is always related to a series of socio-cultural influences. In fact, SRT conceives of social representations as culture–specific phenomena that are shaped by societal forces, such as historical occurrences, political events, media discourses, and economic facts. In this regard, despite the large number of research contributions on this theme (Jodelet, 2002; Markovà, 2003; Valsiner, 2003), there is still much to explore about the interconnection between SRs and culture. In fact, while the majority of researchers agree that social representations and culture are interdependent and are both related to the thinking, emotional, relational and identity texture of social life, the interpretation of such a reciprocal bond has undergone variations along with the theoretical and methodological standpoints adopted for the analysis of these two phenomena (Markovà, 2012). Many authors in the field of SRs have taken culture as a broad set of referents— e.g., values, norms, principles, practices, and ideas—that is formed through communication and is specific to definite groups or distinctive communities (Howarth, 2011). According to this view, culture encompasses a common network of meanings, beliefs, values and traditions that corroborates some standpoints over others in a given social milieu (Gaskell, 2001). Accordingly, the variability in the individual agreement/disagreement with the social representations of relevant issues is anchored in cultural realities. In this regard, several empirical studies on social representations have examined the differences in the way significant objects of social comprehension are framed in distinct cultural contexts, assuming nations as referent units (Sakki, 2014). For instance, in their extensive study on the social representations of human rights, Doise and colleagues (1999) focused on cross-national comparison, showing

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that people in the same country shared a similar pattern of experiences that influence their representations of human rights. In particular, the examination of the anchoring process of social representations led the authors to consider to what extent the ideas prevailing in a given culture would impact on people’s positive versus negative attitudes towards human rights. In the same vein, Clémence and colleagues (2011) made the point that the representations of human rights would undergo variations across different countries and argued that these variations would be related to both the characteristics of the national contexts and the common set of beliefs, experiences and opinions shared by the people living in each territory. On the other hand, many empirical investigations (Jovchelovitch, 2007; Wagner & Hayes, 2005) have directed their attention to the variability within the same cultural context, thus disclosing the multiplicity of common sense thinking in line with the concept of cognitive polyphasia (Jovchelovitch & Priego-Hernàndez, 2015). More specifically, these studies have emphasized that persons, groups and communities make sense of relevant issues according to distinct forms of rationality, so that plural and even contradictory views can coexist within the same cultural environment. Indeed, the way different social representations, even conflicting and apparently incommensurable, are taken as reference points by individuals is polyphasic “because it contains plural representations about what something means” (Jovchelovitch et al., 2015, p. 172). In this regard, Denise Jodelet’s research on the social representations of madness (1991) was one of the first studies to show that different modes of thinking and different representations can develop within the same community in as far as its members make a concerted effort to cope with something unusual that frightens them, for instance mental illness. In this regard, the coexistence of different modalities of knowledge and the possibility of merging different representations underlies the process of meaning-making (de Oliveira & Amâncio, 2014) as enabled and mediated by the culture. In some way, the conceptualization of the relationship between SRs and culture echoes the twofold significance conveyed the notion of social representation. Indeed, on the one hand, it refers to the set of beliefs, values, ideas and opinions concerning a given social object—as shaped by the people living in a definite social context through communicative exchanges. On the other hand, social representations indicate the process by which social knowledge is formed and evolves, and this connotation reflects the dynamic nature of culture (Duveen, 2007), as also captured by the Semiotic Cultural Psychological Theory (hereafter SCPT). In fact, SCPT postulates a dynamic conceptualization of culture as a process of meaning-making through which people interpret their own experience and, largely, the world in which they live (Salvatore, 2016; Valsiner, 2007, 2014). In particular, both SCPT and SRT posit that the individual’s psychological functioning is culture-rooted and emphasises the variability of people’s thoughts, actions, and feelings as constrained by cultural forces in a given social milieu. Actually, the two approaches suggest that changes in people’s behaviour, identity, thoughts and feelings can be comprehended along with the plurality of political, economic and historical facts characterizing life in society. Furthermore, integrating SRT and SCPT, the difficulties of establishing a clear relation between social representations and culture can be solved by taking into

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account the concept of symbolic universes, namely the generalized affect-laden and intuitive systems of assumptions that orient individual sense-making. More exactly, Salvatore and colleagues (2018) clarified that symbolic universes cannot be examined directly, but only through the psychosocial phenomena in which they are incorporated. SCPT postulates that symbolic universes comprise a set of attitudes, opinions, values, beliefs and representations concerning the reality and its various components that are useful in explaining both personal and public facts, such as media representations of relevant social issues. Therefore, consistently with Duveen who argued that “… whatever it is that we take to be connoted by the term culture only becomes accessible through the observation and analysis of specific representations” (Duveen, 2007, p. 544), social representations can be defined as lower generalized meanings resulting from the process of sense-making constrained by symbolic universes and can be considered the byproduct of their enactment within definite trajectories of sense making.

2.5 An Empirical Route for Investigating the Social Representations of Otherness 2.5.1 Detecting the Semantic Structures of Social Representations Within the research framework of the three-year Re.Cri.Re. project, the social representations of otherness were investigated by means of a quali-quantitative content analysis of newspaper articles in six European countries. The analysis was aimed at identifying the semantic structures underpinning the ways ‘immigration’, ‘Islam’, and ‘LGBT’ issues were represented in the public discourse conveyed by the press across Europe in the last fifteen-year period (2000–2015). A semantic structure is the set of basic semantic components in terms of which a certain object is represented: such a representation consists of the presence or absence of the properties that those components make pertinent. The semantic structure grounds and shapes the representational content (Veltri, 2012). To use an analogy with chemistry, as a molecule is composed of a combination of atomic components, so each representational content can be conceived of as comprising the combination of multiple semantic components, each of them consisting of a semantic dimension. For instance, the representational content “Arabs as terrorists” could be conceived of as the result of the combination of two semantic components: |out-group|and|threat|. Moreover, given the bivalent valence of meaning, any semantic component lends itself to be modelled in terms of a dialectical linkage between two oppositional meanings (Markovà, 2003; Salvatore, 2016; Salvatore, Tonti, & Gennaro, 2017). Accordingly, making one of the poles of the component salient means neutralizing the other. As a result, the previous combinatory definition of the representational content has to be integrated in the following way: any representational content is the

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combination of certain semantic components, each of them made salient in one of its polarities. Thus, to recall the previous example, |out-group| has to be viewed as the pole of an oppositional structure, that is to say, |in-group| versus|out-group|, just as|threat| can be assumed to be part of the semantic component complemented by an opposing pole, |resource|. The study of the social representations of immigration, Islam, and LGBT people that is at the core of this volume, takes the texts of newspaper articles as its unit of analysis. The newspaper articles were subjected to an automatized procedure of textual analysis. The use of such a procedure is functional to process the large amount of data gathered and ensures homogeneous operational criteria, so as to make it possible to compare findings across countries/language domains, topics, as well as temporal units. The automatized textual analysis was carried out using the Automated Co-occurrence Analysis for Semantic Mapping (ACASM), a method that previous studies have showed to be able to provide a reliable and valid semantic map of texts (Salvatore, Gennaro, Auletta, Tonti, & Nitti, 2012; Salvatore et al., 2017). ACASM, which is grounded on the SCPT theoretical and methodological framework (Salvatore, 2016; Valsiner, 2007, 2014), uses abduction as the main strategy of knowledge building in the field research of psychosocial phenomena. Indeed, while the representational content can be depicted directly, in terms of its observable manifestations (i.e., in terms of the statements contained in texts), the semantic structures are latent by definition. This is so because the semantic structures work as the condition/premise of thinking, feeling, and acting. This postulate has a relevant methodological consequence: the detection of the semantic structures cannot be achieved by means of evidence-based procedures of analysis, but only by a method of inferential reconstruction based on the abductive logic of interpretation of the relationship among signs (Salvatore & Valsiner, 2010). More specifically, ACASM is based on the view of meaning consisting of sign transition (Valsiner, 2007). In texts, the sign transition takes the form of syntagmatic associations, namely co-occurrences among lexemes within the same contextual units (e.g., a paragraph of the text). At the statistical level, ACASM detects the co-occurrence among lexemes in texts by means of a multidimensional procedure of analysis combining Correspondence Analysis (COR) and Cluster Analysis (CA) (see Sec. 2.5.3. Procedures and operative parameters).

2.5.2 Dataset A set of 69 newspapers was selected in six European countries (Cyprus, Italy, Greece, Malta, Romania, and UK) (Table 2.1). In each country, the selection was carried out so as to include newspapers of different political orientations as well as with both national and local circulation (Table 2.2).1 Both political and geographical coverage 1 According

to the research design each country was expected to select 4 national (2 left-oriented + 2 right oriented) and 15–20 local newspapers. However, due to the uneven availability and

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Table 2.1 Newspapers National newspapers

Local newspapers

Italy

Repubblica, Unità, La Stampa, Libero

Repubblica Bari, Repubblica Bologna, Repubblica Firenze, Repubblica Milano, Repubblica Napoli, Repubblica Roma, Repubblica Palermo, Repubblica Torino, Il Centro, Il Tirreno, Gazzetta di Modena, Il Mattino di Padova, Città di Salerno, Il Trentino, Il Piccolo

Greece

Rizospastis, Kathimerini, To Vima, Ethnos

Eleftheria, Eleftheria Messinias, Macedonia, Patris, Proinos Typos, Proinos Logos, Peloponnisos, Ora tis Fokidas, Neoi Agones, Voria Evia, Patris News

Cyprus

Haravgi, Politis, Fileleftheros, Simerini

Malta

Times of Malta, The Malta Independent, MaltaToday

–

France

Le Figaro, Liberation

–

UK

The Guardian, The London Times, The Independent, Daily Mail

Newcastle Evening Chronicle, Manchester Evening News, Liverpool Echo, The Yorkshire Post, Yorkshire Evening Post, Nottingham Post, Leicester Mercury, Conventry Telegraph, Birmingham Mail, Eastern Daily Press, London Evening Standard, The Argus, The Southern Daily Echo, Bristol Evening Post, South Wales Echo, Edinburgh Evening News, Glasgow Evening Times, The Irish News

Romania

Adev˘arul, România Liber˘a, Gândul, Evenimentul Zilei

–

Table 2.2 Newspapers per country, political orientation, and circulation National circulation

Local circulation

Total

Left-oriented

Right-oriented

Centre-oriented

Cyprus

1

1

2

0

4

Greece

2

2

0

11

15

Italy

2

2

0

15

19

Malta

1

1

1

0

3

Romania

2

2

0

0

4

France

1

1

0

0

2

UK

2

2

0

18

22

Total

9

9

2

47

69

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were intended to ensure a sufficient degree of variation in the representations of the phenomena under investigation, that is, to capture a range of variations that could emerge from different conditions (Patton, 1990). For each of the three topics under investigation (i.e., immigration, Islam, and LGBT) a set of keywords was identified by the joint international research team, so as to search the newspapers’ archives for pertinent and relevant articles. In order to identify keywords endowed with discriminative validity, a series of preliminary analyses of the word frequencies and co-occurrences associated with the three topics was performed. On the basis of these preliminary analyses, the final set of keywords (both single and combined) for each of the three objects was selected. When needed, keywords were adapted to the specificity of the linguistic and cultural national context, as well as to the technical features of the search options available for each newspaper repository.

2.5.2.1

Sampling Procedures

For each topic, articles were selected in accordance to the same sampling scheme (Table 2.3) based on the criterion of the maximum variability and aimed at obtaining a balanced distribution of articles in terms of source (type of newspapers) and time of publication (time block). To this end, the fifteen-year period 2000–2015 was segmented in five two-year blocks (2000–01; 2004–05; 2008–09; 2011–12; 2014– 15). For each time-block, 10 articles for local newspapers, and 37 articles for national newspapers, were randomly selected. In sum, for each country and each topic, the expected sample was designed to comprise 1490 articles: 750 from local newspapers and 740 from national newspapers. In some cases the number of articles available was lower than the one expected according to the sample scheme. In those cases, all the articles retrieved for each time-block were included in the sample. In total, 3638 articles for immigration, 4741 for Islam, and 3406 for LGBT were actually retrieved and used for the analyses (details in Chaps. 3, 4, and 5, respectively).

2.5.3 Procedures and Operative Parameters Twenty-six ACASM procedures of analyses were performed, one for each of the country*topic combination, processing about 18,237 articles over a period of 16 years. The analyses covered six countries (Cyprus, Italy, Greece, Malta, Romania, UK2 ), corresponding to four languages (English, Greek, Italian, Romanian). For comparative purposes, all procedures adopted the same computational criteria. accessibility of newspaper archives in the six countries, the observed distribution shows only partial correspondence with the expected distribution. 2 The analyses on the French dataset, which included only articles on Islam, were run separately.

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Table 2.3 Sample scheme Local newspapers

Time blocks 2000–01

2004–05

2008–09

2011–12

2014–15

Total

1

10

10

10

10

10

50

2

10

10

10

10

10

50

3

10

10

10

10

10

50

4

10

10

10

10

10

50

5

10

10

10

10

10

50

6

10

10

10

10

10

50

7

10

10

10

10

10

50

8

10

10

10

10

10

50

9

10

10

10

10

10

50

10

10

10

10

10

10

50

11

10

10

10

10

10

50

12

10

10

10

10

10

50

13

10

10

10

10

10

50

14

10

10

10

10

10

50

15

10

10

10

10

10

50

Subtotal

150

150

150

150

150

Left-oriented national newspapers

2000–01

2004–05

2008–09

2011–12

2014–15

750 Total

1

37

37

37

37

37

185

2

37

37

37

37

37

185

Right-oriented national newspapers 1 2

2000–01 37

2004–05 37

2008–09 37

2011–12 37

2014–15 37

Total 185

37

37

37

37

37

185

Subtotal

148

148

148

148

148

740

Total

298

298

298

298

298

1490

Each ACASM procedure of analysis was implemented with the support of T-LAB software (www.tlab.it), version 2016 Plus, in accordance to the following operative procedure. Construction of the Digital Corpus The first step is aimed at transforming the corpus (i.e., the set of articles sampled from the universe defined by a certain combination of country*topic) into a matrix of digital data that can be subjected to multidimensional analyses. In a nutshell, this procedure builds a matrix displaying in rows the segments into which the text is divided (i.e., paragraphs), and in columns the lemmas. Each cell contains presence/absence values. Thus, building the digital matrix involves three connected tasks: the segmentation of the corpus, the lemmatization of lexical forms, and the selection of the lemmas to use for the multidimensional analyses. These three

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sub-tasks were performed following the procedure defined by ACASM (Salvatore et al., 2012). Segmentation The first sub-task is the division of the corpus into units of analysis, each of them called elementary context unit (ECU). An ECU consists of a group of a few contiguous utterances. The corpus was segmented adopting the paragraph as parameter of segmentation.3 The paragraph is the longest unit of analysis allowed by the T-LAB automatized algorithm of segmentation. According to this algorithm: (a) each ECU begins with the character just subsequent to the last character of the previous ECU; (b) each ECU ends with the first punctuation mark (“.”, or “!”, or “?”) and the return key; (c) at any rate the ECU’s length must not be more than 2000 characters; therefore, the ECU in any case ends with the last word remaining within this limit, even if no punctuation mark has occurred. Lemmatization The lemmatization processes is aimed at reducing the lexical variability of the corpus, in order to make it suitable for multidimensional analysis, which requires a reduction in the dispersion of the data matrix. Lemmatization was performed according to the following procedure. All lexical forms present in the text were first collected (a lexical form is a string of characters comprised between two empty spaces; thus, in most cases a lexical form corresponds to a word, especially in the case of written text). Then, each of them was categorized according to the lemma it belongs to. A lemma is the citation form (namely the headword) used in the language dictionary to refer to a lexeme (i.e., a set of word forms having the same lexical root and meaning). For example, word forms such as “go”, “goes”, “going’”, and “went”, have “go” as their lemma; “child’” and “children” have “child” as their lemma.4 The output of this procedure is the list of lemmas occurring in the textual corpus.

3 The

segmentation of the text into ECUs has to find a point of equilibrium between two opposed requirements: interpretability and specificity. On the one hand, the segments have to be long enough to be interpretable in terms of thematic content. On the other hand, the longer the segments are, the greater the likelihood that each segment may not be associated with a specific thematic content. 4 The lemmatization of the Italian and English corpora was performed by means of the vocabulary provided by T-LAB. The lemmatization of the Greek and Romanian corpora was performed by means of an ad hoc vocabulary built by the respective national research teams. Building the Greek and Romanian vocabulary required the following procedure, performed separately for the two languages by the respective language teams. (a) The whole set of lexical forms composing the corpora in that language were singled out. This was made by means of the automatized procedure performed by T-LAB whose output is the list of the lexical units and the corresponding occurrences. The Romanian list of lexical forms comprised 35,251 units; the Greek list comprised 162,678. (b) Each lexical form in analysis was categorized according to its lemma, with each syntactic category lemmatized separately. Hence, it was maintained the distinction between verbs, adverbs, adjectives, and nouns even when there was similarity among lemmas (e.g., considering the English “driven”, “drove” and “driving” were lemmatized as “to drive” but “drivers” and “driver” were lemmatized as “driver”).

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Selection of Lemmas The list of lemmas resulting from the previous step was subjected to selection, in order to exclude lemmas that were not useful for the analysis. More specifically, the exclusion concerned: • stop-words, instrumental, empty and indexical words (e.g., “namely”, “indeed”, “and”, “this”), that is, words without specific semantic content (the exclusion of these words was performed by means of the automatic application of T-LAB list of stop-words with a following refining control made by the research team); • auxiliary verbs (i.e. to be, and to have); • the five lemmas with the highest frequency (because the more frequent the lemma, the less it helps to detect specific semiotic patterns). After having implemented these criteria, the 1000 most frequent lemmas were selected for the analyses.5 Multidimensional Analysis The digital matrix resulting from the first step (see Construction of the digital corpus) was subjected to a multidimensional procedure of analysis, aimed at mapping the patterns of co-occurring lexemes that characterize the corpus. The ACASM procedure consists of the combination of Correspondence Analysis (COR) and Cluster Analysis (CA). The empirical data presented in this volume (namely in Chaps. 3, 4, 5 and 6) only refer to COR outputs, but to be thorough we will briefly outline here the full version of the procedure. Correspondence Analysis COR aims at detecting the semantic structures organizing the textual corpus. From a computational standpoint, COR breaks down and reorganizes the relations between lexemes in terms of a multidimensional structure of opposed factorial polarities. Each polarity is characterized by a set of signs that tend to co-occur and simultaneously do not occur in an opposite set (in absentia linkage). Accordingly, this structure can be interpreted as the operationalization of the semantic structure of the social representation of an object, where each factorial dimension constitutes a marker of a semantic component of this structure. In addition, the COR procedure allows for the representation of extra-corpus variables on the factorial dimensions extracted from the data matrix. Such variables are called illustrative, because they do not contribute to the definition of the multidimensional space, but are associated with the factorial dimensions once they are defined. For instance, the relation of the semantic structures underlying the representation of ‘immigration’ with the characteristics of the articles (e.g., the year of publication, or the newspapers in which they have been published) can be assessed. Cluster Analysis CA is designed to extrapolate clusters of lexemes that tend to cooccur within the same segments of texts (i.e., paragraphs). K-means procedure was definition of lists of lemmas composed of the same number of items across analyses (n = 1000) responds to a requirement and a goal. (a) T-LAB is able to implement the procedure of correspondence analysis if the data matrix does not exceed a certain number of columns; (b) the definition of a single number of lemmas makes the structures of data more comparable across analyses. On the other hand, n = 1000 guarantees a large enough extension for the analysis to reduce the risk of a biased selection. 5 The

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used to this end. Thus, each cluster aggregates a set of segments that tend to be similar to each other because they are composed of similar co-occurrence patterns. Accordingly, each cluster of co-occurring lexemes (and of the segments where the cooccurrence happens) can be interpreted as the marker of a specific semantic content, that is, a theme. The rationale is that a set of co-occurring words marks a specific theme. Therefore, units having a certain set of co-occurring words in common share the thematic content marked by such a set. Moreover, clusters can be projected on the semantic structure, namely on the network of in absentia linkages among signs mapped by the Correspondence Analysis, in order to complete their interpretation in terms of their reciprocal position on the semantic structure. The analyses of the social representations of immigration, Islam, and LGBT issues in the press that are presented in the following chapters are based on the following COR outputs. • The first three factorial dimensions extracted by COR, which map the semantic organization of the corpus, thus detecting the latent semantic structures underlying the social representations. • For each factor, the list of lexemes that have the highest association with it (separately for both polarities). The degree of association is measured in terms of V-Test (based on z distribution): the higher it is, the higher the lexeme-factor association, therefore the more relevant the lexeme in the interpretation of the factor.6

2.5.4 Interpretation of the Semantic Structures The aim of the interpretive process is the definition of the core meaning and of the labels describing the three main factorial dimensions produced by each COR performed on each topic for each of the national datasets. To this end, the interpretation of the factorial dimensions is abductively reconstructed in accordance to the opposition between the two factorial polarities. Accordingly, by definition the interpretation is not a matter of composing the information held in each polarity. Rather, it is performed in terms of the information provided by the combination of the in praesentia relationships (i.e., the pattern of co-occurring lemmas associated with one polarity) and I nabsentia relationships (i.e., the oppositional bond with the pattern associated with the opposite polarity). The specificity of the abductive level of analysis lies in the information provided by this combination. To extract the core meaning of a factorial dimension it is not sufficient to interpret the content of the pattern of the co-occurring lemmas (i.e., the set of co-occurring lexemes associated with one polarity). Such a pattern has to be conceived of as the instantiation of a specific network of in absentia relationships among lemmas. 6 The lists of lexemes are included in the online annexes to Chaps. 3, 4, 5, and 6 (respectively Annex

3.1, 4.1, 5.1, and 6.1).

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The interpretation of the factorial dimensions in terms of components of the semantic structure was focused on the lemmas (about 15–20) with the highest level of association with each factorial polarity. The interpretations were developed through a consensual procedure by the research teams who gathered the data in the six countries. They were advanced within each national team first, and successively shared and consolidated between the different national teams.

2.6 Conclusion Since its early conceptualization, the notion of social representations has been expanded by several scholars who have formulated original theoretical stances that have developed the concept far beyond the intention of Serge Moscovici—for instance the structural approach (Abric, 2001), the socio-dynamic approach (Doise et al., 1999), and the dialogical approach (Markovà, 2003). Although this chapter does not aim to make a contribution to the development of the SRT, the theoretical bridge that connects the idea of social representations and the notion of symbolic universes opens up a route to address the role of the media communication in the genesis, circulation and transformation of social representations of “hot social issues and social objects in the making or in rapid change” (Lahlou, 2001, p. 132), both at the conceptual and the empirical level. At the conceptual level, the investigation of the social representations of otherness conveyed by the press sheds light on the cultural rootedness of social knowledge, based on the conception of media communication as an institutionalized system of meanings that is part of the cultural milieu of contemporary societies (Salvatore et al., 2018). Along with this view, media communication can be viewed not only as a component of the cultural framework that contribute to the formation and evolution of the social representations. Furthermore, it can be seen as a part of a “global cultural phenomenon, namely a process concerning people’s worldviews, their systems of values and their identities [that] describe how [individuals] frame their worlds” (Salvatore et al., 2018, p. 2). This is crucial given that, according to the SRT, the dynamic of social identification is strongly interrelated with the process of construction, transmission and evolution of social knowledge. At the empirical level, the investigation of the semantic structures of the representations of otherness conveyed by the media is consistent with the in the making nature of the social representations (Valsiner, 2003). Precisely, the analysis of the semantic structures aligns with the conceptualization of SRs as dynamic structures of contents that are constantly transformed as individuals and groups reconstruct their comprehension of the world and “their place within it” (Duveen, 2007, p. 552). In fact, assuming that representations embody a particular configuration of components drawn from larger repertoires of possible combinations, the study of the semantic structures consents to delving into the thematic and semiotic origin of social representations, according to which representational contents are interrelated like a figure-and-ground relation (Markovà, 2003).

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Moloney, G., Leviston, Z., Lynam, T., Price, J., Stone Jovicich, S., & Blair, D. (2014). Using social representations theory to make sense of climate change: What scientists and nonscientists in Australia think. Ecology and Society, 19(3), 19. Moscovici, S. (1961). La psychoanalyse, son image et son public. Étude sur la representation sociale de la psychoanalyse. Paris, France: Presses Universitaires de France. Moscovici, S. (1984). The phenomenon of social representations. In R. Farr & S. Moscovici (Eds.), Social representations (pp. 3–69). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Moscovici, S. (1988). Notes towards a description of social representations. European Journal of Social Psychology, 18, 211–250. Moscovici, S. (2001). Why a theory of social representations? In K. Deaux & G. Philogene (Eds.), Representations of the social (pp. 8–35). Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers. Moscovici, S. (2011). An essay on social representations and ethnic minorities. Social Science Information, 50(3–4), 442–461. Moscovici, S., & Hewstone, M. (1983). Social representations and social explanations: From the “naïve” to the “amateur” scientist. In M. Hewstone (Ed.), Attribution theory: Social and functional extensions (pp. 98–125). Oxford, UK: Blackwell. Moscovici, S., & Marková, I. (2000). Ideas and their development: A dialogue between Serge Moscovici and Ivana Marková. In S. Moscovici & G. Duveen (Eds.), Social representations (pp. 224–286). London, UK: Polity Press. Nuno-Gutierrez, B. L., Alvarez-Nemegyei, J., & Rodriguez-Cerda, O. (2008). Social representations used by the parents of Mexican adolescent drug users under treatment to explain their children’s drug use: Gender differences in parental narratives. Adolescence, 43(170), 351–371. Palmonari, A., & Emiliani, F. (2009). Paradigmi delle rappresentazioni sociali [Paradigms of social representations] Bologna, Italy: il Mulino. Patton, M. Q. (1990). Qualitative evaluation and research methods. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Potter, J., & Litton, I. (1985). Some problems underlying the theory of social representations. British Journal of Social Psychology, 24(2), 81–90. Rochira, A. (2014). Common sense of experts. Social representations of justice amongst professionals. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 48(3), 239–269. Rochira, A., Fasanelli, R., & Liguori, A. (2015). Same people, different images. The social representations of migrants in a local community. Community Psychology in Global Perspective, 1(2), 96–122. Rouquette, M.-L. (1996). Social representations and mass communication research. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 26(2), 221–231. Sakki, I. (2014). Social representations of European integration as narrated by school textbooks in five European nations. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 43, 35–47. Salvatore, S. (2016). Psychology in black and white. The project of a theory-driven science. Charlotte, NC: InfoAge Publishing. Salvatore, S., Fini, V., Mannarini, T., Veltri, G. A., Avdi, E., Battaglia, F., et al. (2018). Symbolic universes between present and future of Europe. First results of the map of European societies’ cultural milieu. PLoS ONE, 13(1), e0189885. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0200223. Salvatore, S., Gelo, O. G., Gennaro, A., Metrangolo, R., Terrone, G., Pace, V., et al. (2017a). An automated method of content analysis for psychotherapy research: A further validation. Psychotherapy Research, 27(1–2), 38–50. Salvatore, S., Gennaro, A., Auletta, A., Tonti, M., & Nitti, M. (2012). Automated method of content analysis. A device for psychotherapy process research. Psychotherapy Research, 22(3), 256–273. Salvatore, S., Tonti, M., & Gennaro, A. (2017b). How to model sensemaking. A contribution for the development of a methodological framework for the analysis of meaning. In M. Han & C. Cunha (Eds.), The subjectified Charlotte, NC and subjectifying Mind (pp. 245–268). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing. Salvatore, S., & Valsiner, J. (2010). Between the general and the unique: Overcoming the nomothetic versus idiographic opposition. Theory and Psychology, 20(6), 817–833.

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Sammut, G., Andreouli, E., Gaskell, G., & Valsiner, J. (Eds.). (2015). The Cambridge handbook of social representations. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Sammut, G., & Gaskell, G. (2009). Points of view, social positioning and intercultural relations. Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, 40(1), 47–64. Sammut, G., Tsirogianni, S., & Wagoner, B. (2012). Representations from the past: Social relations and the devolution of social representations. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 46(4), 493–511. Uzelgun, M. A., & Castro, P. (2015). Climate change in the mainstream turkish press: Coverage trends and meaning dimensions in the first attention cycle. Mass Communication and Society, 18(6), 730–752. Valsiner, J. (2003). Beyond social representations: A theory of enablement. Papers on Social Representations, 12, 7.1–7.16. Valsiner, J. (2007). Culture in minds and societies. Foundations of cultural psychology. New Delhi, India: Sage. Valsiner, J. (2014). An invitation to cultural psychology. London, UK: Sage Publications. Veltri, G. A. (2012). Viva la nano-revolución! A semantic analysis of the spanish national press. Science Communication, 35(2), 143–167. Voelklein, C., & Howarth, C. (2005). A review of controversies about social representations theory: A British debate. Culture and Psychology, 11(4), 431–454. Wagner, W., Valencia, J., & Elejabarrieta, F. (1996). Relevance, discourse and the “hot” stable core of social representations. A structural analysis of word associations. British Journal of Social Psychology, 35, 331–352. Wagner, W., Duveen, G., Themel, M., & Verma, J. (1999). The modernisation of tradition: Thinking about madness in Patna, India. Culture and Psychology, 5, 413–445. Wagner, W., & Hayes, N. (2005). Everyday discourse and common sense. The theory of social representations. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave. Walmsley, C. J. (2004). Social representations and the study of professional practice. International Journal of Qualitative Method, 3(4), 1–18.

Alessia Rochira is Assistant Researcher in social psychology at the University of Salento-Lecce, Department of History, Society and Human Studies. She hold a Ph.D. in Social and Community Psychology from the University of Salento and a European Ph.D. in Social Representations and Communication from La Sapienza University of Rome. Her research interests cover several topics at the crossroads between social and community psychology, such as interethnic relations, acculturation, sense of community, community resilience, social representations, common sense justice and legal compliance. Sergio Salvatore is Professor of Dynamic Psychology at the Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, “La Sapienza” University of Rome. President of the European Institute of Cultural Analysis for Policy (EICAP). His scientific interests regard the psychodynamic and semiotic theorization of mental phenomena and the methodology of analysis of psychological processes as field dependent dynamics. He also takes an interest in theory and the analysis of psychological intervention in clinical, scholastic, organizational and social fields. On these issues he has designed and managed various scientific projects (e.g., Re.Cri.Re.) and published about 250 works. Giuseppe Alessandro Veltri holds a B.A in Psychology of Communication from the University of Siena, an MSc in Social Research Methods (Statistics) from the Methodology Institute of the London School of Economics (LSE) and a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the LSE. He is Associate Professor of Research Methodology and Cognitive Sociology at the Department of Sociology and Social Research of the University of Trento. He was Senior Lecturer at University of Leicester.

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He has been Lecturer at University of East Anglia and a scientific fellow at the European Commission JRC Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS). Before joining the IPTS, he has been a research associate at the Institut Jean Nicod (Ecole Normale Supérieure) in Paris. He has published in scientific journals such as Nature, PLOS One, Computers in Human Behavior, Public Understanding of Science, Big Data and Society and others. Rozlyn R. Redd holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Columbia University, USA. She is currently research associate at the Imperial College, London. She has been postdoc researcher at University of Leicester during the RECRIRE project. Franco Lancia is a psychologist who has been working in the field of action research for several decades, also by developing new methods and techniques for data analysis. His research interests lie mostly in the fields of text analysis, dynamics of cultural changes and epistemology of social sciences. In recent years he has been focused on developing software tools for automated text analysis and text mining. He has published a book, about thirty papers and a dozen of book chapters.

Chapter 3

Immigration Alessia Rochira, Evrinomy Avdi, Irini Kadianaki, Alina Pop, Rozlyn R. Redd, Gordon Sammut and Ahmet Suerdem

3.1 Immigration Within and Towards Europe: A Long-Standing Variable Phenomenon Although immigration is not a new phenomenon in Europe, its salience has greatly increased in the current political and social debate within European societies. Starting Electronic supplementary material The online version of this chapter (https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36099-3_3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users A. Rochira (B) Università Del Salento, Lecce, Italy e-mail: [email protected] E. Avdi Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece e-mail: [email protected] I. Kadianaki University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus e-mail: [email protected] A. Pop “Dimitrie Cantemir” Christian University, Bucharest, Romania e-mail: [email protected] R. R. Redd University of Leicester, Leicester, UK e-mail: [email protected] G. Sammut University of Malta, Msida, Malta e-mail: [email protected] A. Suerdem Istanbul Bilgi University, Istanbul, Turkey e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 T. Mannarini et al. (eds.), Media and Social Representations of Otherness, Culture in Policy Making: The Symbolic Universes of Social Action, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36099-3_3

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from 1950, immigration within and towards Europe went through a great many changes and significant diversifications over time, but the major variations have occurred in the course of the last twenty years (Bonifazi, Okólski, Schoorl, & Simon, 2008). In particular, between the ’50s and ’70s, intra and extra European labour migration was stimulated by the growing industrial production and it was seen as a positive phenomenon due to its economic advantages (Bonifazi, 2008). Then, starting from the early ’70s, labour migration decreased following political and economic transformations—especially the fall of the Iron Curtain and the oil crisis. At the same time, a different chain migration progressively augmented, with a growing number of people from neighbouring non-European countries—such as Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey and Yugoslavia—coming to Europe to settle permanently with their families (Van Mol & de Valk, 2016). These changes caught European countries unprepared: lacking adequate legislation to respond to the new course of immigration flows, most states were compelled to implement integration policies and, especially after the unification of the European market, reinforce border control systems. Since then, migration has emerged as one of the most important issues in the political agenda of European countries, both at national and transnational level. Despite the fact that in many European states the political debate has focused on more restrictive immigration policies and several governments have reinforced border controls and introduced severe requirements to limit the entrance and settlement of migrants, migration has not decreased but has become increasingly irregular (Castles, de Haas, & Miller, 2014). The situation became more and more complicated due to a chain of political and economic turbulences that took place inside and outside Europe between the ’90s and the 2000s—for instance the Balkan war, the two Iraq wars, the war in Afghanistan and the Arab Spring. In this period, migration underwent substantial transformations in terms of the characteristics of the migrant population, the type of immigrants, migration motives and the size of migration waves (Van Mol & de Valk, 2016). At the same time, the entrance and settlement of migrant groups within Europe have started to produce significant changes in the social, cultural, economic and political structure of European societies. These changes reached a peak when, starting from around 2008, European countries faced the effects of the global financial crisis. In general, on the one hand, the economic collapse gave a new impulse to intra-EU migration, with a growing number of citizens from southern European countries, which were most seriously affected by the ongoing financial decline, moving towards the wealthier northern European states. On the other hand, despite the recession, non-EU people kept arriving in Europe for many reasons, above all for family reunion—which was and still is the main motive for migration—fleeing from one’s country to protect one’s life and seek asylum, as well as seeking work (Castles et al., 2014). More specifically, the degree to which the global financial crisis damaged national economies and the labour market has impacted on the political and social response toward migration, often fueling anti-immigrant sentiment. In fact, in almost all the European nations one of the main effects of the global financial crisis was the deterioration of public opinion towards migrants and the process of integration. In this regard, in countries where migration was already a salient issue before the financial crisis, the economic

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recession made it a focus of political and social concern. Diversely, in those territories where migration was a relatively recent phenomenon, the positive attitudes of the public became negative because of the harsh economic conditions (Koehler, Laczko, Aghazarm, & Schad, 2010). This brief report of the main phases of the evolution of migration within and towards Europe since the late ’50s (Van Mol & de Valk, 2016) does not account for the complexity of the phenomenon, yet it highlights some key issues. First, it suggests that the escalating salience of migration in the political agenda does not rest only on the volume of the flows of non-EU immigrants, but is also related to the various transformations that the phenomenon has undergone over the years—for instance concerning the features of the migrant communities, their ethnicities, their country of origin and their migration motives. Second, it shows that the political responses of the European governments to the challenges raised by the presence of immigrants in their territories are intertwined with the responses to the numerous events that have shaken Europe and deeply modified its political, economic and social complexion, especially in the last twenty years. Third, it signals that migration has also elicited a social, cultural and emotive response on the part of the receiving populations, compelled to confront the growing diversity of their communities. Besides, the increasing concern about migration has gone hand in hand with a variety of socio-political analyses. In some cases, these analyses have accounted for the complexity of the phenomenon (Leolup, 1996) but in others, they have oversimplified or misread immigrant-related topics, thereby “prompting the question: what do we mean by migration?” (Salt, 2008, p.19). With regard to this question, in this chapter we focus on the media discourse on immigration and, in particular, on the way the press has portrayed this phenomenon across different European countries.

3.2 Media Discourse on Immigration There is little doubt among scholars that the media play a significant role in shaping the political and public discourse on migration and immigrants (Caviedes, 2015; Downing & Husband, 2005; Dunaway, Branton, & Abrajano, 2010). Wood and King (2001) identify at least three ways through which the media get involved in the migration process and take part in the individual and public experience of this phenomenon. First, information and images transmitted by the media may encourage potential migrants to leave their native countries and move to foreign territories, regardless of whether these narratives are accurate or not. Second, media material stemmed from the emigration countries may be a vehicle for maintaining cultural identity and helping immigrants to feel ‘at home’ although they are abroad. Third, the way in which the media in the receiving countries portray immigration related-topics may influence the personal and collective response towards immigrants, in particular whether and how immigrants are perceived as ‘others’, are welcomed or, conversely, become targets of exclusion. Further, the media discourses about immigration and

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migrants attract political attention and contribute in highlighting policy problems and in building up the political agenda (Boswell, 2012).

3.2.1 Variations in Narratives and Frames Researchers around the globe have long been interested in the linkages between the media and migration. More specifically, whereas relatively little attention has been paid to the analysis of how the media influence the process of emigration (Wood & King, 2001), a copious literature across diverse fields of inquiry has examined how media representations, and in particular those conveyed by the press, have shaped the political and social debate on this phenomenon (Chouliaraki, Georgiou, & Zaborowski, 2017). Parallel to this, the press coverage of immigrants and the various immigration-related topics have been extensively analysed in numerous European countries (Amore, 2007; Gropas & Triandafyllidou, 2007; Kadianaki, Avraamidou, Ioannou, & Panagiotou, 2018; Wood & King, 2001; Milioni, Spyridou, & Vadratsikas, 2015; Montali, Riva, Frigerio, & Mele, 2013; Rotaru, 2016; Silveira, 2016). These studies have emphasized that the cross-national differences prevail over the similarities, and that the representations of immigration and immigrants fluctuate over time. Given the substantial amount of research that has explored the press coverage of the topic in many European nations, some scholars question whether a common trend and a predominant narrative for immigration exist in Europe, or whether the representations of this topic undergo variations across the different countries. For instance, Buonfino (2013) argues that, while there is a variety of discourses about immigration in Europe, the securitization narrative is prevailing over the others and receives the greatest attention from both politics and the media. In particular, Buonfino describes the mechanism through which the media draw on and heighten people’s most significant worries, such as those pertaining to economic and security issues. According to her reasoning, the security frame becomes hegemonic to the extent to which it matches “the psychological make-up of the person and social structure of the groups with which he or she identifies” (p. 31). Accordingly, the securitization of immigration captures the demand of the receiving societies for a strong identity better than the economization view, with the result that the reassertion of “we-identity” engenders the exclusion of “they-Otherness”. In contrast, other analysts contend that there is not one mode of depicting immigration and immigrants in the European press. Although the focus on economic concerns has progressively received less attention (Benson, 2004; Sciortino & Colombo, 2004), and the securitization narrative has become increasingly prominent, economics continues to be an important subject (Caviedes, 2015). Indeed, a comparative quantitative analysis of the press coverage in the UK, France and Italy, unveiled that leading narratives about migration are short-lived and their salience fluctuates over time. Caviedes (2015) concluded that press representations revolve equally around the economic theme—encapsulating matters such as the labour market, employment competition and fiscal costs—and

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the security theme, which specifically relates to health, crime and physical threats. Similar conclusions were reached by Berry and colleagues (2015) in their study of the representation of immigration and asylum conveyed by the press in five European countries (UK, Italy, Germany, Sweden, and Spain). Emphasizing a significant diversity in the way the two core topics were framed by the national press, the authors also pointed out a significant variability in the representations of immigration and asylum within each national context, with the Spanish, Swedish and Italian press portraying a more homogeneous view than that found in Germany and UK in terms of the language used, the news covered and the explanations afforded. Indeed, the local context has a remarkable influence in the way the phenomenon of immigration is shaped in each European country. The variety in the press coverage of migration has to do not only with the multiplicity of narratives at country level, but also with time variations and peaks. Interestingly, a study conducted by the European Journalism Observatory revealed that the representational frame of migration built up by the press is highly influenced by ‘key events’ but that the salience of a particular content is extremely short-lived (Chouliaraki et al., 2017). Indeed, the press representations of migration and immigrantrelated issues can be regarded as “contextual factors” and “macro-level dynamics” that greatly influence either anti- or pro- immigrant attitudes to the extent to which they create “external shocks” by publicizing particular stories and promoting certain ideas and explanations in definite temporal spans (Boomgaarden & Vliegenthart, 2009).

3.2.2 The Representations of Immigration and Immigrants in the European National Press Taking into consideration that the media stress “certain aspects of reality and push others into the background” (Milioni et al., 2015, p. 157), the press generally diffuse a problematic view of migration, conveying stereotyped and negative representations of immigrants (Triandafyllidou, 2013). Indeed, the representational frame brought to the foreground by the press has created an image of immigrants as an undesired and undifferentiated category in which individuals lose their biographic specificity and are frequently depicted as “inferior others” compared to the dominant insider group (Sniderman, Peri, de Figuerido, & Piazza, 2000). In the same vein, the propensity of the press to lump migrants together into a homogeneous type without taking into account the particular immigration motives echoes a representational tendency to massification that overemphasizes statistics and numbers, fuels harsh attitudes towards immigrants and fosters public distrust about the ‘real’ motives of asylum seekers and refugees. For instance, in the UK, researchers have emphasized that the press has created a de-humanized view of immigrants mainly centred on their growing presence and

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illegal status. These negative repertoires also depict them as exploiting the internal resources in terms of housing, healthcare and education (Wood & King, 2001; Silveira, 2016). Similarly, immigrants have been portrayed negatively in the Italian press (Triandafyllidou, 1999, 2013) by the use of anti-migrant discourses that more or less overtly legitimated a clear-cut differentiation between those who are permitted to belong and those who are not, ultimately endorsing a racist frame for regulating inter-group relations (Montali et al., 2013). Researchers showed that the press narratives portray immigrants as a threat: their presence erodes the cultural solidity of the country, puts economic development at risk by exacerbating job competition with the native-born, and disrupts the social order (immigrants are likely to engage in crime and illegal behaviours). Remarkably, Triandafyllidou (1999) emphasised that the “Us-and-They dynamics” evoked by the Italian press discourses, showing that territory and culture are used “in an exclusionary manner, suggesting that immigrants must remain outside the national community because they pose a threat to the cultural authenticity of the nation” (p. 82). Similar conclusions were reached by Rotaru (2016), who analysed the social representations of Romanian immigrants in the German press: an overall negative image emerged, frequently overlapping with Roma ethnicity, making Romanians the target of exclusion and even xenophobia. A similar picture emerged from the analysis of the press discourses about immigrants circulating in Greek Cypriot society (Avraamidou, Kadianaki, Ioannou, & Panagiotou, 2017; Kadianaki et al., 2018; Milioni et al., 2015), where migration is represented as a problem for the country and demands for more restrictive and punitive policies are supported by alarmist media coverage. Not unlike the Italian context, the press discourses frame immigrants as posing financial (i.e. draining the economy), ethno-cultural (i.e. threat to ethnic composition) and security (i.e. crime, terrorism) threats to the nation (Kadianaki et al., 2018), asserting the necessity for strong defences against them (Trimikliniotis & Demetriou, 2006). Positive representations of immigration focused either on the human drama or on profitable aspects, accordingly supporting either a victimising or a utilitarian perception of immigrants (Kadianaki et al., 2018). Milioni and colleagues (2015) pointed out two important aspects about the media coverage of migration in Cyprus that resonate with the conclusions reached by Caviedes (2015). More specifically, the economic issue predominates in the public discourse about immigrants, who are portrayed as people who deplete the national resources, and the economization of migration is interpreted as a side effect of the breakdown brought about by the financial crisis. Moreover, as in other European countries (Cecchi, 2011), the media portray immigrants as criminals and establish associations between particular types of crime and certain nationalities, thereby establishing a criminalization frame. In looking at the media narratives conveyed by the Greek press, Tryandafillidou and Veikou (2002) reported that the prevailing viewpoint of immigration gives voice to a nationalistic and xenophobic stance, whereas only a dissenting minority recognizes the benefits of cultural diversity and expresses a fairly well-disposed approach towards immigrants. In general, the ‘otherness’ rhetoric is frequently adopted by the Greek press where migration is perceived as a menace to national and cultural purity and immigrants are depicted as “external enemies” (Gropas & Triandafyllidou, 2007).

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As in other southern European states, such as Italy, Greece and Cyprus, unlawfulness is a core theme in the press representation of immigration. The national Maltese press has devoted increasing attention to the numerous immigrants who set out from the nearby north-African coast to enter its territory, often illegally (Amore, 2007). In Malta, immigration issues fuel public debate over national identity. In particular, the geographical and historical location of the island at the crossroads between Africa and Europe has been framed by the media “as a source of challenges in terms of identity, border permeability and border security” (p. 245). Accordingly, the public debate gives voice to hostile attitudes of the Maltese population towards the immigrant communities, above all north-African, so as to reinforce the sense of belonging to the European Union. Overall, immigrants have been cast by the press in the role of threats to the national and cultural identity, economic prosperity, job ambitions and physical and health security of the native-born population. However, researchers have also clarified that, along with a derogatory representation, the press also conveys a more sympathetic view that takes into account humanitarian concerns about the conditions that immigrants experience both in their countries of origin and in the receiving societies. Nonetheless, the emerging representational frame is depicted in contradictory terms. In this regard, Chouliaraki, Georgiou and Zaborowski (2017) have emphasized the existence of an ambivalent narrative about immigrants, who are described, on the one hand, as the victims of a worldwide struggle who deserve sympathy and, on the other hand, as “evil-doing terrorists” who threaten the cultural, political, social and economic solidity of the host countries. Along with such a symbolic clash, immigrants are represented either as being vulnerable without control over their lives or as agentic individuals who are fully in charge of their choices and even of the external circumstances. Indeed, even when no malevolent intent is attributed to immigrants, the humanitarian discourse delivers such a variety of conflicting contents, that the readership is hardly encouraged to develop a sense of solidarity or to empathize with the suffering of others (Berry, Garcia-Blanco, & Moore, 2015).

3.3 The Present Study Consistently with such evidence, this chapter presents a synchronic and diachronic analysis of the social representations of immigration conveyed by the national press of six European countries, namely Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta, Romania and the UK. In particular, the study was aimed at (a) identifying and illustrating the semantic structures that organize the contents of the social representations of immigration; (b) detecting cross-country similarities and differences in the representations, as well as fluctuations over time; (c) ascertaining the extent to which the social representations of immigration contribute to the social construction of otherness, either distancing or connecting immigrant and host communities.

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3.4 Method The present study is built on a theoretical framework that links Semiotic Cultural Psychological Theory (Salvatore, 2016; Valsiner, 2007, 2014) with Social Representations Theory (Moscovici, 1988, 2011) (for a detailed account of the theoretical framework behind this study, see Chap. 2 in this volume). More specifically, the current investigation draws upon a key assumption. Social representations can be regarded as “specific instantiations of larger … repertoires” of semantic components (Veltri, 2012, p. 5). These repertoires—defined as semantic structures (Salvatore & Freda, 2011)—are latent semantic dimensions that shape and organize the representational content into meaningful configurations. Indeed, the semantic structures that ground the particular content of a social representation give it the form of an antinomy, according to which each component is not understandable as such but as one of the poles of a dichotomy. Complementarily, semantic structures take the form of a dichotomy: the poles are characterized by two oppositional meanings connected in a dialectic relationship according to which, in a given context and at a point in time, one pole is made salient whereas the other is neutralized (Salvatore, 2016). Based on these theoretical grounds, an automated procedure for textual analysis has been developed, the Automated Co-occurrence Analysis for Semantic Mapping (ACASM) (Salvatore, Gennaro, Auletta, Tonti, & Nitti, 2012), which enables the extraction of the semantic components which characterize the content of a social representation and the detection of the semantic structures which organize it.

3.4.1 Sample, Keywords and Temporal Blocks A total number of 3638 articles published between 2000 and 2015 and accessible in electronic format were selected from a pool of 64 newspapers printed in the six countries involved in the study. Articles were selected randomly following the criterion of maximum variability (Salvatore, 2016). The articles retrieved were sampled by segmenting the entire time period into five biennial temporal blocks, i.e., 2000–01, 2004–2005, 2008–2009, 2011–12, and 2014–15.1 Table 3.1 shows the distribution of the articles per temporal block per country. The articles were retrieved from the online archives of the selected newspapers using a list of keywords defined by six national research teams involved in the transnational study. More specifically, the keywords were chosen according to their thematic salience, and preliminary analyses were performed to check their effectiveness in retrieving relevant articles. Based on the results of the preliminary analyses, the national research teams agreed upon the final list of keywords and their combinations, as follows: Migra! AND Immigra!, Migra! AND Refug!, Migra! AND Asylum, 1 In

Cyprus, newspaper articles in electronic format were not accessible prior to 2011, in Romania, prior to 2008. Therefore, data were collected, respectively, starting from 2011 and 2008.

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Tab 3.1 Number of articles per temporal block per country Temporal Block

Country

Total

Cyprus

Greece

Italy

Malta

Romania

UK

2000–2001

0

111

114

10

0

250

2004–2005

0

122

164

10

0

268

564

2008–2009

0

162

205

10

30

232

639

2011–2012

149

200

283

18

34

259

943

2014–2015

152

238

276

26

37

278

1007

Total (2000–2015)

301

833

1042

74

101

1287

3638

485

Immigra! AND Refug!, Immigra! AND Asylum, Refug! AND Asylum. Finally, the list, originally framed in English, was translated into Greek, Italian and Romanian.

3.4.2 Data Analysis Each national research team merged the national newspaper articles in a single dataset (i.e., the textual corpus), which underwent ACASM procedure, combining correspondence analysis—aimed at detecting semantic structures—and cluster analysis—aimed at identifying the semantic components that characterize the content of the social representations (see Chap. 2 in this volume).2 Correspondence analysis divides and brings together the lexemes that tend to co-occur in the form of a bipolar structure (i.e., factor) so that every pole is characterized by a set of semantic components that are grouped together because they are highly similar to each other and differ greatly from the set of semantic components which characterizes the opposite pole (and vice versa). Accordingly, the factors emerging from the correspondence analysis can be interpreted as the semantic structures that shape the semantic content of the social representations, therefore outlining the dominant meanings associated to the topic of immigration. Before running the analysis, each national textual corpus was automatically lemmatized by the software using built-in dictionaries for English and Italian and ad hoc dictionaries for Greek and Romanian. Specifically, through the lemmatization process, multi-words were merged together, empty words were eliminated, homographs were disambiguated, adjectives, verbs and nouns were reduced to their common lexical roots, and finally the list of the most frequent lexemes—i.e., lexical units (LU)— was created. Once the lemmatization procedure was done, the textual corpora were automatically divided into meaningful textual fragments, identified as paragraphs, which were taken as elementary context units (ECUs) for further analyses.

2 The

empirical data presented in this chapter only refers to correspondence analysis outputs.

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Then, six different ACASM procedures were performed separately for the national textual corpora for the five temporal blocks. Specifically, from a computational standpoint, each textual corpus was converted into a matrix with elementary context units as rows and lexical units as columns so that each cell indicated the presence/absence of a specific LU in a definite ECU. Finally, the findings were first interpreted by each national research team following a mother-tongue criterion and, second, the interpretations were discussed collectively and validated by consensus.

3.5 Results In this section we will describe the results of the synchronic and diachronic analysis of the social representations of immigration conveyed by the press in each country.3 First, we will illustrate the semantic structures that organize the semantic components of the social representations of immigration, thereby shedding light on the semantic configurations emerging and emphasizing potential similarities and differences between nations. Second, we will report the results of the diachronic analysis focusing on the temporal fluctuations of the semantic structures, again highlighting cross-country analogies and divergences.4

3.5.1 Synchronic Analysis: The Semantic Structures Underlying the Social Representations of Immigration Below, the results of the Correspondence Analysis are presented for, respectively, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta, Romania and the UK. In particular, for each national context, we will present the most prominent semantic structures, namely the first three factors5 that are mainly responsible for the organization of the semantic components of the social representations of immigration into meaningful content configurations. Indeed, the labels assigned to each factor polarity are reported in bold and italics and the semantic components that characterize each pole are marked in italics and put in brackets. Ultimately, we will describe the main cross-national similarities and differences.

3 Both for synchronic and diachronic analysis the lists of lexemes are included in online Annex 3.1. 4 The diachronic analysis was not performed on the Greek Cypriot, Maltese, and Romanians datasets,

either because articles covered only few time blocks (Cyprus, Romania), or because the number of articles per each time block was too low (Malta) (Table 3.1). 5 Lexemes loading on factor 2 for Greece and Malta, and factor 1 for the UK, did not gather together around one main theme. Therefore, these factors could not be labeled and have been omitted in the current presentation of the findings.

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Cyprus

Factor 1: Personal stories versus Policy On the one hand, immigration is referred to as dreadful events related to single refugees or groups escaping from their countries (human, sea, child, war, ship, life, refugee, woman, tragedy). On the other hand, immigration is put in the context of the national and European policy aimed at regulating immigrants and asylum-seekers (accession, ministry, European, presidency, member, committee, asylum). Factor 2: Humanity versus Administration On the one hand, immigration is addressed at the European level as a shared humanitarian problem (Europe, common, solidarity, human, treatment, war). On the other hand, immigration is viewed as an issue that can be dealt with according to a procedural and administrative approach (application-applicant, number, service, evidence, public, total, permit). Factor 3: Crime versus Economic system The press discourse on immigrants is polarized either on the illegal entry of immigrants to Cyprus (transport, port, ship, boat, transfer), along with the related police operations (court, police, detect, document, authority, detention), or on the impact of immigrants on the national economic system, especially on the labour market (unemployment, increase, number, population, unemployed, occupation, increase, percentage, economy, trade, industry, census).

3.5.1.2

Greece

Factor 1: Personal stories versus Policy On the one hand, immigration is portrayed in terms of the particular events related to individuals or groups of immigrants trying to enter Greece (child, boat, life, detect, port, young, dead). On the other hand, immigration is signified as national and European policy aimed at regulating immigrants and asylum-seekers (EU, asylum, state, minister, government, protection, ministry) Factor 3: Administration versus Humanity On one pole, immigration is framed as an administrative issue, in terms of procedures required to settle in Greece (issue, grant, residence permit, requirement, organization). On the opposite pole, immigration assumes social welfare connotations (job, work) and elicits humanitarian concerns (alone, human, afraid, feel, live).

3.5.1.3

Italy

Factor 1: Integration versus Emergency This factor juxtaposes the integration of immigrants in the host society—in a variety of domains, mainly education and the labour market (integration, citizenship, job, schools, worker, population, cultural, social) to the emergency situation created by immigrants and refugees who try to reach Italy by boat experiencing suffering and even death (ship, rescue, guard, sea, harbour, Lampedusa, navy, first aid, military, die, Libya, operation).

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Factor 2: Policy versus Personal stories National/international immigration measures implemented by governments and the EU (government, EE, opposition, parliament, forced repatriation, expulsion, rights, international, UN, law, illegal immigrant) are opposed to the everyday life of immigrants settled in Italy (child, woman, kid, family, school, narrate, live, city, home, born, story). Factor 3: Humanity versus Administration On the one hand, immigrants are depicted as groups with a history, identity, values, culture (identity, human, values, history, cultural) facing the tragedy of escaping a frightful situation (die-death, tragedy, sea, shipwreck). On the opposite hand, immigrants and asylum seekers are categorized as a practical and administrative issue that the receiving states are compelled to deal with in terms of organizing reception facilities (services, centres, facilities, place, reception) and identifying administrative responsibilities and jurisdiction (prefecture, region, province, civil protection, municipality).

3.5.1.4

Malta

Factor 1: Religion versus Crime The newspapers’ discourse on immigrants is polarized either on religion, mainly Islam related to Christianity (Muslim, faith, Arabia, Christian, spiritual, priest) or criminal activities (charge, magistrate, drug, passport, crime, police, arrest, officer). Factor 3: Personal stories versus Policy On the one pole, there seems to be reference to the immigrants’ personal stories (pregnant, female, body, male, disease, woman) whereas, on the opposite pole, political resolutions and immigration policy are highlighted (EU, government, minister, citizenship, vote, favour, approve, application).

3.5.1.5

Romania

Factor 1: Personal stories versus Policy On the one hand, stories of migrants (mostly coming from the Middle East) settled in Romania and of Romanians moving abroad are presented (enterprise, family, work, life, home, tell, parent, child, mother). On the other hand, the most remarkable semantic references outline the recent migration crisis and its management in Europe (border, European, Merkel, Hungary, refugee, commission, Schengen, crisis). Factor 2: Local issue versus global issue One pole is characterized by lexemes that refer to the impact of immigration in terms of security (crime), electorates’ orientations (vote, population) and conflict among EU States (frontiers, Serbia, Great Britain, Hungary); on the other pole, the semantic components shed light on the link between immigration and terrorism (Bin Laden) in the context of a broader set of lexemes referring to the international political and economic dynamics (Merkel, Dulaimi, Iraqi, Germany, enterprise, business). Factor 3: Emergency versus Integration On the one hand, immigration is seen as a risk, an extraordinary and threatening situation mostly associated to terrorism

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(Osama Bin Laden, Dulaimi) whereas, on the other hand, emigration of Romanians towards other European countries—above all to nearby Germany, is portrayed as an ordinary and socially accepted phenomenon (Merkel, Germany, work, population, vote, study)

3.5.1.6

United Kingdom

Factor 2: Personal stories versus Policy This factor contrasts the description of personal experiences of immigrants (child, family, father, mother, girl, parent, boy, woman, die, baby, sister, life) to immigration policy and its relevance for the UK’s internal politics (minister, Labour, policy, EU, party, office, asylum, issue, border, control). Factor 3: Politics versus Crime One pole addresses immigration as a political issue and a theme that fuels the political debate (conservative, voter, UKIP, democrat, Farage) while the other pole is more focused on illegality and police operations of rescue and detention of immigrants (court, judge, deportation detain, police, illegal, jail).

3.5.1.7

Cross-Country Similarities and Differences

An overview of the semantic structures across countries is shown in Table 3.2. The Personal stories versus Policy semantic structure recurred in all six national contexts and featured particularly in Cyprus, Greece and Romania. Further, the Humanity versus Administration semantic structure was present in three out of the six countries, namely Cyprus, Greece and Italy, and the Integration versus Emergency Table 3.2 Immigration—Factor 1, 2, and 3 per country Factor

Country Cyprus

Greece

Italy

Malta

Romania

UK

F1

Personal stories versus Policy*

Personal stories versus Policy*

Integration versus Emergency§

Religion versus Crime

Personal stories versus Policy*

–

F2

Humanity versus Administration°

–

Policy versus Personal stories*

–

Local issue versus Global issue

Personal stories versus Policy*

F3

Crime versus Economic system

AdministrationHumanity versus versus Humanity° Administration°

Personal stories versus Policy*

Emergency versus Integration§

Politics versus Crime

Factors whose interpretations are similar across countries are marked with the same symbol

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semantic structure appeared in two of them, Italy and Romania. Diversely, the Crime versus Economic system, Religion versus Crime and Politics versus Crime semantic structures were context-specific and distinguished, respectively, Cyprus, Malta and the UK. In particular, the table shows that crime gained attention in three national presses but linked to different themes. Finally, Local issue versus Global issue was specific only to Romania.

3.5.2 Diachronic Analysis: The Evolution of the Semantic Structures The results of the multidimensional analysis performed on the sub-corpora of textual articles sampled in the five distinct temporal spans for, respectively, Greece, Italy and the UK, are detailed below. In particular, Table 3.3 displays the two factorial dimensions that organize the semantic content of the social representations of immigration in the Greek press. The overall trend emerging was multi-faceted and signaled that, as the time passed, the press coverage of immigration shifted from the focus on the policies to the emphasis on immigrants’ living conditions and personal life-stories. However, no continuous development was detected but, instead, various representational contents popped up at intervals, for instance crime, integration, welfare and security. A different picture emerged from the diachronic analysis of the Italian press (Table 3.4). Unlike Greece, a more homogeneous view surfaced, with no remarkable transformations over time. In fact, the integration-emergency dichotomy and the attention devoted to the political regulation of immigration were quite long-lived and characterized almost all time blocks. Interestingly, the semantic anchorage that counterbalanced the need for a political regulation of immigration varied over time. To be precise, initially it revolved around the personal biographies of immigrants (i.e., 2000–01), then, for a long time frame (i.e., 2004–05, 2008–09, 2011–12), concerned Table 3.3 Semantic structures underlying the representations of immigration in Greece over time

Factorial dimension 1

Factorial dimension 2

2000–01

Policy versus Personal stories*

Crime versus Politics°

2004–05

Welfare versus Security

–

2008–09

Policy versus Personal stories*

Integration versus Emergency+

2011–12

Crime versus Politics°

Integration versus Emergency+

2014–15

Global versus Local issue

Policy versus Personal stories*

Factorial dimensions whose interpretation is similar are marked with the same sign

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Table 3.4 Semantic structures underlying the representations of immigration in Italy over time Factorial dimension 1

Factorial dimension 2

2000–01

Personal stories versus Political regulation°

Integration versus Emergency*

2004–05

Integration versus Emergency*

Political regulation versus Rescue°°

2008–09

Integration versus Emergency*

Political regulation versus Rescue°°

2011–12

Integration versus Emergency*

Political regulation versus Rescue°°

2014–15

Integration versus Emergency*

Political regulation versus Local reaction°°°

Factorial dimensions whose interpretation is similar are marked with the same sign

the need to save and protect people who tried to cross the Mediterranean sea in search for better living conditions and ultimately turned to the emergence of anti-immigrant attitudes amongst the members of the host communities at local level. Unlike Italy and similarly to Greece, the immigrants’ biographies were an enduring theme in the representations of immigration in the UK press, as outlined in Table 3.5. In fact, a feature emerged stably over time: the image of immigration as a category that governments are compelled to rule at the political level was offset by the biographic specificity of each and every immigrant. Securitization also appears as a narrative that characterizes the evolution of the representations of immigration: the theme of safety and border defense was present over time. However, this frame was characterized in ambivalent terms, as immigrants were seen both as recipients of protection and as the source of both global and domestic threats. Table 3.5 Semantic structures underlying the representations of immigration in the UK over time Factorial dimension 1

Factorial dimension 2

2000–01

Rescue versus Safety°

Stories versus Policy*

2004–05

Stories versus Policy*

Political issue versus Management of refugees°°

2008–09

Policy versus Stories*

–

2011–12

Policy versus Stories*

Boundary defence versus Engagement°°°

2014–15

Management of refugees versus Global political issue°°

Stories versus Policy*

Factorial dimensions whose interpretation is similar are marked with the same sign

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3.6 Discussion Based on previous studies on the media coverage of immigration in Europe, we have presented a synchronic and diachronic investigation of the semantic structures underlying social representations of this topic in the press in six European countries. The findings suggested that there were several frames, not just one, characterizing the press coverage of immigration and immigrants in the European territories involved in the investigation. Overall, these frames predominantly represented immigration as: (a) a personal and human experience and (b) a policy and administrative problem touching upon economic, crime, security and welfare issues. Furthermore, the results showed that there was a remarkable degree of similarity among the narratives circulating in the different national contexts (Buonfino, 2013). On the one hand, there was a shared representational pattern, mainly centred on the ambivalent image of immigration as both a humanitarian and policy matter (Chouliaraki et al., 2017). On the other hand, the frequency with which the shared representational contents were covered varied across the diverse European contexts. Certain perspectives were typical of some territories but atypical of others, ultimately demonstrating that context has an impact on the way immigration and immigrantrelated topics are portrayed (Berry et al., 2015). Moreover, the outcomes of the diachronic analysis indicated that these narratives were not unchanging (Benson, 2004; Sciortino & Colombo, 2004). Rather, the temporal evolution of the semantic structures testified that the salience of specific meaningful configurations increased and decreased over time, although such an oscillation was more pronounced in certain contexts (i.e., Greece and the UK) than in others (i.e., Italy). Indeed, the ebb and flow of the themes covered by the Greek press over time were in line with a more general trend, according to which the salience of specific contents is particularly short-lived and highly dependent on key events and happenings (Chouliaraki et al., 2017). Furthermore, the results of the diachronic analysis of the semantic structures complemented the conclusions reached by Berry and colleagues (2015), who emphasized that the Italian press portrayed a homogeneous view of immigration whereas the press in the UK transmitted a more diversified vision. Political regulation is a core idea around which the Italian press representation of immigration has been organized over time. In addition, with the passing of time, the vision of immigration as an emergency has somehow crystallized in the press discourse (Vieira, 2016), so that a question arises whether political interventions have been aimed at facing “urgency factors” or rather at implementing a coherent migration policy. This conclusion opens up further questions: as the emergency theme persisted over time, it is doubtful that policies have been able to guarantee the conditions for promoting effective integration strategies (Campani, 2007). In a sense, the emerging representational frame that is common to the six European countries expanded the trend observed in the media according to which immigrants are portrayed as an undifferentiated category in which individuals lose their biographic specificity (Sniderman et al., 2000). In fact, the salience of the Personal stories versus Policy semantic structure features a double narrative: on the one hand,

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the life and events of immigrants who reached the borders of Europe, often facing great risk to escape desperate situations in their home countries; on the other hand, the policy issue of the “immigration problem” for national governments. Such a significant dichotomy echoed the contrast, already emphasized in the literature (Berry, Garcia-Blanco & Moore, 2015), between a sympathetic view that conveys humanitarian concerns and the national and international management of immigration that dehumanizes immigrants or, at least, depersonalizes them. With regard to the first finding, this may be largely due to the press coverage of the refugee crisis, which inevitably made news, so we might expect it to fade if the crisis diminishes. In fact, this is particularly relevant in the countries bordering the Mediterranean sea—Cyprus, Greece, and Italy—where the press discourses revolved around both humanitarian and administrative aspects. Whereas the focus on administration helps to shape a vision of immigrants as an undifferentiated category where numbers, statistics and procedures prevail over biographical accounts (Cederberg, 2014), the emphasis on humanitarian themes, centred on personal stories of trouble and pain, acknowledges the agency of immigrants. However, as Berry and colleagues pointed out, “humanitarian discourses may not always encourage a sense of proximity so that audiences necessarily empathise with the suffering of others” (Berry et al., 2015, p. 14). Although the findings of the synchronic analysis signalled a significant degree of similarity among the European countries involved in the study, divergent themes reflected the socio-cultural specificity of the contexts. Interestingly, the representational frame outlined by the Romanian press offered a twofold image of immigrants. On the one hand, international migration is problematized as draining internal resources, deteriorating the diplomatic relations among European governments and fuelling crime. On the other hand, migration is an ordinary phenomenon when it involves Romanians who move towards other European countries, which may suggest that certain forms of immigration are acceptable but others are not. Crime has received coverage by the Greek Cypriot, Maltese and UK press. This theme has been overrepresented in the media discourse for a long time now (Wood & King, 2001), so the prominence of this frame in the Cypriot, Maltese and UK press was not surprising. However, the thematic anchorage of this theme varied across the countries. In fact, in the Greek Cypriot press references to crime were mostly related to economic misdemeanours (labour market and taxes), in line with previous studies that pointed out that immigrants were portrayed as people who diminish the domestic resources (Milioni et al., 2015). For instance, Kadianaki and colleagues (2018) found that in the press discourse immigrants are often represented as draining the state financial resources because of taking state welfare benefits. In contrast, the Maltese press discourse opposed crime to religion, with the former recalling the issue of the illegal entry of immigrants in the national territory and the latter shedding light on group juxtapositions (i.e., Muslim vs. Catholic) and “Us-and-Them dynamics” (Triandafyllidou, 1999, 2013). Finally, in the UK, crime was in opposition to politics, and was explicitly related to urban security and illegal behaviours, ultimately strengthening the negative stereotypes of criminal immigrants (Silveira, 2016).

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To conclude, the investigation of the semantic structures underlying the social representations of immigration across Europe allowed not only to identify the most important features of the public discourse, but also to see their interrelationship. In this way, it was possible to shed light on the ambivalent image of immigrants and immigration and its multiple facets.

3.7 Conclusion The press creates a field of representations within which people are guided to “think, feel and act towards” immigrants (Chouliaraki et al., 2017, p. 10). In this regard, some authors have also pointed out that resident members of society often do not have the opportunity to come into direct contact with migrants and they construct knowledge about them through the media (KhosraviNik, Krzyzanowski, & Wodak, 2012). Moreover, scholars have extensively proven that the exposure to information is useful in explaining anti-immigrant attitudes (Boomgaarden & Vliegenthart, 2009; Triandafyllidou, 2013, 1999). Overall, communities are compelled to face the “Others within” (Triandafyllidou, 2000), and this necessity enforces a constant “re-definition of the We that must be distinguished from a They that is geographically close” (p. 375). Our research sheds light on two opposed but intertwined mechanisms. As we remarked in commenting on the semantic structures underlying press representations, the focus on humanity and personal histories of immigrants brought empathy and compassion to the fore and left in the background differences—be they cultural, ethnic, religious or racial—that play a role in shaping the image of immigrants as “others”. However, categorizing immigrants at the species level—that is, as human beings—does not per se ensure a reduction of the ingroup-outgroup gap. All the more so since the rights and needs of all human beings are conceptualized as opposed to the threat frame, which depicts immigration as a danger for the population’s well-being and safety. Significantly, the analysis of the semantic structures, which is based on the bivalent nature of meaning (Salvatore, 2016), reveals that these two mechanisms are mutually interlaced, thereby shedding new light on the ingroup-outgroup dynamics underlying inter-ethnic relations in a given context and time frame.

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Alessia Rochira is Assistant Researcher in social psychology at the University of Salento-Lecce, Department of History, Society and Human Studies. She holds a Ph.D. in Community Psychology from the University of Salento and a European Ph.D. in Social Representations and Communication from La Sapienza University of Rome. Her research interests cover several topics at the

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crossroads between social and community psychology, such as interethnic relations, acculturation, sense of community, community resilience, social representations, common sense justice and legal compliance. Evrinomy Avdi is associate professor in clinical psychology at the School of Psychology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. She is a clinical psychologist, psychodynamic psychotherapist and dramatherapist. Her research interests lie in applying discursive and narrative research to the study of the process of psychotherapy, as well as the experience of serious illness. She is particularly interested in exploring the links between deconstructive research and actual clinical practice. Irini Kadianaki is an Assistant Professor of Social Psychology at the Department of Psychology, University of Cyprus. She has received a BA in Psychology from the University of Athens and an M.Phil. and a Ph.D. in Social and Developmental Psychology from the University of Cambridge, UK. Her research focuses on the interconnection between representations and identities concerning social groups that are frequent targets of stigmatization, such as migrants, LGBT people and people diagnosed with mental illness. She is part of the editorial board of the journal “Culture and Psychology”. Alina Pop is Senior Lecturer of Communication Psychology at the “Dimitrie Cantemir” Christian University of Bucharest, Romania. She holds a Ph.D. in Social representations and Communication from the University of Rome “La Sapienza”. Her research interest focuses on the construction and communication of social representations in conflict situations and the role of social representations in coping with social conflicts. She authored a book and several scientific articles. Rozlyn R. Redd holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Columbia University, USA. She is currently research associate at the Imperial College, London. She has been postdoc researcher at University of Leicester during the RECRIRE project. Gordon Sammut is senior lecturer in social psychology at the University of Malta and visiting fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research interests concern intercultural and intergroup relations, social influence, the spiral of conflict and group polarisation, attributions of ignorance in outgroup evaluations and issues relating to divergent perspectives in social relations. In particular, his recent work has focused on European perspectives towards Arab integration in Europe. He is coeditor of Papers on Social Representations and chief-editor of Cultural Encounters and Social Solidarity [special issue: Papers on Social Representations], The Cambridge Handbook of Social Representations [Cambridge University Press], Understanding Self and Others: Explorations in Intersubjectivity and Interobjectivity [Routledge], and Methods of Psychological Intervention: Yearbook of Idiographic Science Vol. VII [Information Age]. Ahmet Suerdem is a Professor in Business Administration Department Istanbul Bilgi University and a Senior Academic Visitor at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is working on the international research project MACAS (mapping the cultural authority of science) for developing routines for science news corpus construction from on-line sources and for the automatic analysis of thematic contents. He is also experimenting with the operationalisation of higher order text intuitions (semantic and discursive levels).

Chapter 4

Islam Luke J. Buhagiar, Gordon Sammut, Evrinomy Avdi, Ifigeneia Koutri, Anna Mylona, Alina Pop, Alessia Rochira, Rozlyn R. Redd and Alfonso Santarpia

4.1 Introduction Contemporary Europe is home to what are known as “traveling Islams” (Le Vine, 2003, p. 100), that are not bound by particular geographical locations, are characterised by internal differences, and both influence and are influenced by the cultures

Electronic supplementary material The online version of this chapter (https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36099-3_4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users L. J. Buhagiar (B) · G. Sammut University of Malta, Msida, Malta e-mail: [email protected] G. Sammut e-mail: [email protected] E. Avdi · I. Koutri · A. Mylona Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece e-mail: [email protected] I. Koutri e-mail: [email protected] A. Mylona e-mail: [email protected] A. Pop “Dimitrie Cantemir” Christian University, Bucharest, Romania e-mail: [email protected] A. Rochira Università del Salento, Lecce, Italy e-mail: [email protected] R. R. Redd Imperial College London, London, UK e-mail: [email protected] A. Santarpia Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 T. Mannarini et al. (eds.), Media and Social Representations of Otherness, Culture in Policy Making: The Symbolic Universes of Social Action, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36099-3_4

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and economies they encounter. This presence brought with it a plethora of dynamic representations of Islam in Europe (Helbling, 2012). In order to investigate these representations, large-scale empirical evidence is needed (Vanparys, Jacobs, & Torrekens, 2013), which should in turn be informed by knowledge of the sociocultural conditions of localised contexts (Sammut & Buhagiar, 2017). The study of representational content (cf. Sammut, Andreouli, Gaskell, & Valsiner, 2015a) therefore requires a plurality of methods (cf. Cinnirella, 2012, p. 185). The present chapter contributes to the methodological repertoire by presenting media analysis findings on representational trajectories of Islam in six European countries, namely Greece, Italy, Malta, Romania, France and the UK (the study was conducted pre-Brexit). A review of contemporary representations is first presented, followed by the analyses undertaken and a discussion of results in light of a potential spiral of conflict (Sammut, Bezzina, & Sartawi, 2015b) between non-Muslims and Muslims in Europe.

4.2 Contemporary Representations of Islam in Europe Rapidly changing sociopolitical landscapes in Europe, including but not limited to the recent migration crisis, were inevitably coupled with representational change. A necessarily selective review of the literature on representations of Islam in Europe revealed three dominant representational domains, each encompassing varied and interrelated content. These domains concern: • Islamic values and culture; • migration and integration; • terrorism and crime. This review enabled us to take stock of the current climate in terms of the dominant social (Sammut & Howarth, 2014) and other representations.

4.2.1 Islamic Values and Culture In offering a genealogical sketch of the Muslim Other, Semati (2010) argues that culture came to have explanatory power in the post-cold war period, whereby Islamophobia became an ideological response conflating multiple Middle Eastern dimensions into a single, unified and essentialised Islam. Through attributions of having a bounded nature, Islamic culture came to be viewed as incompatible with European culture. Arguments from cultural differences became dominant in two contrasting ways. They can support both representations of the Muslim Other as inferior, but also a position of understanding and acceptance vis-à-vis the Other and perceived differences (Semati, 2010). These are in fact two recurring dominant representations of Muslims in Europe (cf. Said, 1978).

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Whether it is inferiority or difference that is made salient, representations of Islam seem to be largely essentialist, that is, Islam is viewed as an essentially homogenous, discrete and different entity (see Phillips, 2010). ‘Islam’ and ‘Islamic culture’ are also conflated with other categories such as ‘Arabs’ and ‘Arabic culture’. For example, interchangeable notions of an essentially Islamic and/or Arabic culture serve to legitimise anti-integrationist views regarding Arab migrants in Malta (Buhagiar, Sammut, Rochira, & Salvatore, 2018), a country where the Maltese majority and other nonArab ethnocultural minorities converge in their antipathy towards Arabs (Sammut & Lauri, 2017). A shared essentialised view of Islam can potentially serve affiliative functions (see Duveen, 2008) among non-Muslim Europeans, and goes along with the need for temporal and collective continuity within national cultures. For instance, in Italy it is specifically Islam that represents the challenge of cultural and religious pluralism (Allievi, 2014). In the Netherlands, perceptions of Christian cultural continuity predicted opposition to Muslim immigrants (Smeekes & Verkuyten, 2014). An exclusionary view of Islam is also linked to national heritage in Greece, where negative representations of public displays of Islamic worship circulate (Hatziprokopiou & Evergeti, 2014). Furthermore, essentialist representations might explain the absence of media portrayals of Muslims and their daily lives (e.g., in soaps or reality TV in the UK) (Jaspal & Cinnirella, 2010). Muslims came to represent a monolithic yet hybridised threat, consisting of elements of both realistic (security-related) and symbolic (cultural) threat (Jaspal & Cinnirella, 2010). Conflations of the notions ‘Muslim’, ‘Arab’ (Buhagiar et al., 2018) and ‘terrorist’ (Cinnirella, 2012, p. 180) have potentially synergistic negative representational effects. Moreover, even when quantitative studies strictly compared Islam and other non-ethnic religious categories, Muslims were still perceived as a source of fear (e.g., in the UK; Bleich & Maxwell, 2012, p. 43). Representational valence for Islamic values and culture thus remained negative, regardless of research design. Beyond valence, Europe has had a variegated reaction to what are deemed to be contrasting Islamic values. Accordingly, in France, a “missionary mind” seeking to free Muslims from their religion, which is seen as oppressive and obscurantist, is dominant (Geisser, 2010). In the Netherlands, media representations posit Islam as a threat to Western values or as a backward religion jeopardising national identity (see Verkuyten & Poppe, 2012, p. 137). Negative representations also feature among the political classes (Moosavi, 2015). A previous media analysis did not find systematic negative representations of Muslims between 2001 and 2012 in British newspaper headlines, but right-oriented newspapers did have more negative content than left-oriented newspapers, and overall representations of Muslims were still more negative than those of Christians or Jews (Bleich, Stonebraker, Nisar, & Abdelhamid, 2015). The notion of a delineated Islamic culture is a common topic and unifying enemy for the far right in Europe (Shooman & Spielhaus, 2010, p. 203). Therefore towards the more radical ends of the spectrum, negative representations of Islam do play into the hands of the far right, but not exclusively. Assimilationist views, negative stereotypes of Muslim communities and implicit representations of European versus Islamic values also feature in the centre

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left (Moosavi, 2015). Hijabophobia is also not exclusive to the far right and is welldocumented in Europe (Mohamed-Salih, 2015, p. 91, for Romania; Geisser, 2010, for France). Such nuances lead to a consideration of the prescriptive functions of social representations and the different projects towards which communities aspire through their sense-making (Bauer & Gaskell, 1999; Sammut et al., 2015a, p. 7). Talk of cultural differences features equally among anti-racist movements promoting minority rights, as it does in right-wing movements advancing separatist claims (Garner, 2012, p. 130). Therefore different groups utilise similar representations for different ends. Representations themselves can be channelled through different argumentative strategies for particular ends. In Greece, political-ideological argumentation among groups sympathetic to Muslim migrants pushes for tolerance of religious diversity, while cultural-identity argumentation pushes against this (Triandafyllidou & Kouki, 2013). This makes the basis of intolerance in Greece an ethnocultural one, a basis that differs from that in other European countries like Denmark, France or the Netherlands, where intolerance is grounded in the perceived failure of multiculturalism, and in liberal principles such as autonomy and equality (Triandafyllidou & Kouki, 2013; Mouritsen & Olsen, 2013, p. 128). Non-Muslim Europeans are thus engaging in differing forms of rhetorical and identity negotiations. At the same time, such negotiations are also being undertaken by Muslim communities themselves, as can be seen when considering migration.

4.2.2 Migration and Integration In Europe, Muslims experience daily pressures, with some opting for ontological identity functions by adhering to Islamic practices despite difficulties, others opting for pragmatic identity functions by violating some Islamic teachings in order to ease social difficulties, and others pursuing onto-pragmatic strategies combining the two approaches (Sartawi & Sammut, 2012). Religion can also serve as an assertive tool in diasporas. Retreatism, defensive essentialism and engagement are all political strategies being pursued by Muslim communities across Europe, and engagement is not a viable strategy for all (Kinnvall & Nesbitt-Larking, 2011, p. 27). France’s universalist laïcité, for instance, ignores how Christianity has been institutionalised through customs and cultural objects in France, creating an asymmetrical political atmosphere (Kinnvall & Nesbitt-Larking, 2011, p. 128). Such asymmetries underpin representational content and may further an emerging spiral of conflict (Sammut et al., 2015b) between host countries and resident Muslim communities (Sammut et al., 2018). In terms of actual representations, the study by Bleich and Maxwell (2012, p. 45) cited above (see Sect. 4.2.1) also found that when Muslims were compared to ethnic, racial or immigrant groups (not exclusively to religious groups), attitudes towards them were negative but almost never the worst. This serves to reiterate the point on

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synergism and conflated representations: even when Islam is not seen as the problem, other adjuncts can serve to represent it as a problem. Regardless of conflation, in a study on Maltese participants’ arguments concerning the presence of Arabs in Europe, no positive religious (pro-Islam) arguments featured in favour of the integration of Arabs whatsoever, whilst arguments against Islam and Islamist terrorism were plenty. One major representation concerned fears of crucifix removal in schools due to a heavier Muslim and/or Arabic presence (Sammut et al., 2018). Similar results were previously obtained by Darmanin (2015), where assimilationist sentiments prevailed among Catholic interviewees, which they justified with reference to Malta’s Catholic identity. These findings can be better understood in light of historical and contextual representations. There are longstanding relations and tensions between Malta and Arab states (Chircop, 2014). For many Greeks, “Turkey and Islam are one and the same” (Sakellariou, 2017), thus even here one finds representations of Muslim migrants tied to ethnic categories. In Malta religious schooling is an issue, whereas in Greece the need or lack thereof of a mosque (one started being built in 2017 after decades of discussion) is an issue. In Greece, concerns with national identity, criminality and terrorism similarly feature vis-à-vis Muslim migrants (Sakellariou, 2017). For instance, a historical anti-Ottoman interpretation of national identity underlies the Islamophobia promoted by parties such as Golden Dawn (Sakellariou, 2017). Katsikas (2012) further argues that Islamophobia reaches well into the historiography of Greek-Turkish relations and the academic institutions that produce such knowledge. Similarly, experimental data showed that a Christian historical narrative of the Netherlands can mobilise people to increase their opposition towards Muslims’ rights, despite avowed weak commitments to national identity (Smeekes, Verkuyten, & Poppe, 2011). Islam is tied to particular ethnic/national groups in the Netherlands as well (e.g., with Moroccans and Turks; Dekker & Van der Noll, 2012, p. 115). Therefore, it is also exceedingly unclear whether Islamophobia is about Muslims or more about migrants from Arabic countries (Helbling, 2012, p. 5). Treating Islam as a reified category in social research is bound to lead studies into definitional labyrinths, as identities are never singular and representations are rarely, if ever, about just one entity. However, for the purposes of getting at representational content, this conflation of identities is not necessarily problematic, and it is less so in a diachronic analysis of media articles where such a conflation becomes simply a corollary of diversified and evolving representations over time. Conflations aside, Muslims seem to be perceived as the enemy other along both religious and migratory lines, especially by far right nationalists (Kinnvall & Nesbitt-Larking, 2011, p. 62).

4.2.3 Terrorism and Crime Also at the heart of many nationalisms is the Westphalian idea of a nation-state (Kinnvall & Nesbitt-Larking, 2011), which terror activities threaten by virtue of being trans-national. Representations of terrorism are particular in that Islamist terrorism is

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not encountered on a daily basis in Europe. Such representations are thus sustained through media representations where terrorism and the correct political response towards it are continually debated. For instance, following the 7/7 London attacks, media representations were even more dichotomous and deplored political correctness in British politics (Shaw, 2012). In Romanian media, terrorism is presented specifically with regards to the weakness of EU politicians and criticisms of leftist political correctness (Pop, 2016). These representations of self and other are laden with imperatives for political action. In the UK media, Muslims are regularly portrayed as criminally deviant, and this furthers representations of Islam as an “undifferentiated global aggressor” (Poole, 2006, p. 102). For some Europeans, the term ‘Muslim’ automatically brings with it thoughts of ‘terrorism’ (Cinnirella, 2012, p. 179), serving a heuristic function. Whether it’s the idea that Muslims use terrorism to destabilise Europe actively (see Buhagiar et al., 2018), the conflation of Jihadis and Muslims (Darmanin, 2015) or generalised anti-Islamic propaganda (Pop, 2016), the link of Islam with terrorism seems to persist in the media and European public spheres. Concerning non-terrorist crime, a regular line of argument seems to be that immigrants, including Muslim immigrants, are more likely to engage in crime because of their poor living conditions (Figgou, Sapountzis, Bozatzis, Gardikiotis, & Pantazis, 2011). This argument implicitly acknowledges the plight of migrants, documented in Sammut et al.’s (2018) study cited above (see Sect. 4.2.2), together with representations of asylum seeking as a right. Dialectical tensions pertaining to both fear and acknowledgement of the Other feature in representations of social groups and their employment for differing rhetorical ends across social groups (see Billig, 1988). Muslims are also largely aware of media representations portraying them as terrorists or ultra-conservatives (e.g., Brown, Brown, & Richards, 2015). Therefore studying changes in representations over time is a crucial endeavour in understanding conflict.

4.2.4 The Present Study Representations of Islam/Muslims in Europe seem to be predominantly negative, yet they are in constant flux and the nuances in representations should not be glossed over. Moreover, the phenomenon of Islamophobia needs to be historicised (Grillo, 2003). For instance, there have of course been large scale political changes from 18th century France (where Muslim countries were seen as liberal; see Geisser, 2010) to the emergence of disadvantaged Muslim immigrants in banlieues (Kinnvall & Nesbitt-Larking, 2011, p. 31). Similarly, tensions between Greece and Turkey are longstanding (Katsikas, 2012). Revealingly, Kinnvall and Nesbitt-Larking (2011 p. 44) note that the label “Muslim” had little meaning in the UK until the 1990s. The point is that representations, whether social, media and/or historical, are not static (Howarth, 2006), and are always specific to particular contexts, informed by a host of sociocultural factors (Sammut & Buhagiar, 2017). A diachronic approach therefore

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supplants the myopia incurred by synchronic analyses and sheds a micro-historical light on the matter.

4.3 Method The present analysis is based on sociocultural psychology and semiotics, namely the concept of semantic structures (Salvatore & Freda, 2011; Valsiner, 2007). Semantic structures are dichotomous, oppositional dialectical linkages grounding and shaping representational content. Each representation can be conceptualised as being composed of multiple semantic structures. For instance, the representation “Muslims are terrorists” could result from a combination of the semantic components outgroup (contra ingroup) and threat (contra resource). Given the bivalent conception of meaning within semiotic analysis, semantic structures can be modelled as polarities comprising dialectical linkages between two oppositional meanings. Accordingly, making one pole of the structure salient entails neutralising the other (Salvatore, 2016). We now proceed to present the method used for studying changing representations of Islam/Muslims in Europe between 2000 and 2015. The diachronic analysis consisted of a retrospective analysis of representational evolution. We studied the semantic structures and thematic content comprising representations through a quali-quantitative analysis of newspaper articles. Newspaper content was studied synchronically and diachronically across six different European countries. Due to a paucity of articles in certain temporal blocks, no diachronic analysis was conducted for Malta, and two temporal blocks were excluded for Romania.

4.3.1 Sample and Temporal Blocks A total of 4741 newspaper articles were selected from a set of local and national newspapers in electronic format (Table 4.1). Selection was random, based on the criterion of maximum variability, whereby sample validity is not determined by its representativeness but by how closely it reflects the population’s variability (Salvatore, 2016). This avoids neglecting relevant articles that are relatively scarce. The period 2000–2015 was segmented in five two-year blocks for analysis: 2000–01; 2004–2005; 2008–2009; 2011–12; and 2014–15. Keywords To identify keywords endowed with discriminative validity, preliminary analyses concerning word frequency and co-occurrences were performed. A set of English keywords and their combinations was decided upon, and translations to Greek, Italian and Romanian were pursued. The final list of keywords (Arab! AND Muslim! OR Arab! AND Islam! OR Muslim! AND Islam!) was then applied to newspapers. Synchronic analysis of the whole corpus was conducted using the same

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Table 4.1 Number of articles per temporal block per country Temporal block

Country Greece

Total Italy

Malta

Romania

France

UK

2000–2001

111

111

10

0

300

250

782

2004–2005

115

167

10

0

300

267

859

2008–2009

137

193

10

29

287

273

929

2011–2012

172

270

25

35

300

246

1048

2014–2015

193

288

30

37

300

275

1123

Total (2000–2015)

728

1029

85

101

1487

1311

4741

parameters (e.g., criteria for segmentation and lemmatisation) as those employed for the diachronic analysis concerned with specific temporal blocks (see Sect. 4.3.2).

4.3.2 Automated Co-occurrence Analysis for Semantic Mapping To process large amounts of data and guarantee homogeneous operational criteria for comparison purposes across analyses, Automated Co-occurrence Analysis for Semantic Mapping (ACASM) was conducted using T-Lab 16-Plus (Salvatore, Gennaro, Auletta, Tonti, & Nitti, 2012; Salvatore et al. 2017). ACASM is based on a semiotic view of meaning (Valsiner & Rosa, 2007). Co-occurrences among lexemes within the same contextual units (e.g., a paragraph of the text) constitute signs. The method detects co-occurrences among lexemes using a multidimensional procedure combining correspondence analysis and cluster analysis.1 ACASM procedures were conducted for the whole time period 2000–2015 and for separate temporal blocks. This involved: • digitisation of the article corpus; • multidimensional analysis; and • interpretation of semantic structures. Digitising the Corpus The first step involved digitising the article corpus to conduct ACASM. The article corpus was transformed into a matrix composed of segments of text as rows and lemmas as columns. Each cell within the matrix contained information concerning the presence/absence of a particular lemma within each segment. Digitisation involved: segmentation of the text; lemmatisation of lexical forms; and selection of lemmas for use in multidimensional analysis. Segmentation involved dividing the corpus into elementary context units (ECUs). These are units of analysis or segments consisting of groups of contiguous utterances. 1 The

empirical data presented in this chapter only refer to correspondence analysis outputs.

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The ECU had to be long enough to be interpretable in terms of thematic content but short enough for each unit to be associated with a specific thematic content. Accordingly, article paragraphs were adopted as ECUs. Lemmatisation was aimed at reducing lexical variability, as ACASM requires a reduction of data dispersion. Lexical forms, mostly words, were categorised according to the lemmas they belong to. Lemmatisation was performed by means of the T-LAB vocabulary for Italian and English, and by means of a vocabulary built ad hoc for Greek and Romanian. Useless lemmas (e.g., stop words, empty words, indexical words, and basic auxiliary verbs) were excluded using the T-Lab list of stop words. The five most frequent lemmas were excluded since highly frequent lemmas can act as noise. This step resulted in the selection of the 1000 most frequent lemmas apart from the first five lemmas. Multidimensional Analysis ACASM was then performed on the data matrix, to map patterns of co-occurring lexemes characterising the articles. Correspondence Analysis detected the semantic structures on which the article corpus can be modelled by reorganising relations between lexemes as dichotomous factorial polarities. Each pole became characterised by a set of signs that tends to co-occur whilst not occurring in the opposite pole. Accordingly, these polarities can be viewed as the operationalisation of semantic structures constituting representations of Islam. Factorial dimensions are markers of semantic components within such semantic structures. The outputs of multidimensional analysis thus involved the main factorial dimensions per country (i.e., semantic structures underlying representational content). Interpretation These outputs were subsequently interpreted by the research teams gathering data in the six different countries, who operated on consensus. Interpretation was first aimed at detecting semantic structures. The main factorial dimensions produced during Correspondence Analysis were thus defined and abductively reconstructed along two opposing factorial poles. A subsequent interpretation was carried out in accordance with the methodology adopted by Salvatore (2016) and indirectly validated the first interpretation.

4.4 Results This detailed analysis resulted in findings consisting of thematic content nested beneath opposing factorial dimensions for Greece, Italy, Malta, Romania, France and the UK. The latent semantic structures (synchronic analysis), together with synchronic cross-country comparisons, are presented below. Also presented are the interpretations of the first two reliable factors for temporal blocks per country (diachronic analysis).2 2 The

4.1.

list of lexemes for both the synchronic and diachronic analysis are included in online Annex

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4.4.1 Synchronic Analysis. Latent Semantic Structures Underlying the Press Representations of Islam This section presents interpretations of the first three reliable factors (i.e., those with enough lemmas) for the synchronic analysis per country (lemmas are italicised and in parentheses). These factors point towards latent semantic structures related to representations of Islam in these respective countries.

4.4.1.1

Greece

Factor 1: Situated Phenomenon Versus Global Issue On the one hand, one finds the cultural characteristics of Islam, both as way of life (child, man, husband, life) and as religious practice (Muhammad, prophet, God, Muslim). Contrarily, Islam is represented as an international matter, particularly as a foreign policy issue set against a global backdrop (USA, EU, government, Syria, Turkey, NATO, Russia, power, interest). Factor 2: Threat Versus Recognition The second factor opposes an identification of Islam with terrorism (attack, kill, police, dead, protester, embassy, fire, army) to a vision of Islam as being part of Greek and European culture and history (Greek, society, religion, history, modern, European, culture, century, historical, art). Factor 3: Domestic Versus Foreign Affairs On one pole, Islam is related to national politics, or seen as a political issue within the national agenda (minister, president, MP, Pasok, election, party, vote, representative), whereas on the other pole, Islam is connected with other countries (especially in the Middle East) and seen as something to be dealt with as a foreign affair (Middle East region, power, interest, conflict, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, war).

4.4.1.2

Italy

Factor 1: Global Issue Versus Situated Phenomenon On one pole, Islam is framed as an international issue, as a foreign policy matter set against a global scenario (west, Iraq, United States, regime, war, Bin Laden, Iran, Syria, military, army, Libya). On the opposite pole, Islam is viewed as a religious practice (mosque, worship, prayer, Ramadan, Imam, faithful) embedded in the daily life of Muslims in Italy (place, mayor, community, Milan, downtown, city). Factor 2: Recognition Versus Threat The second factor opposes a vision of Islam as a social, religious, and historical phenomenon (society, religion, identity, values, politics, culture) to dialogue with (dialogue), to a view of Islam that identifies it with terrorism (Charlie Hebdo, attack, to kill, Isis, death) and violent social change (square, demonstration, Tripoli, Gheddafi, Bengasi, police).

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Factor 3: Politics Versus Religion On one pole, Islam is considered as a security issue (security)—fought against by organisations with Islamophobic political views (Lega, Carroccio, leghista)—that must be kept under political control by the Italian government (minister, government). On the other pole, Islam is depicted as a religion (god, Koran, book, Allah, Mohammed, prophet, holy) associated with belligerent traits (kill, die).

4.4.1.3

Malta

Factor 1: Situated Phenomenon Versus Global Issue On one pole, Islam is associated with the life of immigrants in Malta (immigrant, migrant, document, Malta, Maltese, island), and presumably with integration issues. It is also acknowledged in its cultural aspects (culture, cultural, contribute). On the opposite pole, Islam is represented as a foreign policy issue, related to international conflict (attack, force, Palestinian, rebel, Israeli, militant Syria, war). Factor 2: Power Versus Powerlessness Great economic power (oil, price, Saudi) is associated to Islam on one pole of this factor. On the opposite pole, the difficult condition of refugees and asylum seekers—escaping war and misery—is evoked (station, Greece, borders, Lampedusa, asylum seekers, boat, migrant, African). Factor 3: Threat Versus Recognition The third factor juxtaposes the association between Islam and criminal and terrorist attacks (police, magistrate, attack, kill, Bin Laden, victim) with the association between Islam and economic systems (oil, price, global, market, economy, tax, Saudi, benefit).

4.4.1.4

Romania

Factor 1: Threat Versus Recognition The first factor opposes a vision of Islam that identifies it with terrorism (terrorist, attack, assault, Bin Laden) to an acknowledgment of the historical Muslim community settled in Romania (Muslim, religion, Imam, mother, parent, orthodox church, Christian, Romania, Bucharest). Factor 2: Global Issue Versus Situated Phenomenon On one pole, Islam is associated with international conflict in the Middle East area (Middle East, Israel, Jordan, Jerusalem), and related waves of immigration to Europe (Europe, Greece, immigrant, refugee). On the opposite pole, Islam is embodied in the internal threat represented by a young Romanian (Luigi Constantin Boicea) who converted to Islam and was arrested for terrorism. Factor 3: Politics Versus Religion On one pole, Islam is embodied in the sociopolitical situation of predominantly Islamic countries (Bangladesh, Libya, Tripoli, Benghazi, Dubai) and the related phenomena of emigration/immigration (immigrant,

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foreigner, worker, refugee, asylum, ambassador). The opposite pole depicts Islam as a religion that has potential for radicalisation (God, religion, Koran, prophet, Allah, holy, radical, Bin Laden, terrorist).

4.4.1.5

France

Factor 1: Threat Versus Recognition On one pole, Islam is identified with death, war, and terrorism at the global level (Bin Laden, Taliban, USA, Afghanistan, AlQaeda, Hamas, military, war, terrorist, attack). The other pole depicts Islam as part of French culture, history, and political debate (Islam, France, secularism, Koran, Debate, veil, meaning, society, identity). Factor 2: Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Versus Global conflict On one pole, Islam is connected with Israeli-Palestinian conflict (Gaza, Israeli, Hamas, Palestinian, jewish). On the opposite pole, Islam is framed within the context of international conflict (Bin Laden, USA, Pakistan, Europe, Turkey, war). Factor 3: Religion Versus Politics On one pole, Islam is depicted as a religion (mosque, Imam, Ramadan, veil, prayer) associated with terrorist groups (Bin Laden, police, attack, prison, group, hostage). The opposite pole addresses Islam as a political global issue involving international actors (Europe, Turkey, Israel, Hamas, Obama, Iran, world, politics, democracy, war, peace).

4.4.1.6

United Kingdom

Factor 1: Global Issue Versus Situated Phenomenon One pole associates Islam with the Middle East and its political and security crisis (Palestinian, Israeli, Gaza, Iraq, Hamas, attack, military, war, Syria). The opposite pole links Islam to the integration of Muslim immigrants in the UK, especially within the education and healthcare systems (education, school, industry, service, college, community, healthcare, university). Factor 2: Measures Versus Personal Stories One pole presents the program of economic and political measures (presumably related to services and governance in Iraq and Afghanistan) (voluntary, executive chief, industry, local government, service, director, healthcare, education, manager, international, Iraq, Afghanistan). The other pole associates Islam with the lives of Muslim families, especially wives and daughters (love, family, baby, daughter, husband, father, life, son, mother, girl, woman). Factor 3: Recognition Versus Threat Islam as a political issue to be dealt with, and about which political parties debate, characterises one pole (election, vote, party, political religious, candidate, democracy). The other pole concerns terrorism and the Islamist threat (kill, police, bomb, Bin Laden, attack, arrest, die, soldier, convict, shot, killing).

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Table 4.2 Islam—Factor 1, 2 and 3 per country Factor

Country Greece

Italy

Malta

Romania

F1

Situated phenomenon versus global issue*

Global issue versus situated phenomenon*

Situated phenomenon versus global issue*

Threat Threat Global versus versus issue versus recognition+ recognition+ situated phenomenon*

F2

Threat Recognition versus versus recognition+ threat+

Power versus powerlessness

Global issue versus situated phenomenon*

F3

Domestic versus foreign affairs

Threat Politics versus versus recognition+ religion~

Politics versus religion~

France

UK

IsraeliPalestinian conflict versus global conflict

Measures versus personal stories

Religion versus politics~

Recognition versus threat+

Semantic structures that feature across countries are marked by the same symbol. The differing order of similar semantic structures reflects the way in which they featured during analysis

4.4.2 Cross-Country Comparisons There was a high degree of similarity amongst semantic structures underpinning representations of Islam/Muslims across countries. Situated phenomenon versus Global issue featured in all countries except France. Threat versus Recognition featured in all six countries. Furthermore, Politics versus Religion featured in Italy, Romania and France (Table 4.2).

4.4.3 Diachronic Analysis The interpretations of the first two reliable factors for the temporal blocks are presented below, showing the evolution of representations of Islam over time. This analysis highlighted various similarities across Greece, Italy, Romania, France and the UK (Tables 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6 and 4.7 respectively).3 The findings especially demonstrate continuity in representations of Islam/Muslims over time, whereby Islam as a representational object retained its negative valence: Islam is represented as a global political problem and a domestic threat. Polarisation can also be seen, with the notion of Islam as threatening to Europe contrasting with notions of hospitality towards migrants and the salience of their personal stories (e.g., in Romania and the UK). 3 The

diachronic analysis was not performed on the Maltese dataset because the number of articles within each time block was low (Table 4.1).

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Table 4.3 Semantic structures constituting representations of Islam in Greece over time Factorial dimension 1

Factorial dimension 2

2000–2001

Cultural-religious phenomenon versus international political issue*

Global international conflict versus inside conflict with Muslimso

2004–2005

Domestic political affairs versus global international threat§

European identity versus destructive actions by Muslims

2008–2009

Inside conflict with Muslims versus global international conflicto

Global international threat versus cultural religious phenomenon*

2011–2012

Destructive actions by Muslims versus international conflict

Global international threat versus domestic political affairs§

2014–2015

Cultural-religious phenomenon versus international political issue*

Destructive actions by Muslims versus domestic politics

Factorial dimensions with similar interpretations are marked by the same symbol Table 4.4 Semantic structures constituting representations of Islam in Italy over time Factorial dimension 1

Factorial dimension 2

2000–2001

Inside outgroup versus international conflict*

Global threat versus socio-political phenomenono

2004–2005

Religious phenomenon versus global threato

Global political phenomenon versus inside threat*

2008–2009

Global political phenomenon versus inside outgroup*

Religious phenomenon versus international conflicto

2011–2012

Inside outgroup versus international conflict*

Religious-political phenomenon versus conflictual engagement with Muslimsoo

2014–2015

Inside outgroup versus international conflict*

Religious-political phenomenon versus conflictual engagement with Muslimsoo

Factorial dimensions with similar interpretations are marked by the same symbol Table 4.5 Semantic structures constituting representations of Islam in Romania over time

Factorial dimension 1

Factorial dimension 2

2008–2009

Global threat versus people*

International issue versus domestic issue

2011–2012

Religious practice versus global threat*

Religion versus politics

2014–2015

People versus global threat*

Aggression versus demand for hospitality

Factorial dimensions with similar interpretations are marked by the same symbol

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Table 4.6 Semantic structures constituting representations of Islam in France over time Factorial dimension 1

Factorial dimension 2

2000–2001

Threat versus recognitiono

Political-religious ideology versus Israeli-Palestinian conflict

2004–2005

Threat versus recognitiono

Politics versus religion

2008–2009

Israeli-Palestinian conflict versus recognition

Recognition versus global conflict

2011–2012

Threat versus recognitiono

Global threat versus domestic threat

2014–2015

recognitiono

Threat versus

Israeli-Palestinian conflict versus global conflict

Factorial dimensions with similar interpretations are marked by the same symbol

Table 4.7 Semantic structures constituting representations of Islam in the UK over time Factorial dimension 1

Factorial dimension 2

2000–2001

Global political issue versus local life/personal stories*

Domestic political affair versus international political affairo

2004–2005

Global political issue versus local life/personal stories*

(Unclear)

2008–2009

Global political issue versus local life/personal stories*

International political affair versus domestic political affairo

2011–2012

Local life/personal stories versus global political issue*

(Unclear)

2014–2015

Local life/personal stories versus global political issue*

International political affair versus domestic political affairo

Factorial dimensions with similar interpretations are marked by the same symbol

4.5 Discussion This study explored changing representations of Islam in Europe. Of particular interest is the diachronic dimension of the findings, showing the continuity of issues concerning violence and oppression over time. Also evident are certain semantic structures that were more pronounced in the synchronic analysis across the whole 2000–2015 period. Recognition versus Threat is one of them. This polarity was sometimes reflective of sympathy versus antipathy. Yet clearly interpretable normative dimensions were not always present. This ambiguity possibly reflects the ambivalence in representations of Islam/Muslims in Europe. It also echoes Vanparys et al.’s (2013) warning against academic assumptions concerning hegemonic negative representations of Islam. Notwithstanding this sound warning, representations were indeed overwhelmingly negative at worst, or neutral or ambiguously positive at best. Negative representations might not require the presence of Muslims themselves to take root. For instance, in Italy (and possibly other parts of Europe), Islamophobic discourse started

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arising before there was any real (contemporary) presence of Muslims there (Allievi 2014; Vanparys et al. 2013). Media representations of terrorism can have such effects, whereas normalising representations of Muslims and their daily ways of living might require actual presence to take root. Synchronically, one observes high degrees of similarity across countries. This similarity extends to a total of three semantic structures (Situated phenomenon vs. Global issue, Threat vs. Recognition and Politics vs. Religion). Italy and Romania resulted with all three. France resulted with both Threat versus Recognition and Religion versus Politics. Although Situated phenomenon versus Global issue featured in all countries except France, the latter pole featured in France in a slightly different manner, that is, as Global conflict. Specificities were also present in two main ways. Firstly, similar semantic structures underpin different thematic content depending on how they manifest themselves in different countries. Similar semantic structures do not necessitate similar representational content. The same semantic structure polarises patterns of lexemes that can vary across countries, due to both geopolitical factors and also local sociocultural circumstances (Sammut & Buhagiar 2017). Even when similar semantic structures or poles having the potential for positive valence appeared across countries, those of them actually indexing thematic content sympathetic to Islam less ambiguously were still very few. Their scarcity warrants mentioning. Arguably, these were: Recognition (Italy, France), which included notions of dialogue, particularly in the case of Italy; Situated phenomenon and Powerlessness (Malta), which included notions of sympathy towards migrants’ misery and possible cultural contributions by migrants; and Situated phenomenon and Personal stories (UK) which indicated sympathy towards everyday lives of Muslims and the possibility of integration. Yet, the cross-country comparison showed that Recognition and Situated phenomenon also indicated some content that remained predominantly descriptive (or normatively ambiguous) in other countries (e.g., Greece, Malta, Romania and the UK for Recognition; and Greece and Italy for Situated phenomenon). More explicitly, Religion pointed towards belligerence and radicalisation in Italy, Romania and France, echoing Sammut et al.’s (2018) findings on the lack of semiotic resources for constructing positive representations of Islam. Secondly, the particular combinations of semantic structures and their respective thematic content can guide the synergistic effects of representation towards different directions (cf. Jaspal & Cinnirella 2010). Combinations across countries might thus eventually disturb the continuity observed across temporal blocks so far, with possible further polarisation being already visible. For instance, one could argue that the semantic structure Threat versus Recognition did in fact consist of poles of contrasting normative valences, that is, negative and positive. This projects Islam in terms of a persecutory foe versus an object endowed with value or at least worthy of being valued in some respect, be it culturally (Greece, France), dialogically (Italy, France), economically (Malta), community-based (Romania), or politically (UK). Other semantic structures had different architectures indexing different thematic content but at similar levels of generality. For example, Situated phenomenon versus Global issue and Measures versus Personal stories are both based on the dialectic between individual/local versus systemic/universal processes. These polarities

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take the form of a dialectic between particularity and generality. This dialectic can be found in opposed semantic components indicating the practical life of people vs. systemic requirements (e.g., economic or legislative). Here, the valence could be negative on both sides, for example, contrasting conflict (Global issue) with an internal threat (Situated phenomenon) in Romania. Others, like Measures versus Personal stories (UK), come with no clear valence under certain interpretations, or else a potentially positive one for individual/local processes (i.e., Personal stories, as discussed above). Despite the various combinations of dialectic and valence present, it seems clear from the analyses that squarely negative representations of Islam seemed to persist over time. Indeed, the diachronic analysis showed that representations of Islam/Muslims in Europe are marked by relatively stable temporal continuity, together with geopolitical variations. Therefore, it is precisely the different evolution of representations (Sammut, Tsirogianni, & Wagoner, 2012) across nation states that represents a challenge to the European Union in terms of innovative policy approaches. The semantic structures that stood out the most across countries and time were those treating Islam as a global political threat that is to be dealt with politically on an international level. This may partly explain the persisting view of Islam as an “undifferentiated global aggressor” (Poole, 2006, p. 102), and may serve to unify the political imperatives inherent in negative representations of Islam. Islam is also represented as a cultural threat, due to migration and terror-related activities. Notable exceptions are perhaps France and the UK, where—alongside socio-political notions of conflict—notions related to the recognition of Islam, and the personal stories of Muslims, respectively, have remained salient over the years.

4.6 Conclusion The findings of this study concur with the literature concerning the predominance of negative representations of Islam in Europe. Such representations unfortunately promote aggressive policies directed towards Muslims in Europe (Poole 2006, p. 102). At the same time, representations relating to humanitarian concern, intercultural dialogue and the ways of life of Muslims are significant in proportion, indicating possible polarisation in representational content over the years. The method employed involved large-scale computerisation, as advocated by an emerging line of research (Bleich, Bloemraad, & de Graauw, 2015; Salvatore et al., 2012; Vanparys et al., 2013). Large-scale evidence provides policy makers with knowledge that is closer to local scenarios, allowing them to target particular representations in their work (cf. Lauri, 2015, p. 397). We also concur with Dekker and Van der Noll (2012, p. 113) that, at least on a functional level, it is important to study Islamophobia specifically because it is a main explanatory factor behind behaviour towards Muslims. This complements representational approaches. In conclusion, the main limitation of this study is the vagueness inherent in the interpretation stage. To address this limitation and complement large-scale analysis,

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future research can focus on idiographic data analysis that minimises the need for post hoc interpretation whilst still allowing for systematicity (see Sammut et al., 2018).

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Luke Joseph Buhagiar is a Ph.D. candidate in social psychology at the University of Malta. His research interests concern methodology, argumentation, social representations theory and coalitional psychology. Specifically, his main interest lies in developing better methods for studying argumentation, which in turn can be used for researching social representations, and intergroup polarisation. His Ph.D. work focuses on the social representations of Arabs circulating within the Maltese public sphere. Gordon Sammut is Associate Professor in social psychology at the University of Malta and visiting fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research interests concern intercultural and intergroup relations, social influence, the spiral of conflict and group polarisation, attributions of ignorance in outgroup evaluations and issues relating to divergent perspectives in social relations. In particular, his recent work has focused on European perspectives towards Arab integration in Europe. He is chief-editor of Cultural Encounters and Social Solidarity [special issue: Papers on Social Representations], The Cambridge Handbook of Social Representations [Cambridge University Press], Understanding Self and Others: Explorations in Intersubjectivity and Interobjectivity [Routledge], and Methods of Psychological Intervention: Yearbook of Idiographic Science Vol. VII [Information Age].

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Evrinomy Avdi is associate professor in clinical psychology at the School of Psychology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. She is a clinical psychologist, psychodynamic psychotherapist and dramatherapist. Her research interests lie in applying discursive and narrative research to the study of the process of psychotherapy, as well as the experience of serious illness. She is particularly interested in exploring the links between deconstructive research and actual clinical practice. Ifigeneia Koutri holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. Her main scientific interests are narrative psychology, meaning making, illness narratives, narrative identity, understanding experiences of illness, trauma and other disruptive life events, and social identity change in time of crisis in Europe. Anna Mylona is a clinical psychologist. She holds a degree in psychology and a master’s degree in social clinical psychology both from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She is PhD candidate of Psychology at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki-School of Psychology. Her thesis is titled “Therapeutic Interaction in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy. Verbal, non-verbal and Bodily Synchrony.” Her research experience is mostly in conducting qualitative studies in psychotherapy. Her main research interests concern the study of psychotherapy change processes through qualitative method. She has worked as a research associate in two European funded research projects (“Relational Mind in events of change in multi-actor therapeutic dialogues” and “ReCriRe-Between the representation of the crisis and crisis of representation”). Currently, she is working as a clinical psychologist in private practice in Thessaloniki, Greece. Alina Pop is Senior Lecturer of Communication Psychology at the “Dimitrie Cantemir” Christian University of Bucharest, Romania. She holds a Ph.D. in Social representations and Communication from the University of Rome “La Sapienza”. Her research interest focuses on the construction and communication of social representations in conflict situations and the role of social representations in coping with social conflicts. She authored a book and several scientific articles. Alessia Rochira is assistant researcher in social psychology at the University of Salento—Lecce, Department of History, Society and Human Studies. Her research interests cover several topics at the crossroads between social and community psychology, such as interethnic relations, acculturation, sense of community, community resilience, social representations, common sense justice and legal compliance. Rozlyn R. Redd holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Columbia University, USA. She is currently research associate at the Imperial College, London. She has been postdoc researcher at University of Leicester during the RECRIRE project. Alfonso Santarpia is a humanistic psychotherapist, associate professor of Clinical Psychology (Professeur Régulier) at Université de Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada. His research is concerned with approaches in the humanistic-existential traditions: the discursive and therapeutic effects of language; the effects of artistic (Classical Music, Clown-therapy), poetic (Haiku) and spiritual mediation (shamanism) on patients in psycho-oncology; emotional experiences in psychopathology.

Chapter 5

LGBT Alina Pop, Evrinomy Avdi, Irini Kadianaki, Ifigeneia Koutri, Anna Mylona, Alessia Rochira, Gordon Sammut and Rozlyn R. Redd

5.1 Introduction In the last century, conceptions about homosexuality and the members of the LGBT (Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community in general changed radically Electronic supplementary material The online version of this chapter (https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36099-3_5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users A. Pop (B) “Dimitrie Cantemir” Christian University, Bucharest, Romania e-mail: [email protected] E. Avdi · I. Koutri · A. Mylona Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece e-mail: [email protected] I. Koutri e-mail: [email protected] A. Mylona e-mail: [email protected] I. Kadianaki University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus e-mail: [email protected] A. Rochira University of Salento, Lecce, Italy e-mail: [email protected] G. Sammut University of Malta, Msida, Malta e-mail: [email protected] R. R. Redd University of Leicester, Leicester, UK e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 T. Mannarini et al. (eds.), Media and Social Representations of Otherness, Culture in Policy Making: The Symbolic Universes of Social Action, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36099-3_5

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worldwide. Homophobic western societies of the early 20th century (Tamagne, 2000) transformed gradually into more liberal socio-cultural environments in which LGBT people gained rights and cultural visibility. However, these conceptions vary substantially among the regions of the world, including European countries. This chapter presents the results of an analysis focused on the social representations of LGBT people in six European countries, each with different cultural backgrounds and political histories, belonging to regions of Eastern, Southern and Western Europe, and which are all currently members of the European Union: Romania, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta, and the UK. Social representations of relevant societal objects are present in the media as well as in people’s minds, forming part of both culture and cognition (Farr, 1995). Our study focuses on the social representations of LGBT people, as instances of otherness, articulated through the media discourses produced in the six countries. The study was conducted on randomly selected articles published in newspapers from the respective countries over a number of years and submitted to a quali-quantitative analysis, as detailed in Chap. 2 of this volume. In the next sections, we first offer a brief review of contemporary studies dealing with the increase in media visibility of LGBT people and issues, then we provide a synthetic description of the current situation in Europe with regard to legal and social LGBT emancipation. Next, we provide the methodological details of this study. In the results section we show, first, the outcomes obtained through a synchronic analysis of the corpora, revealing the latent semantic structures in the representations of LGBT for each country sample. Then, the comparison between countries will reveal the patterns of continuity and discontinuity in the representation of homosexuality over space. Finally, the results of the diachronic analysis of data will show the evolution over time of the symbolic meanings associated with LGBT people and issues, revealing the patterns of continuity and discontinuity over time. The last section of the chapter will discuss the results and conclude.

5.2 LGBT—Coming Out from Invisibility Media representations about LGBT issues along with attitudes towards the LGBT community have changed significantly over the past century. In Western societies before the 1960s, in times when homosexuality was associated with deviance and even incriminated by the law, it was a ‘structuring absence’ in the media narrative (Dyer, 1993). For example, the 1960s British media deliberately avoided bringing the discussion about homosexuality into the public domain, revealing the discursive limits of the British media representation of those times. As well, queer representations constructed by Hollywood historic cinema were formed on issues of denial, absence or ‘othering’. They contained archetypal images of gay men (overly feminized), lesbian woman (overly masculinized), of the murderous queer character or of the pathological victim (Russo, 1987). In the US news media, the scarce reference to homosexuality was exclusively associated to sickness, perversion or crime (Fejes & Petrich, 1993). If present in the British press, the topic of homosexuality was used

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solely as a negative reference point in morality tales that reaffirmed society’s sense of normality (Pearce, 1973). It was not until gay and lesbian activism confronted repressive laws, police harassment and discrimination and pushed for equal treatment of homosexuals that the media started presenting the issue in a less condemnatory way (Fejes & Petrich, 1993). Homophobic portrayals of homosexuality in the media started to be challenged and more affirmative visibility was urged by the newly formed gay communities. The LGBT rights movements in Western societies, especially in the last 30 years, stirred mainstream media visibility for the issue at national and transnational level, which contributed considerably to the identity affirmation of LGBT people (Pullen, 2012). Through their role as socialization agents that transmit popular culture across borders, the media exercised soft power that fostered increased social acceptance of minorities on a global scale, especially with regard to younger groups (Ayoub & Garretson, 2015). According to Bancroft (2009) the public discourse about homosexuality in the twentieth century has evolved around four main themes, accounting for its social, legal and medical implications: the persecution and suppression of homosexuality; the medicalisation of homosexuality; the gradual emergence of a campaign by homosexual men and women to protect their human rights and by some professionals to de-pathologise homosexuality; the legal status of homosexuality and homosexual relationships. The progression of such themes is indicative of the level of acceptance of homosexuality in society. The rise in visibility also marked a trend towards transmitting more positive information about LGBT people, and coincided with more liberal attitudes towards homosexuality in countries even outside the Western world (Asal, Sommer & Harwood, 2013). But resistance to such trends has also been noticed and increased visibility did not necessary guarantee social tolerance and recognition of LGBT groups (Dow, 2001). A closer look at media content showed that, although no longer invisible, the LGBT representation is still influenced by heteronormativity, with gay persons hardly ever shown in the media as ordinary folks, or mostly used within cinema or television productions in roles focused on their difference as an anomaly that has to be explained, a disappointment that has to be tolerated, or a threat to the moral order that must be countered through ridicule or physical violence (Gross, 2012). Negative representations about queer people continue to be circulated by the media even in the most liberal European societies. In the UK, for example, the last few years witnessed a rising tide of anti-LGBT sentiments cultivated by media narratives that perpetuate pervasive homophobia and prejudice. In a country with half a century of history of gay rights, the right-wing media continue to represent gay relationships as dysfunctional, pathological and destructive, thus having negative consequences on LGBT psychological wellbeing and identity formation (Lovelock, 2017). There is scarcity of cross-country comparative research on media presentation of LGBT people. One of the few sources available is the 2009 report of the European Union Agency for Fundamental rights (FRA, 2009), which exceptionally contained some information on media presentation of LGBT, which subsequent reports did not contain. This report showed that incidents of homophobic speech were present

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in the media of some of the EU member states (such as in Italy, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia) and homosexuality was still considered taboo in varying degrees in many of them. Gay men were more visible than lesbians and transgender persons, but LGBT persons in general lacked media visibility across Europe. The same report showed that across countries LGBT persons were subjected to different forms of media stereotyping. Social and political topics related to LGBT were neglected by the media, which instead favoured superficial topics such as gay fashion and LGBT pride parades. Many of the newspaper articles discussing topics relevant for the LGBT community published images with semi-erotic content, thus perpetuating prejudice and reinforcing the idea that sexual orientation is exclusively related to sexual activity and nothing else (ibid.). The FRA report also notes that awareness-raising media campaigns took place in the 2000s in various European countries and in some of them, such as Poland or Romania, generated heated media debates and were condemned and classed as ‘gay propaganda’ by important segments of the public. It also acknowledged some positive developments with regard to the media representations of LGBT in the EU states, such as an increased media presence and a more nuanced presentation of LGBT persons and issues in the media. The Czech Republic is an interesting example of the switch that took place during the two decades of post-communism with regard to media content about LGBT issues. The initial negative media representations, built on negative stereotypes, sexualisation and comedic or criminal context, was replaced with a more neutral one, transmitted through documentaries and television series that showed LGBT people in everyday life contexts. Sweden and Spain were cited in the report also as examples of countries where a more nuanced and accurate picture of the LGBT community was given by the media. Beyond the FRA report, there are no other more recent cross-country comparative studies on LGBT media representations in Europe, a void that this research seeks to address. A lot of national research on LGBT presentations in the media is, interestingly, outside EU contexts (e.g. Monjie, 2016; Persson, 2015; Rojas-Lizana 2011), albeit with few exceptions (e.g. Bartley & Hidalgo-Tenorio, 2015). This body of research demonstrates that LGBTs are negatively presented in immoral, pathological, unnatural terms, and positively presented as normal people, whose sexual orientation is biologically determined. These ideas are echoed in research coming also from EU contexts, which seems to be increasingly concerned with representations of LGBT rights in the media, focusing particularly on civil union and samesex marriage representations (e.g. Jowett and Peel, 2010; Jowett, 2014; O’Connor, 2017). The latter research exemplifies the opposition between a largely heteronormative understanding of marriage and parenthood, which views such LGBT rights as a major threat to children and society at large (Jowett, 2014; O’Connor, 2017), and a more tolerant, rights oriented discourse, which presents homosexuality in terms of normal variation of human sexuality in Europe. In the global world, media effects are of course not circumscribed by national boundaries. Entertainment productions especially, distributed in countries with powerful positions with respect to their capacity to disseminate culture across borders, can explain the more positive attitudes towards homosexuality and higher social tolerance for LGBT people worldwide, especially

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for younger generations (Ayoub & Garretson, 2015). While such entertainment productions may foster tolerance and social acceptance for the members of the LGBT community, mainstream news media content testifies to the social representations of LGBT that are shared in a given society at a particular moment in time. By adopting a comparative perspective to show the latent semantic structure on which representations of LGBT people and issues are built by the media in countries from three different European regions, our study will fill a gap in the constantly evolving literature on LGBT issues.

5.3 LGBT and the Sexualized Divide in Europe The legal status of homosexuality and homosexual relationships varies a lot in Europe. Considering the European Union member states only, homosexuality is now legal in all of them and anti-discriminatory policies have been implemented everywhere. Fifteen of the 28 EU states recognize gay marriage and almost all of them (26) recognize other types of partnership (like same-sex civil unions). Although this number may seem big, it must be said that in some countries there are limited residency rights for same-sex unions (as in Romania, Slovakia or Poland, where only samesex unions established in a different country are recognized) (Lipka, 2017). None of the former communist countries recognizes same-sex marriage and in Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Croatia and Hungary gay marriage is constitutionally banned (Lipka, 2017). The same may be the case in Romania, where, at the time of writing (September 2018) the so-called “Coalition for the family”, strongly supported by the Romanian Orthodox Church, is pushing for a constitutional amendment that would explicitly ban same-sex marriage in the country. Results from a recent cross-cultural study assessing the influence of several factors on attitudes towards LGBT issues showed that people who scored high on religiosity, people from the post-communist countries and living in rural environments, who are less oriented towards post-modernism, have lower income and are less educated, show more homonegativity than others. Affiliation to particular religions (like Islam, Catholicism, Protestant Free Churches, Christian-Orthodox Church) proved especially strong in predicting homonegativity. Instead, the more the legal rights granted to LGBT people in a country, the more the positive attitudes of the general population towards homosexuality (Jäckle & Wenzelburger, 2015). Some of the Western European countries were among the forerunners in granting civil rights to LGBT people, including same-sex marriage and child adoption by gay couples. Increased tolerance and rights for the members of the LGBT community has become a sign of Europeanization of the former communist states from Central and Eastern Europe (Bili´c, 2016). European LGBT activism became inspirational for transnational organizing and worldwide LGBT movements (Ayoub & Paternotte, 2014). However, the expression of sexual diversity in the less liberal societies of the post-communist European countries met with violent homophobic actions and discourses, jointly structured around heteronormative and nationalist themes. In such

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views, LGBT rights and anti-discrimination policies were not considered the sign of belonging to the modern and emancipated Western world, but a threat to tradition and national identity (Gruszczynska, 2012). A homophobic nationalism that considers rights and visibility for LGBT people as imposed by the West, especially the European Union, emerged all over Central and Eastern Europe (Chetaille, 2013). The LGBT issue became the source of a sexualized East-West divide in Europe, where the social emancipation of LGBT people is a characteristic of the post-modern Western European societies whereas social discrimination and homophobic attitudes towards LGBT are packed as tradition by nationalist groups in Central and Eastern Europe (Chetaille, 2013; Richardson, 2017). Such an “invented tradition” is even more obvious in Russia, where the label “non-traditional sexuality” is extensively used by the media to designate homosexuality and to cultivate a homophobic nationalistic discourse (Persson, 2015). As has already been said, the legal emancipation of LGBT people (through the decriminalisation of homosexuality, the granting of civil rights for LGBT people, adoption of non-discriminatory regulations; see Takács, 2015 for a complete description of the term) has taken place, to different degrees, in all EU countries in the last two decades. In the former communist countries the respect of the human rights of sexual minorities was a requirement of EU accession, and anti-discriminatory policies were adopted mostly as a result of the political will of pro-European leaders rather than by societal pressure or influential LGBT activism. The national mainstream media played only a limited role in the process. For example, in the late 1990s in Romania, the debate over the decriminalisation of homosexuality was dominated by Orthodox Church leaders who strongly opposed it. Their messages defining homosexuality as abnormal behaviour, an illness to be cured and a danger to public morality were often taken over by the media, especially television, which became the mouthpiece of homophobic discourses in Romanian society (Stan & Turcescu, 2007). While Northern European countries (mainly Protestants) were among the pioneers in the adoption of LGBT civil rights, Southern European states not belonging to the post-communist zone, like Italy, Greece and Cyprus have only recently recognized some form of same-sex unions, but not marriage (Lipke, 2017; Ozano & Giorgi, 2016). In Catholic or Christian-Orthodox countries in the South, religious institutions, which consider homosexuality a sin, are still influential in society. This may indicate that besides the East-West divide opposing post-socialist states to Western countries, a North-South divide functions as well in Europe with regard to the legal and social emancipation of LGBT people. Mainstream media failed to be a catalyst of societal change in attitudes towards LGBT rights in Italy, where the law accepting same-sex civil unions was adopted only in 2016 and after a long, heated public debate during which the media gave less voice to LGBT activists than to politicians and the Catholic Church representatives (Ozano & Giorgi, 2016). In Greece and Cyprus, stereotypic derisive images of gay men are prevalent in the media. Once a taboo subject for the Greek media, homosexuality has been transformed into a spicy subject perfectly suited for sensational television (Pavlou, 2008). The Cypriot printed media of the 2000s favoured a rather medicalized conception of homosexuality, with many

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articles giving space to psychologists trying to explain the phenomenon scientifically to the general public and encouraging acceptance simply because cures were inefficient. In TV entertainment productions of the same period a gay male stereotype constructed on a heterosexist model was prevalent. Gay men were ridiculed, being portrayed as devoid of standard physical male beauty, rather stupid, making extravagant gestures and wearing pink, all these traits ensuring their ridiculisation (Trimikliniotis & Karayanni, 2008). Nevertheless, a more recent report (Kadianaki, Panagioutou, Avraamidou, Pagratidou & Ioannou, 2017) showed that print media increased their publication of LGBT related articles from 2011–2015, focusing predominantly on political and legal issues. Particularly, coverage of the Civil Union Law of 2015 was accompanied by more positive than negative representations of LGBT people, bringing forward issues of legal rights and freedom of choice. Immorality and societal threat were nevertheless ways of negatively portraying the law during the said period.

5.4 Method of the Present Study In order to identify the latent semantic structure of the representations of LGBT as well as the evolution over time of the symbolic meanings associated with LGBT people and issues, we conducted a series of quantitative text analyses on a sample of newspaper articles, as detailed in Chap. 2 of this volume (see also Salvatore, Gennaro, Auletta, Tonti & Nitti, 2012; Salvatore et al., 2015). To build the sample, a total of 64 newspapers, both local and national, published in six European countries (Romania, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta, and the UK) between 2000 and 2015 were chosen.1 The whole time period was segmented into 5 two-year blocks for analysis: 2000–01; 2004–2005; 2008–2009; 2011–12; and 2014–15. A search was made in the electronic archives of the newspapers for articles relevant to the LGBT topic. After preliminary analyses concerning word frequencies and cooccurrences, a common set of English keywords and their combinations was agreed: Homosex! AND Gay! OR Homosex! AND Lesbian! OR Homosex! AND LGBT OR Gay! AND Lesbian! OR Gay! AND LGBT OR LGBT AND Lesbian!. The list of keywords was translated into Greek, Italian and Romanian to enable searches in the samples written in the respective languages. The resulting total of 3406 articles were distributed as shown in Table 5.1. The articles included in the analyses were selected randomly. The synchronic analysis was conducted on all six of the resulting corpora, while, due to missing data from at least three consecutive time blocks, only the Greek, Italian, Romanian and British corpora were submitted to the diachronic analysis.

1 Due to lack of searchable electronic archives before 2008 in Romania, and before 2011 in Cyprus,

in these two countries newspaper articles were collected for the remaining period.

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Table 5.1 Number of articles per temporal block per country Temporal block

Country Cyprus

Total Greece

Italy

Malta

Romania

UK

2000–2001

0

89

125

10

0

249

2004–2005

0

105

148

10

0

259

473 522

2008–2009

0

147

190

10

23

267

637 822

2011–2012

99

133

258

16

38

278

2014–2015

107

206

293

30

38

278

952

Total (2000–2015)

206

680

1014

76

99

1331

3406

5.4.1 Analyses Articles were processed through the Automated Co-occurrence Analysis for Semantic Mapping (ACASM; Salvatore et al., 2012), using T-Lab 16-Plus. This multidimensional procedure combining Correspondence Analysis and Cluster Analysis detects co-occurrences among lexemes within the same contextual units (i.e., paragraphs, or segments).2 Before running ACASM, once for each of the six national article corpora and, and once for each of the five temporal blocks, the whole article corpus was digitalized, segmented and lemmatised. The digitalisation consisted of the transformation of the textual corpus into a matrix composed of segments of text as rows and lemmas as columns, with each cell containing information concerning the presence/absence of each lemma within each segment. The segments of text—named ‘elementary context units’ (ECUs)—were created through an automatized algorithm using the paragraph—i.e., punctuation—as the parameter for segmentation. Lemmas were the result of the lemmatisation process, through which all lexical forms were categorised according to the lemmas they belonged to. An automatized lemmatisation was performed by means of the T-Lab built-in dictionaries for the Italian and English articles, while customised external dictionaries were built and imported in T-Lab for the analysis of the Greek and Romanian articles. Stop words, empty words, indexical words, and basic auxiliary verbs were excluded from the analysis by means of the T-Lab list of stop words. ACASM was then performed to detect patterns of co-occurring lexemes characterising the newspaper articles in each country. Specifically, Correspondence Analysis mapped the semantic structures underlying representational content by breaking down and re-organizing the relations between lexemes in a multidimensional structure of factorial polarities. Each pole was characterized by a set of lexemes that tended to co-occur, while simultaneously not co-occurring on the opposite pole. The outputs of the correspondence analysis were interpreted by the research teams who collected the newspaper articles in the six countries. First, they were discussed within 2 The

empirical data presented in this only refer to correspondence analysis outputs.

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each national team, and successively they were shared and validated between the different national teams, operating on consensus. Interpretation was aimed at defining the semantic structures along the two opposed factorial poles that resulted from the analysis.

5.5 Results The thematic content of the articles about LGBT people and issues was tackled by means of correspondence analyses applied to all corpora. We first present the latent semantic structures in the representations of LGBT in each country, nested beneath opposing factorial dimensions resulting from the correspondence analysis. The results of a synchronic cross-countries comparison is presented below. Lastly, we look at the evolution through time of the LGBT representations in the media, by interpreting the first two reliable factors for temporal blocks per country.3

5.5.1 Synchronic Analysis. Latent Semantic Structures Underlying the Press Representations of LGBT Figures The interpretations of the first three reliable factors resulting from the synchronic analysis per country are presented below.4 They reveal the latent semantic structures on which LGBT representations in the media were essentially constructed in each country.

5.5.1.1

Cyprus

Factor 1: Health Versus Political Issue On one hand, homosexuality is associated with health issues, namely AIDS (HIV, treatment, virus, medicine, contact, prevention, health, reduction, danger), and treated as a medical problem. On the other hand, homosexuality is viewed as an issue that is regulated by the political institutions (civil union, cohabitation, MP, legislation, parliament, debate, political party). Factor 2: Similarity Versus Difference On one pole of the factor, homosexuals are referred to as individuals to whom a regular family life can or should be granted (civil unione, cohabitation, legislation, regulation, couple, marriage, relationship). 3 Both for synchronic and diachronic analysis the lists of lexemes are included in online Annex 5.1. 4 Lexemes

loading on factor 3 for Greece and Cyprus, and both factor 1 and 3 for Malta, did not gather together around one main theme. Therefore, these factors could not be labeled and have been omitted in the current presentation of the findings.

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On the other pole, homosexuals are represented in the collective manifestation of their diversity, embodied by the gay pride parades (parade, pride, peace, festival, event).

5.5.1.2

Greece

Factor 1: Policy Versus Arts On one hand, homosexuality is considered a political and civil rights issue (right, justice), which is regulated (civil union, cohabitation, legal draft) by the political institutions and the law (minister, MP, government, parliament, law). On the other hand, homosexuality is viewed as an artistic theme, a subject that is performed and acted in plays, movies, novels, and music (play, theatre, actor, book, music, stage, art). Factor 2: Similarity Versus Difference On one pole of the factor, homosexuals are referred to as individuals to whom a regular family life can or should be granted (civil union, cohabitation, couple, child, marriage, life, family, mother, sex, father, relationship, love, legal draft). On the other pole, homosexuals are represented in the public collective manifestation of their diversity, symbolized by the gay pride events (pride, do, festival, parade, event, organization, announce, slogan).

5.5.1.3

Italy

Factor 1: Experience Versus Institution Homosexuality is addressed either as a personal experience (kid, life, feel, coming out, friend, discover, sexuality, narrate) embedded in micro-settings (family [parent], school) or as an issue regulated by the political institutions (civil union, rights, record, candidate, entry, law, resolution, parliament). Factor 2: Similarity Versus Difference On one hand, homosexuals are referred to as individuals to whom a regular family life can or should be granted (adoption, marriage, couple, sex, recognize, child, union, possibility), like everyone else. On the other hand, homosexuals are represented in the full and public manifestation of their diversity, symbolized by the gay pride events (pride, square, demonstration, parade, organize, event, party, participate). Factor 3: Morality Versus Law Homosexuality is viewed, on the one hand, as an issue to be approached on the values level, with catholic principles standing out (catholic MPs [Buttiglione, Binetti], centre-catholic party [UdC], church, catholic). On the other hand, homosexuality is conceived as regulated by jurisprudence and the body of laws in place (verdict, tribunal, court, judge, plea, lawyer).

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Malta

Factor 2: Experience Versus Institution Homosexuality is addressed either as a subjective experience (mental, love, involved emotional, life) embedded in microsettings (family [parent], school) or as an issue addressed by the political institutions (party, parliament, vote, electoral, minister, campaign, candidate).

5.5.1.5

Romania

Factor 1: Institution Versus Experience The factor contrasts the national and European regulation or the legislative process on gay civil rights (civil, partnership, deputy, vote, parliament, EU, marriage, legalize) to micro-stories of homosexuality in Romania (tell, girl, young, boy, parent, mother, loved, feel). Factor 2: Normality Versus Deviance On one pole the focus is on the normal life of homosexual couples and their right to have children (child, can, mother, couple, live, father, society). On the opposite pole, homosexuality is associated to criminal issues and deviance (report, sexual, scandal, money) and scandals related to it involving the clergy (monk, Vatican). Factor 3: Morality Versus Law On one pole LGBT is treated as a moral issue, related mostly to religious (catholic) values (pope, Vatican, catholic, church, priest), whereas on the other pole it is framed as a legal issue, related to civil rights and the struggle to get them recognized for the LGBT community (deputy, minor, civil, commission, parliament, law, document, legalize).

5.5.1.6

United Kingdom

Factor 1: Policy Versus Arts On one pole the focus is on the LGBT question as a civil rights issue (marriage, right, civil, same sex) that needs to be regulated (vote, partnership) by political institutions and the law (government, parliament, law, legislation, conservative, Tory, bishop). On the other pole the focus is on LGBT people involved in the arts (actor, life, star, writer) or on LGBT portrayals in artistic productions (story, scene, drama, love, TV, character). Factor 2: Similarity Versus Difference On one pole the LGBT issue is associated to civil rights, mainly same sex marriage (marriage, couple, civil, partnership, church, love, relationship, wedding) thus implying that LGBT people should be granted a regular family life just like everyone else. On the opposite pole LGBT people are portrayed as victims of homophobic crime and discrimination (police, crime, hate, report, bully, victim) and in the full manifestation of their diversity, symbolized by gay pride events (parade, pride, march, transgender), intended as strategies to overcome discriminatory practice in the country (campaign, organisation, project).

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Factor 3. Recognition Versus Stigma On one pole the focus is on the representation of the LGBT community as struggling to get public recognition, by means of gay pride events (parade, pride, march), artistic performances (TV, drama, perform, stage, character) or through political participation (election, party). On the opposite pole there is a medicalized view of LGBT people (HIV, AIDS, drug, treatment) and a portrayal of them as victims of mistreatment in society (bully, school, abuse, victim, homophobic, crime, hate).

5.5.2 Cross-Countries Comparisons Table 5.2 reports the synoptic chart of the factorial dimensions extracted from the country-specific analysis. A considerable similarity among the semantic structures can be observed. One factorial dimension (Similarity vs. Difference) emerged from 4 out of 6 analyses, whereas another (Experience vs. Institution) from 3 out of 6 cases. For Italy and Romania the third dimension that could be interpreted was seen in the same way (Morality vs. Law). One can add that two further factorial dimensions appear partially similar to the others. Indeed, Cyprus’ first factorial dimension (Health vs. Political issue) shares the opposition between homosexuality as something that concerns the life and actions of people, in particular the health sphere, and homosexuality as a political/institutional object. Similarly, Romania’s second factor (Normality vs. Deviance) is characterized by the connotation of homosexuality as otherness (or not) that is at the core of the factorial dimension Similarity versus Difference, present in all other countries but Malta. Table 5.2 LGBT—Factor 1, 2, and 3 per country Factor

Country Cyprus

Greece

Italy

Malta

Romania

UK

F1

Health versus Political issue

Policy versus Arts”

Experience versus Institution*

–

Institution versus Experience*

Policy versus Arts”

F2

Similarity versus Difference°

Similarity versus Difference°

Similarity versus Difference°

Experience versus Institution*

Normality versus Deviance

Similarity versus Difference°

F3

–

–

Morality versus Law§

–

Morality versus Law§

Recognition versus Stigma

Factors with similar interpretations across countries are marked with the same symbol

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Table 5.3 Semantic structures of LGBT social representation in Greece over time Factorial dimension 1

Factorial dimension 2

2000–01

Policy versus Arts*

Unclear

2004–05

Arts versus

Policy*

2008–09

Policy versus Arts*

Normative regulation versus Demand of identity°

2011–12

Policy versus

Arts*

Normative regulation versus Demand of identity°

2014–15

Arts versus Policy*

Politics versus Personal stories

Unclear

Factorial dimensions with similar interpretation are marked with the same sign

5.5.3 Diachronic Analysis By interpreting the first two reliable factors for the temporal blocks separately, we observed the evolution over time of the representations of LGBT in Greece, Italy, Romania and the UK.5 The results (Tables 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, and 5.6) show various degrees Table 5.4 Semantic structures of LGBT social representation in Italy over time Factorial dimension 1 Difference°

Factorial dimension 2

2000–01

Similarity versus

2004–05

Experience versus Institutional recognition*

Local events versus Ethical issue Similarity versus Difference°

2008–09

Experience versus Institutional recognition*

Ethical conflict versus Demand of identity

2011–12

Life events versus Political issue

Institutional recognition versus Experience*

2014–15

Experience versus Institutional recognition*

Political issue versus Law issue

Factorial dimensions with similar interpretation are marked with the same sign

Table 5.5 Semantic structures of LGBT social representation in Romania over time

Factorial dimension 1

Factorial dimension 2

2008–09

Life events versus Political issue

Unclear

2011–12

Normality versus Deviance

Experience versus Recognition*

2014–15

Experience versus Recognition*

Similarity versus Difference

Factorial dimensions with similar interpretation are marked with the same sign 5 The

diachronic analysis was not performed on the Cypriot and Maltese datasets, either because articles covered only two time blocks (Cyprus), or because the number of articles per each time block was too low (Malta) (Table 5.1).

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Table 5.6 Semantic structures of LGBT social representation in the UK over time Factorial dimension 1

Factorial dimension 2

2000–01

Experience versus Institutional recognition*

Similarity versus Difference º

2004–05

Health versus Political Issue

Policy versus Arts§

2008–09

Similarity versus Difference°

Experience versus Institutional recognition*

2011–12

Policy versus Arts§

Similarity versus Difference°

2014–15

Similarity versus Difference°

Life events versus Political issue

Factorial dimensions with similar interpretation are marked with the same sign

of similarity across the four countries, most factorial dimensions being present in more than just one country. This proves that the different forms of anchorages—i.e., LGBT as a general ethical, political or normative category; LGBT as a connotation of the single individual conveyer of actions and forms of experience—correspond across countries. The findings also demonstrate a high degree of continuity in the way the LGBT issue was represented in the media, especially in Greece, where one factorial dimension was present in all five time blocks (Policy vs. Arts), in Italy and the UK, where one dimensions (Experience vs. Institutional recognition and, respectively, Similarity vs. Difference) was present in four out of five time blocks. A certain degree of continuity can be noted also in the Romanian corpus, but data was available only for the last three time blocks.

5.6 Discussion The analyses carried out for the purpose of this study allowed us to discover the latent semantic structures on which the media representations of LGBT were built in six European countries over a period of 15 years. The countries the data came from belong to different regions of Europe, which vary with respect to the legal and social emancipation of LGBT people (Takács, 2015).Whereas Western and Northern European countries were among the first nations in the world who introduced civil rights to LGBT people and all of them currently approve same-sex marriage and some of them also the adoption of children by gay couples, in countries from Central, Eastern and Southern Europe the legal emancipation has advanced only recently and does not go that far. Some of these countries, especially those from Central and Southern Europe, accept only some form of same-sex unions, like civil partnerships, but not marriage, while others, especially the post-communist states from Eastern Europe, do not grant any such rights to gay couples. Social emancipation with regard to LGBT people, measured in various surveys by the social acceptance of LGBT people or modes of justification of homosexuality, varies significantly across the European countries, following the same pattern of differentiation as for legal emancipation (Takács, 2015).

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It is highest in Western and Northern European countries, diminished in Central and Southern Europe and lowest in Eastern Europe. Four of the countries from which our samples came—namely Cyprus, Greece, Italy, and Malta, are situated in Southern Europe. All of them currently recognize same-sex civil unions, but only Malta has authorized marriage between gay couples since 2017. Changes in the legislation about the positive rights of gay couples occurred only after 2015 in all four of these countries (Lipka, 2017). They generally report medium scores with regard to LGBT social emancipation (see Takács, 2015 for comparative results). The UK, the only Western European country in our sample, authorizes same-sex marriages (with the exception of Northern Ireland) and is among the countries with the highest social acceptance and tolerance of LGBT people in the world (Pew Research Centre, 2013). On the other hand, Romania, the only country from Eastern Europe in our study, scores very low on social acceptance of LGBT people and has no legislation granting civil unions or any positive rights for same-sex couples. Given these differences between the countries where our samples were collected, of particular importance for our study was to compare the semantic structures which circumscribe the symbolic universes loaded with LGBT social representations across countries. The results obtained from the synchronic analysis showed a high level of similarity of the semantic structures among the countries. This does not mean that the media discourses on LBGT issues are uniform across the six countries. Similar semantic structures may uphold different thematic content, depending on the sociocultural contexts in each country (Sammut & Buhagiar, 2017). But, at the same time, the similarity between some of the defining factors is indicative for the grand themes that orient the public discourse on LGBT in European countries. The factorial dimension Similarity vs Difference was the most commonly found semantic structure among the samples. It was relevant for defining the samples from Italy, Greece, Cyprus (the Southern group) and from UK, but not from Romania, the only Eastern country included in this study. On the pole which we labelled Similarity the most significant terms refer to homosexuals as individuals to which a regular life should be granted. This reveals that one of the dominant topics addressing homosexuality in those countries is about the legal emancipation of LGBT people. On the other polarity, the most significant lemmas, grouped under the label Difference, do not depict LGBT people in negative terms, but refer to the collective manifestation of their diversity through parades and marches, actions through which LGBT social emancipation is encouraged. This shared semantic structure therefore reveals that in all of the four countries the media discourses revolve around the social and legal emancipation of LGBT people. In the Maltese and Romanian samples this dimension is missing, but one pole of the factor Experience vs Institution touches the legal aspects of the LGBT emancipation, which must be regulated by political institutions. The other pole of this factor, which was also important for the Italian sample, includes terms that address homosexuality as a personal experience, embedded in the microsettings of ordinary life. This is an important sign of the progress towards the social acceptance of the members of the LBGT community (EUAFR, 2009), a trend that has been present all over Europe in recent years.

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However there are some major differences between the samples that must be stated. In Italy and Romania the debate about the recognition of civil rights for members of the LGBT community coexists with a debate about the LGBT issue centred on religious morality (factor Morality vs. Law). Although the prevailing religion is different in the two countries, namely Catholic in Italy and Christian Orthodox in Romania, in both countries religious institutions are influential and this can explain why religion serves as an anchor for the social representations circulated by the media in these countries. The Greek and British samples have in common the factor labelled Policy versus Arts which suggests that, besides presenting the LGBT issue as a political issue, the media in the two countries favour a representation of LGBT people as eccentrics involved in the arts or as characters in artistic productions. Such representations may not seem problematic at first sight, since they do not necessarily imply negative contents. Still, they may suggest that being LGBT is classed as an odd phenomenon usually existing in artistic domains rather than in the ordinary life of regular people. The factors that describe just one of the samples are even more worth discussing here since they give clear evidence of what makes the debate about LGBT issues specific in a particular country. With regard to the Cyprus sample, we found that the media discourse is structured around health topics, which indicates a medicalized conception of homosexuality favoured by the Cypriot press, which was already confirmed by Trimikliniotis and Karayanni (2008). One factor appeared only in the Romanian sample (Normality vs. Deviance). The Romanian media was the only case where LGBT people and issues were associated with criminal acts or deviance and scandal. These findings are to be linked to the rather slow progress the country has made regarding the legal and social emancipation of LGBT people (Takács, 2015). In the British sample, the pole labelled Stigma of the third factor extracted, contains lemmas referring to traditionally stigmatized illnesses, like AIDS, and to LGBT people’s experiences of stigma in society. This result shows that the association of AIDS with homosexuality, one of the most intriguing finding in studies about the social representations of AIDS (Joffe, 1995), is still persistent in British society, regardless of the fact that the British score high in tolerance and acceptance of LGBT people (Takács, 2015). The British media also portray LGBT people as victims of stigma and homophobia, which confirms the findings of Lovelock (2017) that these phenomena are still present in British society.

5.7 Conclusion The LGBT coming out from invisibility was a long process which started in the late ‘80s in the Western world. Western and Northern European countries were among the first to grant civil rights to LGBT people and score highest in the world with regard to social acceptance of homosexuality (Pew, 2013). This trend was then followed in the Southern countries of the continent and in the Central and Eastern post-socialist

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countries. However, a sexual divide still exists in Europe (Chetaille, 2013). Homophobia is still present and publicly expressed in countries such as the UK (Lovelock, 2017), but in the former socialist countries of Eastern Europe anti-gay discourses are combined with a strong nationalistic rhetoric (Chetaille, 2013). The findings of our research showed how mainstream print media have addressed homosexuality in six countries over a period of fifteen years. We found that, even if the legal and the social emancipation of LGBT people varies across the six countries, there are common semantic structures that orient media discourses on the LGBT topic and that reveal a trend towards greater social and legal emancipation of LGBT persons throughout the European countries studied.

References Asal, V., Sommer, U., & Harwood, P. (2013). Original sin: A cross-national study of the legality of homosexual acts. Comparative Political Studies, 46(3), 320–351. Ayoub, P., & Garretson, J. (2015, April). Getting the message out: Media context and global changes in attitudes toward homosexuality. Paper presented at the Western Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Las Vegas, NV. Ayoub, P., & Paternotte, D. (Eds.). (2014). LGBT activism and the making of Europe: A rainbow Europe?. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. Bancroft, J. (2009). Human sexuality and its problems. Edinburgh, UK: Churchill Livingstone/Elsevier. Bartley, L., & Hidalgo-Tenorio, E. (2015). Constructing perceptions of sexual orientation: A corpusbased critical discourse analysis of transitivity in the Irish press. Estudios Irlandeses, 10, 14–34. Bili´c, B. (2016). Europeanisation, LGBT activism, and non-heteronormativity in the post-Yugoslav space: An introduction. In B. Bili´c (Ed.), LGBT activism and Europeanisation in the post-Yugoslav space: On the rainbow way to Europe (pp. 1–22). London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. Chetaille, A. (2013). Une «autre Europe» homophobe? Raisons Politiques, 1(49), 119–140. Dow, B. (2001). Ellen, television, and the politics of gay and lesbian visibility. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 18(2), 123–140. Dyer, R. (1993). The matter of images. London, UK: Routledge. European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). (2009). Homophobia and discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity in the EU member states: Part II—The social situation. Retrieved from: http://fra.europa.eu/en/country-report/2009/countryreports-homophobia-and-discrimination-grounds-sexual-orientation-and. Farr, R. M. (1995). Representations of health, illness and handicap in the mass media of communication: A theoretical overview. In I. Marková & R. M. Farr (Eds.), Representations of health, illness and handicap (pp. 3–30). Chur, Switzerland: Harwood Academic Publishers. Fejes, F., & Petrich, K. (1993). Invisibility and heterosexism: Lesbians, gays and the media. Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 10(4), 396–422. Gross, L. (2012). Up from invisibility: Lesbians, gay men, and the media in America. New York, NY: Columbia University Press. Gruszczynska, A. (2012). Parades of pride or shame: Documenting LGBTQ visibility in Central and Eastern Europe. Sextures, 2(2), 1–5. Jäckle, S., & Wenzelburger, G. (2015). Religion, religiosity, and the attitudes toward homosexuality. A multilevel analysis of 79 countries. Journal of Homosexuality, 62(2), 207–241. Joffe, H. (1995). Social representations of AIDS: Towards encompassing issues of power. Papers on Social Representations, 4(1), 29–40.

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Jowett, A. (2014). ‘But if you legalise same-sex marriage…’: Arguments against marriage equality in the British press. Feminism & Psychology, 24(1), 37–55. Jowett, A., & Peel, E. (2010). Seismic cultural change?”: British media representations of same-sex ‘marriage’. Women’s Studies International Forum, 33(3), 206–214. Kadianaki, I., Panagiotou, E., Avraamidou, M., Pagkratidou, M., & Ioannou, M. (2017). Lesbian, gay, bisexual & transgender content in Greek-Cypriot newspapers. Nicosia, Greece: University of Cyprus. Lipka, M. (2017). Where Europe stands on gay marriage and civil unions. Pew research center. Retrieved from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/06/30/where-europe-stands-on-gaymarriage-and-civil-unions/. Lovelock, M. (2017). Fifty years of gay rights but some in the British media are peddling the same homophobia. The Conversation, July 25, 2017. Retrieved from: https://theconversation.com/fiftyyears-of-gay-rights-but-some-in-the-british-media-are-peddling-the-same-homophobia-81465. Mongie, L. D. (2016). Critical discourse analysis as queer linguistics: Religious pro-and anti-LGBT equality framing and counterframing in two letters to the editor in the city press. Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus, 49(1), 23–43. O’Connor, C. (2017). ‘Appeals to nature’ in marriage equality debates: A content analysis of newspaper and social media discourse. British Journal of Social Psychology, 56(3), 493–514. Ozano, L., & Giorgi, A. (2016). European culture wars and the Italian case. Which side are you on?. London, New York, NY: Routledge. Pavlou, M. (2008). The Situation concerning homophobia and discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation in Greece. Sociological Country Report. Retrieved from: http://www.i-red.eu/?i= institute.en.publications.37. Pearce, F. (1973). How to be immoral and ill, pathetic and dangerous, all at the same time: Mass media and the homosexual. In. C. Cohen & J. Young (Eds.), The manufacture of news: Social problems, deviance and the mass media (pp. 284–301). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications. Persson, E. (2015). Banning ‘homosexual propaganda’. Belonging and visibility in contemporary Russian media. Sexuality and Culture, 19(2), 256–274. Pew Research Center (2013). The global divide on homosexuality. Report. Retrieved from: http:// www.pewglobal.org/2013/06/04/the-global-divide-on-homosexuality/. Pullen, C. (2012). Introduction. In C. Pullen (Ed.), LGBT transnational identity and the media (pp. 1–20). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. Richardson, D. (2017). Sexuality and citizenship. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Rojas-Lizana, I. (2011). Justifying and condemning sexual discrimination in everyday discourse: Letters to the editor in the Australian local press. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(2), 663–676. Russo, V. (1987). The celluloid closet (revised ed.). New York, NY: Harper & Row. Salvatore, S., Gelo, O. G., Gennaro, A., Metrangolo, R., Terrone, G., Pace, V., et al. (2015). An automated method of content analysis for psychotherapy research: A further validation. Psychotherapy research, 25(4), 1–13. Salvatore, S., Gennaro, A., Auletta, A., Tonti, M., & Nitti, M. (2012). Automated method of content analysis. A device for psychotherapy process research. Psychotherapy Research, 22(3), 256–273. Sammut, G., & Buhagiar, L. J. (2017). The sociocultural determination of planned behaviour. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 51(1), 164–170. Stan, L., & Turcescu, L. (2007). Religion and politics in post-communist Romania. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Takács, J. (2015). Homophobia and genderphobia in the European Union. Policy contexts and empirical evidence. Stockhold: Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies SIEPS, 2015:1. Retrieved from: http://sieps.se/sites/default/files/Sieps%2020151web.pdf.

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Tamagne, F. (2000). Histoire de l’homosexualité en Europe. Paris, France: Éditions Seuil. Trimikliniotis, N., & Karayanni, S. S. (2008). The situation concerning homophobia and discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation. Cyprus country Report March 2008 Policy Document for Simifiliosi. Retrieved from: http://www.statewatch.org/news/2010/jan/cyprus-homophobiareport.pdf.

Alina Pop is Senior Lecturer of Communication Psychology at the “Dimitrie Cantemir” Christian University of Bucharest, Romania. She holds a Ph.D. in Social representations and Communication from the University of Rome “La Sapienza”. Her research interest focuses on the construction and communication of social representations in conflict situations and the role of social representations in coping with social conflicts. She authored a book and several scientific articles. Evrinomy Avdi is associate professor in clinical psychology at the School of Psychology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. She is a clinical psychologist, psychodynamic psychotherapist and dramatherapist. Her research interests lie in applying discursive and narrative research to the study of the process of psychotherapy, as well as the experience of serious illness. She is particularly interested in exploring the links between deconstructive research and actual clinical practice. Irini Kadianaki is an Assistant Professor of Social Psychology at the Department of Psychology, University of Cyprus. She has received a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Athens and an M.Phil. and a Ph.D. in Social and Developmental Psychology from the University of Cambridge, UK. Her research focuses on the interconnection between representations and identities concerning social groups that are frequent targets of stigmatization, such as migrants, LGBT people and people diagnosed with mental illness. She is part of the editorial board of the journal “Culture & Psychology”. Ifigeneia Koutri holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. Her main scientific interests are narrative psychology, meaning making, illness narratives, narrative identity, understanding experiences of illness, trauma and other disruptive life events, and social identity change in time of crisis in Europe. Anna Mylona is a clinical psychologist. She holds a degree in psychology and a master’s degree in social clinical psychology both from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She is Ph.D. candidate of Psychology at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki-School of Psychology. Her thesis is titled “Therapeutic Interaction in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy. Verbal, non-verbal and Bodily Synchrony”. Her research experience is mostly in conducting qualitative studies in psychotherapy. Her main research interests concern the study of psychotherapy change processes through qualitative method. She has worked as a research associate in two European funded research projects (“Relational Mind in events of change in multi-actor therapeutic dialogues” and “ReCriRe-Between the representation of the crisis and crisis of representation”). Currently, she is working as a clinical psychologist in private practice in Thessaloniki, Greece. Alessia Rochira is assistant researcher in social psychology at the University of Salento—Lecce, Department of History, Society and Human Studies. Her research interests cover several topics at the crossroads between social and community psychology, such as interethnic relations, acculturation, sense of community, community resilience, social representations, common sense justice and legal compliance.

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Gordon Sammut is senior lecturer in social psychology at the University of Malta and visiting fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research interests concern intercultural and intergroup relations, social influence, the spiral of conflict and group polarisation, attributions of ignorance in outgroup evaluations and issues relating to divergent perspectives in social relations. In particular, his recent work has focused on European perspectives towards Arab integration in Europe. He is coeditor of Papers on Social Representations and chief-editor of Cultural Encounters and Social Solidarity [special issue: Papers on Social Representations], The Cambridge Handbook of Social Representations [Cambridge University Press], Understanding Self and Others: Explorations in Intersubjectivity and Interobjectivity [Routledge], and Methods of Psychological Intervention: Yearbook of Idiographic Science Vol. VII [Information Age]. Rozlyn R. Redd holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Columbia University, USA. She is currently research associate at the Imperial College, London. She has been postdoc researcher at University of Leicester during the RECRIRE project.

Chapter 6

The Salience of Otherness Sergio Salvatore, Viviana Fini, Terri Mannarini, Ahmet Suerdem and Giuseppe A. Veltri

6.1 Affective Sense-Making and Its Salience Semiotic Cultural Psychology Theory (SCPT; Salvatore, 2016; Valsiner, 2007, 2014), which along with the Theory of Social Representations, constitutes the conceptual framework of the research work documented in the present volume, claims that the social representations of social objects, which shape how people think of themselves and take positions accordingly (Moscovici, 1961/1976; see also, inter alia, Jodelet, 1991; Bauer & Gaskell, 1999; Sammut & Buhagiar, 2017), are in turn embedded in hyper-generalized, embodied, affect-laden systems of meanings—called “lines of semiotic force” and “symbolic universes” by SCPT. These systems of meanings are

Electronic supplementary material The online version of this chapter (https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36099-3_6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users S. Salvatore (B) “La Sapienza” University of Rome, Rome, Italy e-mail: [email protected] V. Fini ISBEM, Mesagne, Italy e-mail: [email protected] T. Mannarini University of Salento, Lecce, Italy e-mail: [email protected] A. Suerdem Istanbul Bilgi University, Istanbul, Turkey e-mail: [email protected] G. A. Veltri University of Trento, Trento, Italy e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 T. Mannarini et al. (eds.), Media and Social Representations of Otherness, Culture in Policy Making: The Symbolic Universes of Social Action, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36099-3_6

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active within the cultural milieu and provide the fundamental sense of the experience taken as a whole (Rochira, Mannarini, Fini, & Salvatore, in press; Salvatore & Venuleo, 2013; Salvatore et al., 2018a). Access to the social representation is mediated and channelled by such affect-laden meanings (Salvatore & Freda, 2011; Valsiner, 2007): they steer individuals to foreground certain parts of the network of meanings and to background the rest (Salvatore, 2016). The role played by affective sense-making reflects two main characteristics of affects. First, affects are generalized categories of meanings that are independent of semantic relationships, as a result of their being the outcome of the mind’s unconscious way of functioning (the primary process in psychoanalytic terminology; Matte Blanco, 1975). This means that two or more contents/categories having no semantic similarity can be merged as a result of their similar affective valence—e.g., both being associated to the generalized meaning of goodness (Tonti & Salvatore, 2015). An example of such a process of sense-making is provided by the comparison of immigrants to criminals, which is due to the fact that the two independent semantic categories are merged in the affective class of persecutory otherness. Second, affects play a higher-order, regulative function, that is, they work as an embodied system of assumptions that channels and constrains the way of feeling, thinking, and acting. Here and henceforth we use the term salience to denote the capacity of affective sense-making to channel and constrain thinking and decision making. Several studies have provided indirect and direct indications of the salience of affective sense-making. Latent, affect-laden generalized dimensions of meaning (i.e., evaluation, power, and activity) characterize the way people tend to represent objects, as shown by the copious literature on Semantic Differential (Osgood, Suci, & Tannenbaum, 1957). These three dimensions are of a higher order with respect to—and therefore independent from—the semantic content of objects. As proof of this, Turvey, Fertig, and Kravetz (1969) discovered the efficacy of the prime effect on the basis of the similarity of the affective valence between the prime and the target stimulus, even in the absence of a semantic association. Again, according to Emotional Response Categorization Theory (ERCT; Niedenthal, Halberstadt, & InnesKer, 1999) individuals tend to create categories of objects regardless of their semantic relationship, on the basis of the object’s emotional tone. Consistent with this view, by means of a path modelling procedure applied to a sample of Italian psychology degree students, Mannarini, Nitti, Ciavolino, and Salvatore (2012) found that a second-order, overarching system of hyper-generalized, a-semantic, affect-laden meanings had a regulative influence on subjects’ domainspecific representations of different objects semantically independent of each other (e.g., the social context; the university; the profession of psychologist). As a result of this super-ordered effect, the domain-specific representations proved to be mutually related, despite their reciprocal semantic independency. Similar findings were found by Ciavolino and colleagues (2017), who, using a comparable methodological approach on a UK representative sample, provided empirical evidence in support to the SCPT view of hyper-generalized, a-semantic and affect-laden systems of meaning referring to the reality as a whole and having a regulative function on people’s modes of interpreting the specific objects of their experience.

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Recently, a survey aimed at mapping the European societies’ cultural milieu identified five basic symbolic universes, each of them consisting of a generalized worldview. Analyses showed that each of these symbolic universes merges together meanings that have no semantic linkage with each other but that share the same affective valence (Salvatore et al., 2018a). The five symbolic universes identified proved to have an impact on attitudes towards social issues—e.g. perception of foreigners, sense of justice, sense of belonging to the community (Salvatore et al., in press/b)— on the choice at the Brexit referendum (Veltri, Redd, Mannarini, & Salvatore, 2019), as well as on the distribution of perceptive attention in response to an iconic stimulus (a photo picturing political figures) (Salvatore, Rochira, & Kharlamov, 2019). Moreover, in a study of the electoral choices based on a representative Italian sample, the preference for mainstream parties vs unconventional (i.e., populist) political groups was shown to depend on domain-specific meanings (i.e., value of democracy and sense of civicness) which in turn were activated by symbolic universes (Mannarini, Salvatore, & Rochira, 2018). An important implication that can be drawn from the recognition of the working of affective sense-making is that the representation of any specific discrete object can be expected to vary as a function of the variable salience of affective sense-making (Mannarini et al., 2012): the more the activation of affective sense-making, the more its salience on the representation of the object. Namely, the more the activation of affective sense-making, the more the representation will reflect hyper-generalized, a-semantic affect-laden meanings rather than the semantic specificity of the object. Several studies have shown that a high affective activation is associated with a lower capacity to take into account the specificity of the object’s reality. The classical studies by Murphy and Zajonc (1993) provided robust evidence as to the fact that latent affective activation guides the evaluation of stimuli in spite of the fact that they are void of semantic content. The Terror Management Theory (Greenberg & Arndt, 2012; Solomon, Greenberg, & Pyszczynski, 1991) holds that, when salient, a basic affective state—the anxiety of death—works as a super-ordered regulator of the way of thinking and behaving in social contexts. Tonti and Salvatore (2015) demonstrated a relation between the level of affective activation and the tendency to make evaluations of socially relevant objects (e.g., immigrants, the future) that were extreme (e.g. “very much” or “not at all”) and homogenizing, namely assimilating and equating every specimen to the general category. Venuleo, Salvatore and Mossi (2015) showed that a high level of generalized affect-laden meanings was predictive of college dropout in a sample of freshers. Finally, it is worth referring to a series of studies (e.g., Nitti, Ciavolino, Salvatore, & Gennaro, 2010) that have shown that good outcomes in psychotherapy can be modeled in terms of within-session incidence of generalized meanings (interpretable as affective frame) exchanged between patient and therapist. Besides research, the current socio-political scenario provides many further instances of the strong impact that affects can have on thinking. People tend to make choices and to act in accordance to their emotional activation—i.e. in the terms of the friend-foe category (see below), even when the consequences of that approach are clearly against their interests (e.g., the opposition to migrants by those

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who should have a major interest in integrating them). As a result, people keep themselves blind to—and actively defend themselves from—relevant information (e.g., see the support for Trump, despite the evident falseness and inconsistency of many of his statements). Again, they prefer short-term solutions, without considering their actual medium period impact (for instance, seeking the immediate emotional impact of decisions, backgrounding the medium period effect, is one of the definitions of populist policies, see Taggart, 2002). Finally, they are prone to endorse simplistic Manichean visions of reality (such as those proposed by ultra-right wing and populist parties). In all these cases, thinking seems motivated by the need to seek/retain inner consistency and identity cohesion, regardless of the constraints of reality. There are theoretical reasons to see these phenomena of mobilisation of the affects in social life as the manifestation of an underlying socio-cultural dynamics, consisting of the widespread increase in the salience of affective sense-making in Western societies. This can be understood if one takes into account that the stability of the frame of meaning is a fundamental need for the sense-maker—it enables the individual to extract regularities from the reality, and thus make the experience of it meaningful (Salvatore, 2016). Therefore, it has to be maintained at any cost, even at the cost of becoming blind to the constraints of reality. Now, due to their hypergeneralized, a-semantic, and homogenizing valence, affect-laden meanings simplify the representation of the world, and in so doing they provide individuals with the stability of their frame of sense on which their very experience of reality is grounded. Accordingly, the greater the uncertainty (unpredictability, hyper-variability, opacity, incomprehensibility) of the social world to which individuals are exposed, the more they resort to affective sense-making to stabilize the frame of sense through the simplification of the contextual variability. The friend/foe schema is paradigmatic of this affective simplification-forstabilization process: the infinite, intertwined components of the complexity of contemporary social life are homogenized, and thus reduced to just the fundamental difference that splits the world into two oppositional classes—we versus them. The success of Trump’s claim America first shows the power of simplification-forstabilization: by reducing complexity, it provides the individual with absolute clarity as to who she/he is, who is the other, what is desirable and what is not, what to want and what to avoid, and what to do to get it. Needless to say, this homogeneous, ultra-simplifying dichotomous interpretation of the world is unable to support people in understanding and efficaciously addressing the complexity of contemporary life; yet it is extraordinarily powerful in providing stability to the frame of sense, which makes social life an ordered and meaningful experience. In short, the affective nature of many current social discourses and practices makes them construable as the way broader and broader segments of society address the semiotic task of restoring/maintaining the stability of their frames of sense. This task is necessary as long as such frames are relentlessly undermined by the increasing uncertainty brought about by the radicalization of globalization processes (Salvatore et al., 2018b).

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6.2 Affective Sense-Making and the Social Representations of Otherness: A Meta-Analysis The Re.Cri.Re. investigation of the social representations of different social objects (Islam, immigration, LGBT, subjectivity, participation, health) conveyed by the press in several European countries provides a special chance to deepen the understanding of the level of affective sense-making and of the role it plays in contemporary sociocultural dynamics. More specifically, the findings of the Re.Cri.Re. investigation enable us to address two core questions drawn from SCPT. The first question concerns the SCPT hypothesis of the embeddedness of the social representations within affective sense-making. More specifically, according to this hypothesis, it was expected that the semantic structures organizing the social representations of relevant objects were construable as local and domain-specific instantiations of the basic hyper-generalized, a-semantic, embodied, affect-laden meanings that constitute the European societies’ cultural milieu (Hp1). The second question concerns the SCPT hypothesis of the relation between contextual uncertainty and the salience of affective sense-making. More specifically, it was expected that the more the contextual uncertainty associated with/conveyed by the object of social representation, the more the salience of affective sense-making, hence its influence over social representation (Hp2).

6.2.1 Method 6.2.1.1

Design

The research questions were addressed by means of a meta-analysis of the analyses of the social representations of the three ‘others’ outlined in Chaps. 3, 4, and 5 (i.e., immigration, Islam, and LGBT people). The meta-analysis pursued two purposes. First, it focused on the semantic structures identified at the first-level analysis— i.e., the basic dimension of oppositional meanings constituting the content of the social representation, identified by means of lexical correspondence analysis (for the rationale and the methodological details, see Chap. 2)—with the aim of testing whether they can be considered manifestations of the hyper-generalized, affect-laden meanings of affective sense-making. To this end, the meta-analysis referred to the map of affect-laden meanings in terms of lines of ‘semiotic force’ carried out by the Re.Cri.Re. survey (Salvatore et al., 2019a; see also Veltri et al., 2019). A line of semiotic force consists of a basic oppositional affect-laden latent dimension of sense that is active in the cultural milieu, which channels/constrains the sense-maker’s interpretation of the experience. The term ‘semiotic force’ highlights the analogy with the notion of field in physics (Salvatore, Lauro-Grotto, Gennaro, & Gelo, 2009): just as a line of electromagnetic force shapes the electromagnetic field, and the distribution of the iron filings on it, a line of semiotic force shapes the way meanings combine

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with each other in the semiotic field, that is, the field of social discourses and practices. Accordingly, lines of semiotic force are considered the basic structures whose variable combination produces the affect-laden meanings shaping the interpretation of reality (for details on the theoretical framework, method and results, see Salvatore, Valsiner, & Veltri, 2019). Second, the meta-analysis was designed to compare the semantic structures of the social representation of each object across countries, and to estimate the relation of the level of similarity among the semantic structures of each object with the degree of exposure to otherness characterizing that object (henceforth: degree of otherness). This was done on the basis of the two following methodological assumptions. On the one hand, the degree of similarity was considered the operative way of estimating the salience of affective sense-making. In fact, the more similar the semantic structures of the social representation of a given object across countries, the more these representations can be viewed as generalized meanings, a-specific as to the sociocultural context they refer to (i.e., the country). Generalization is taken as a sign of the salience of affective sense-making. On the other hand, each object was estimated in its degree of exposure to contextual uncertainty, as a result of the level of otherness characterizing it. On the basis of these two assumptions, from the SCPT view of the relation between contextual uncertainty and the salience of affective sense (on the way of restoring the stability of people’s frames of sense, see above, Sect. 6.1), we hypothesized that the greater the object’s degree of otherness, the greater the similarity of the semantic structures in the social representations of that object among countries.

6.2.1.2

Domain of Analysis

The meta-analysis focused firstly on the analysis of the three objects reported in Chaps. 3 (immigration), 4 (Islam), and 5 (LGBT ) of this volume. For the second focus, i.e. the relation between the similarity of the semantic structures and the degree of otherness (see the following sub-section), three further objects were included— health, participation and subjectivity, each of them analysed in three countries. The expansion was designed to provide the meta-analysis with control cases to be used for increasing the between-object variability required for testing the hypothesis. Table 6.1 reports the analyses included in the meta-analysis, broken down by the objects as well as the country each of them focuses on. The analyses covered six countries (Cyprus, Italy, Greece, Malta, Romania, the UK),1 corresponding to four languages (English, Greek, Italian, Romanian). Twenty-six analyses were included in the meta-analysis; however, due to resource constraints the object*country distribution is incomplete. Each country*object combination underwent a separate procedure of analysis. The analyses focusing on the three additional objects (health, participation and subjectivity) sourced data from the same newspapers, used the same criteria for defining 1 France

was not included in the meta-analysis because less than two objects were covered.

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Table 6.1 Domain of analysis Object

Country Cyprus

Total Greece

Italy

Malta

Romania

United Kingdom

Health

0

1

1

0

0

1

3

Participation

0

1

1

1

0

0

3

Subjectivity

0

1

1

0

0

1

3

Islam

0

1

1

1

1

1

5

Homosexuality

1

1

1

1

1

1

6

Immigration

1

1

1

1

1

1

6

Total (No. of analyses)

2

6

6

3

4

4

26

Table 6.2 Keywords used to retrieve newspaper articles Object

Keywords

Participation

“political participation” OR “civic participation” OR “citizen participation” OR “democratic participation” OR “active citizenship” OR “political disengagement” OR “electoral abstention” OR nonvoting AND elections OR participation AND democracy OR participation AND politics

Health

illness OR wellbeing OR healthcare OR health OR nutrition OR “mental health” OR disease OR medicines

Subjectivity

“sense of self” OR self-concept OR self! AND identity OR person! AND identity OR person! AND self! OR (feelings OR emotion) AND (Identity OR self! OR person!) OR (feelings OR emotion) AND experience OR subjectivity

the universe as well as the same methodological parameters as the analyses performed on immigration, Islam and LGBT. The ACASM computational criteria were also the same, as well as the time period considered (2000–2015). This was done in order to make these additional analyses comparable with the previous ones. Keywords used to select articles concerning immigration, Islam, and LGBT are reported in Chaps. 3, 4 and 5. As for the selection of articles related to health, participation and subjectivity, keywords are displayed in Table 6.2. Table 6.3 presents the samples of articles broken down by country, time blocks and object.

6.2.1.3

Procedure and Measures

As mentioned, the meta-analysis focused on two complementary facets. On the one hand, on the relation between semantic structures and affective sense-making. On the other hand, on the relation between the similarity between the semantic structures organizing the social representations of the objects and the degree of otherness of the objects.

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Table 6.3 Selected articles × newspapers Country

Block

Object

Cyprus

2000–2001

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

2004–2005

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

2008–2009

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

2011–2012

0

0

99

0

149

0

248

2014–2015

0

0

107

0

152

0

259 507

Health

Total Greece

Italy

Romania

United Kingdom

Subjectivity

LGBT

Islam

Immigration

Participation

0

0

206

0

301

0

2000–2001

111

101

89

111

111

111

634

2004–2005

128

122

105

115

122

121

713

2008–2009

168

162

147

137

162

137

913

2011–2012

207

180

133

172

200

165

1057

2014–2015

228

210

206

193

238

223

1298

Total

842

775

680

728

833

757

4615

2000–2001

129

84

125

111

114

119

682

2004–2005

248

96

148

167

164

174

997

2008–2009

296

80

190

193

205

202

1166

2011–2012

301

86

258

270

283

290

1488

2014–2015

280

112

293

288

276

282

1531

1254

458

1014

1029

1042

1067

5864

2000–2001

0

0

10

10

10

10

40

2004–2005

0

0

10

10

10

10

40

2008–2009

0

0

10

10

10

10

40

2011–2012

0

0

16

25

18

19

78

2014–2015

0

0

30

30

26

30

116

Total

0

0

76

85

74

79

314

2000–2001

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

2004–2005

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

2008–2009

0

0

23

29

30

0

82

2011–2012

0

0

38

35

34

0

107

Total Malta

Total

2014–2015

0

0

38

37

37

0

112

Total

0

0

99

101

101

0

301

2000–2001

258

255

249

250

250

0

1262

2004–2005

268

268

259

267

268

0

1330

2008–2009

278

278

267

273

232

0

1328

2011–2012

267

278

278

246

259

0

1328

2014–2015

279

278

278

275

278

0

1388

1350

1357

1331

1311

1287

0

6636

Total

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111

For the first focus (the relation between semantic structures and affective sensemaking), the meta-analysis followed the methodological tenet of theory-driven abstractive generalization (Salvatore, 2014). More specifically, the meta-analysis used the map of affective meanings in terms of “lines of semiotic force” made by the Re.Cri.Re. analysis of the European societies’ cultural milieus (Salvatore et al., 2019a). Accordingly, the semantic structures were analysed in terms of whether—and if so, in what respect—each of them could be classified as a specimen of one of the general meanings detected by the lines of semiotic force. This analysis procedure was carried out by a team of three skilled judges (all of them involved in the authorship of the work: SS, VF, TM), who worked on the basis of a consensual procedure that eventually led to unanimous interpretations. The Re.Cri.Re. survey was based on the VOC (View of Context) questionnaire (Ciavolino et al., 2017), concerning several domains of experience (e.g., trustworthiness of institutions, view of the future, goal of life, perceptions of other people, sense of agency, etc.), which was administered in eleven European countries. The analyses identified three main lines of semiotic force (see Salvatore et al., 2019a, for details). Line of Semiotic Force 1: Affective Connotation of the World—Friend Versus Foe The first line of semiotic force polarizes two opposed, generalized, affect-laden ways of connoting the field of experience as a whole. On the one hand, a positive connotation that qualifies the world as a fine, trustworthy object, lending itself to be engaged with [Agencies and institutions are reliable resources. Trust in people, and the future. Sense of control and agency on one’s life. Rejection of familism, centrality of meaningfulness and shared values]; on the other hand, a negative connotation qualifying it as unfair, meaningless, unreliable [the future is expected to be worse; no chance to think of it. The present is worse than the past. Agencies and institutions are highly unreliable; institutions are unwilling to take care of people’s requests; people are unreliable too, motivated by selfish interests and unable to change. Sense of pessimism, impotency, passivity; rejection of otherness. Rules and moral constraints do not count nor do social and cognitive resources; what counts is power and conformism]. Accordingly, this line of semiotic force was interpreted as consisting of the very basic, affective connotation of the world, in terms of the generalized opposition: foe versus friend. Line of Semiotic Force 2: Direction of Desire—Passivity Versus Engagement The second line of semiotic force has been interpreted as concerning of the direction of desire, namely the subjective position towards the world: passivity versus engagement. Passivity is characterized by the sense of dependency on institutions, agencies and primary networks, thanks to which individuals can cope with the uncertain world [Sense of passivity weakness, uncertainty, lack of control over one’s life, distrust towards people, the present as well as the future. Agencies—starting from those concerning control (Police) and care (Health services) are quite reliable, and together with belonging to the network of primary bonds, conformism and acceptance of power games are the ways to adjust to life successfully]. Engagement is characterized by the sense of agency, fostered by trust in people and institutions.

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[Trust in people, in their willingness to change as well as in agency. The present is better than the past and the future will be far better than the present, though not for one’s place of living. Sense of agency and ability to engage with issues, rejection of any feeling of lack of control over one’s life or passivity, however with the recognition of the fact that one cannot be the creator of one’s destiny in the current conditions of uncertainty. Rejection of conformism, power, as well as familistic and illegal/immoral strategies. Valorisation of otherness.] This line of semiotic force concerns the meaning of the world as the source of the action directed towards the subject (i.e., passivity) or, in contrast, as the goal of the subject’s investment (i.e., engagement). Line of Semiotic Force 3: Form of the Demand—Demand for Systemic Resources Versus Demand for Community Identity The third line of semiotic force has been interpreted as consisting of the opposition between two forms of demand, namely two basic views of what is one’s fundamental need: the demand for systemic resources versus the demand for community bonds. In the first case, the demand concerns functional devices and services needed to address a challenging, uncertain world [High trust in institutions and agencies, in an unpredictable world, which is destined to get worse in the future, and makes one unable to have control over one’s life. Thus, one has to give up the idea that one’s effort can change things and people, with the latter following norms and rules only. The only strategy consists of resigning oneself to give up any further aspiration and rely on those who have power and be part of the majority, even if this is in contrast with moral constraints]. In the second case, the demand concerns the need to make life meaningful in spite of the untrustworthiness of institutions; the valuable meaning lies in the significant, vital participation in community bonds, namely bonds that go beyond the primary linkages (i.e., beyond the relation with family and close friends) [Sense of agency and control over one’s life. Trust in people’s ability to change, and in the future—but no faith in possible development of the place one lives—in spite of the unreliability of institutions and agencies. Rejection of conformism, power, and unethical attitudes; commitment to significant social linkages that involves the relevance of defending one’s reputation with others]. As regards the second focus, the meta-analysis was carried out in the following steps: (1) evaluation of the (dis)similarity of the semantic structures of the social representations of each object among countries; (2) quantification of the degree of similarity of the semantic structures in the social representations of each object among countries; (3) estimation of the degree of otherness characterizing each object; (4) calculation of the relation between the similarity of the semantic structures and the degree of otherness characterizing each object. In detail: (1) The similarities among the semantic structures was assessed by the same team of three judges involved in the first task of analysis, also in this case on the

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basis of a consensual procedure. To this end, judges were asked to provide a dichotomous choice (yes/no) as to the similarity between each pair of semantic structures subjected to comparison. Disagreements were discussed and solved. (2) The quantification of the degree of similarity within each object among countries was calculated through an ad hoc index—the Within-Object/Cross-Country Similarity index (WOS). WOS was calculated for each given object, as the total number of semantic structures obtained from all analyses performed on that object (one for each country) divided by the number of types of semantic structures that emerged. In brief, WOS consists of a token/type ratio. (3) The degree of exposure to otherness (henceforth DEO) associated with the six objects was estimated by five independent blind judges on a 5-point Likert scale (from very low to very high). Judges were asked to estimate to what extent each object implied a disruptive and/or problematic distance/difference from oneself/one’s state of being. In order to increase the reliability of estimations, scores were averaged and grouped in three ordinal categories—low, medium and high level of DEO. (4) The relation between the similarity of the semantic structures concerning each object and the objects’ degree of otherness was calculated by means of Kendall’s tau coefficient of correlation applied to the matrix defined by the WOS-DEO scores associated with the six objects. The choice of a non-parametric test was due to the narrow set of cases (six objects) and the metric of data (DEO was calculated on an ordinal scale).

6.3 Results In what follows five groups of elements are outlined. Preliminarily, (1) Tables 6.3, 6.4 and 6.5 provide a brief outline of the semantic structures emerging from the first-order analyses focused on immigration, Islam and LGBT (details are reported in Chaps. 3, 4 and 5—Outputs in online Annexes 3.1, 4.1, and 5.1). After that, (2) results concerning the first focus of the meta-analysis—i.e., the relation between the semantic structures and affective sense-making—are presented. Following that, results related to the second focus of the meta-analysis—the study of the similarities among semantic structures and their relation with the objects’ degree of otherness—are reported. To this end, preliminarily (3) the interpretation of the semantic structures of the three additional objects (health, participation and subjectivity) is briefly described and (4) presented synoptically.2 Finally, (5) the analysis of the relation between similarities and the objects’ degree of otherness is presented.

2 The

lists of lexemes are included in online Annex 6.1.

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Table 6.4 Overview of the semantic structures emerging from the analysis of the representation of immigration Semantic structure

Country Cyprus

Greece

Italy

F1

Personal stories versus policy*

Personal stories versus policy*

F2

Humanity versus administration°

F3

Crime versus economic system#

Malta

Romania

UK

Integration Religion versus versus emergency§ crime#

Personal stories versus policy*

–

–

Policy versus personal stories*

–

Local issue versus global issue

Personal stories versus policy*

Local versus global issue°

Humanity versus administration°

Personal stories versus policy*

Emergency Politics versus versus integration§ crime#

Semantic structures with similar interpretations across countries are marked with the same symbol (i.e., *, §, °, #) Table 6.5 Overview of the semantic structures emerged from the analysis of the representation of Islam Semantic structure

Country Greece

Italy

Malta

Romania

UK

F1

Situated phenomenon versus global issue*

Global issue versus situated phenomenon*

Situated phenomenon versus global issue*

Threat versus recognition°

Global issue versus situated phenomenon*

F2

Threat versus recognition°

Recognition versus threat°

Power versus powerlessness

Global issue versus situated phenomenon*

Measures versus personal stories

F3

Domestic versus foreign affairs

Politics versus religion§

Threat versus recognition°

Politics versus religion§

Recognition versus threat°

Semantic structures with similar interpretations across countries are marked with the same symbol (i.e., *, §, °)

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6.3.1 A Synoptic View of the Semantic Structures Underlying the Representations of Immigration, Islam, and LGBT People The analysis focusing on immigration was carried out on six countries and identified seven types of semantic structures, corresponding to fifteen occurrences (tokens). In three cases the data did not allow reliable interpretations (Table 6.4). The synoptic view suggests a strong similarity among semantic structures. One semantic structure (Personal stories vs. Policy) was present as first or second component in all the analyses; the semantic structure Humanity versus Administration occurred in two countries. Incidentally, this is the factorial dimension where on one of the polarities the anchorage to the emergency of the arrival of refugees by sea is salient. It is not surprising that this factorial dimension is present in the Mediterranean countries (with the exception of Malta). Also a third semantic structure was found in more than one country—Integration versus Emergency, which was present in Italy and Romania. Moreover, the polarity Crime occurred in three out of four other semantic structures, though in juxtaposition with different anchorages—Religion (Malta), Politics (UK), and Economic System (Cyprus). The analysis focusing on Islam was carried out on five countries and identified six types of semantic structures, corresponding to fifteen tokens (cf. Table 6.5). The first (Situated phenomenon vs. Global issue) and second (Threat vs. Recognition) semantic structures were detected in all the countries. Moreover, the contrast between Islam as a political matter as opposed to a religious issue (Politics vs. Religion) was active in two out of five countries. The analysis focusing on LGBT was carried out on six countries and identified six types of semantic structures, corresponding to twelve tokens. In six cases data did not allow reliable interpretations (Table 6.6). Also in this case, remarkable similarities among the semantic structures were apparent. One factorial dimension (Similarity vs. Difference) emerged from four out of six analyses, whereas another (Experience vs. Institution) from 3 out of 6 cases. In the cases where also the third dimension was interpretable (i.e., Italy and Romania), it appeared to be the same (Morality vs. Law). Moreover, two further factorial dimensions appeared partially similar to the others. In fact, Cyprus’ first factorial dimension (Health vs. Political issue) represented the contrast between homosexuality as something that concerns the life and actions of people, in particular the health sphere, and homosexuality as a political/institutional issue. Similarly, Romania’s second factor (Normality vs. Deviance) was characterized by the connotation of homosexuality as otherness (as opposed to identity) that is at the core of the factorial dimension Similarity vs. Difference which was present in all countries but Malta.

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Table 6.6 Overview of the semantic structures emerging from the analysis of the representation of LGBT Semantic structure

Country Cyprus

Greece

Italy

Malta

Romania

UK

F1

Health versus political issue

Policy versus arts

Experience versus institution*

–

Institution versus experience*

Similarity versus difference°

F2

Similarity versus difference°

Similarity versus difference°

Similarity versus difference°

Experience versus institution*

Normality versus deviance

–

F3

–

–

Morality versus law§

–

Morality versus law§

–

Semantic structures with similar interpretations across countries are marked with the same symbol (i.e., *, §, °)

6.3.2 Relation Between the Semantic Structures and Affective Sense-Making (Lines of Semiotic Force) The first-level analyses—each of them dealing with one of the three objects at the core of this volume (immigration, Islam, LGBT ) in one of the countries in the domain of analysis–identified nineteen types of semantic structures, covering the forty-two semantic structures that emerged (token). A synoptic comparative analysis revealed the following. Line of Semiotic Force 1: Affective Connotation of the World—Friend Versus Foe Five types of semantic structures (corresponding to nine tokens) were characterized by the opposition between a positive and a negative connotation of the object. On this basis, they were interpreted as specific instances of the generalized affectladen meaning mapped by the first line of semiotic force (Affective connotation of the world—Friend vs. Foe): • In the analyses concerning immigration, three semantic structures were characterized by a pole with a threatening connotation—crime—in opposition to, respectively, politics (Politics vs. Crime), economics (Crime vs. Economic system), and religion (Religion vs. Crime). In the context of such a polarization, these three anchorages were interpreted as different modes of neutralizing the persecutory valence of the opposing pole. • In the analyses focused on Islam, the good/bad opposition was evident in the semantic structure Recognition versus Threat, which connoted Islam in terms of a persecutory foe versus an object endowed with value and/or worthy of being valorised. • In the analyses focused on LGBT persons, at the core of the semantic structure Normality versus Deviance lay the connotation of the LGBT person as a bad,

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negative object in opposition to the cleaned-up image of it as “people like us”, and for this reason worthy of being valorised. Line of Semiotic Force 2: Direction of Desire—Passivity Versus Engagement Four types of semantic structures (seven tokens) were characterized by the opposition between an attitude/movement toward the object, a commitment to engage in a relationship with it, and the opposite tendency of being the target of the other’s initiative. Accordingly, these semantic structures were interpreted as instances of the second line of semiotic force (Direction of desire—Passivity vs. Engagement). • In the analyses concerning immigration, the semantic structure Integration versus Emergency was meta-interpreted in terms of the opposition between a connotation of immigration as something that crashes down on the person (emergency), as opposed to immigration as the target of investment, a goal to pursue (integration). • In the analyses concerning Islam, the semantic structure Domestic versus Foreign affairs was characterized by the opposition between a view of Islam as an issue that needs to be addressed by local policies (domestic), and a connotation of Islam as something lying outside the subjective sphere of action, viewed from an external point of observation (foreign affairs). Moreover, also the semantic structure Power versus Powerlessness was open to interpretation through the lens of the passivity versus engagement line of semiotic force. According to this perspective, the representation of Islam in terms of an object endowed with power (power) could be seen as mirroring the connotation of passivity for those that submit to such power. Conversely, the connotation of Muslim people as asking for help (powerless) implied the complementary image of a subject trying to improve their state of weakness and need. • As to the analyses focused on the LGBT issue, the semantic structure Similarity versus Difference signified the opposition between engagement with the object, in terms of granting LGBT people equal conditions of life (similarity), and being subjected to the exposition of their diversity (difference). Line of Semiotic Force 3: Form of the Demand—Demand for Systemic Resources Versus Demand for Community Identity Six types of semantic components (twenty tokens) were characterized by the society/community dialectics, which opposes a functional view of the world, focused on the availability of resources, to an identity view, which emphasizes the vital bonds and the need for identity. Accordingly, these semantic structures were interpreted as instances of the third line of semiotic force (Form of the demand—Demand for systemic resources vs. Demand for community identity). • In the analyses concerning immigration, we suggest that in the semantic structure Personal stories versus Policy, the society/community dialectics took the form of the opposition between migrants and migration, namely between subjects endowed with vital needs and desires, and a functional, systemic, disembodied phenomenon. Moreover, the semantic structure Humanity versus Administration

118 Table 6.7 Percentage of semantic structures associated with the lines of semiotic force

S. Salvatore et al. Topic

Type

Token

Immigration

85.7

93.3

Islam

83.3

86.7

LGBT

66.7

75.5

Total

78.9

85.7

was interpreted as involving a similar opposition, between immigration as a matter of subjective experience of suffering, and immigration as an abstract political category of systemic regulation. • In the analyses concerning Islam, the semantic structure Measures versus Personal stories involved the same opposition between the abstract, functional, systemic view, in accordance to which Islam is the target of policies (measures), and the sphere of a vital bond, where the representation of Islam is anchored to the biographical vicissitudes of Muslim families (personal stories). Moreover, the semantic structure Situated phenomenon versus Global issue was open to metainterpretation in the same vein, because of the contrast between Islam as a strategic, systemic affair of international politics, and Islam as the concrete, lived experience of a situated relationship with Muslim people and their demand for integration. • As to the analyses focused on LGBT, also the semantic structure Institution versus Experience involved a concrete/abstract contrast, between the sphere of people’s actual life and general systemic requirements. From a different standpoint, the semantic structure Morality versus Law involved the opposition between two normative frameworks, that is, the lived world of identity values and religious credo (morality), and the abstract, universalistic system of public rules (law). The global meta-interpretation of the semantic structures suggested that fifteen types of semantic structures (78.9% of the total types that emerged from the firstlevel analyses) were associated with the three lines of semiotic force (five, four, and six types with the first, the second and the third line, respectively). At the level of tokens, the coverage was even higher, as the fifteen types of semantic structures associated with the lines of semiotic force corresponded to thirty-six occurrences (respectively nine, seven, and twenty for each line of semiotic force) out of the total semantic structures emerging from first-order analyses (85.7%). As Table 6.7 shows, the coverage of the semantic structure meta-interpreted as instances of lines of semiotic force was similar for immigration and Islam, and slightly lower for LGBT.

6.3.3 Interpretation of the Semantic Structures of Health, Participation, and Subjectivity The interpretation of the semantic structures of the three additional objects (health, participation, and subjectivity) is briefly outlined below. As explained above (cf.

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6.2.1.2 Domain of Analysis), the analyses of these three additional objects were carried out in order to have further cases that could be used to increase the betweenobject variability required for testing the hypothesis. Each sub-section below presents for each of the three objects the interpretation of the semantic structures detected by the analyses. The concluding sub-section provides a global synopsis of the results.

6.3.3.1

Health

Newspaper articles on health were collected in Greece, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Greece Factor 1: Health Policy Versus Illness The first factor opposes health policy (insurance, expense, public, service, cut, ministry, pension, budget) to health intended as concerning physical illness (symptom, cancer, blood, brain, disease, diabetes), associated risk factors (risk, cause) and medical research (researcher, cell). Factor 2: Economic Constraints Versus Proactive Action Economic factors and economic constraints are at the forefront on one pole (euro, reduction, tax, expense, increase, income, billon, price), while on the other pole the proactive actions of individuals/citizens—but also of political actors (MP, president, political party, Syriza)— are highlighted (see the association of the pole with verbs such as say, want, do, know, write, listen, ask, see, place). Factor 3: Economic Regulation Versus Functioning of Services The third factor opposes general economic aspects (Euro, tax, income, billions, expense, price, reduction, profit, VAT ) that regulate the healthcare system to the practical functioning of the system itself (hospital, centre, patient, doctor, clinic, medical, unit, treatment, service). Italy Factor 1: Illness Versus Healthcare System On one pole, health is referred to as the physical state of the body, as the absence of diseases or illnesses (illness, tumour, cancer, obesity, infection), and connected to health behaviours (nutrition, diet, consumption) and risk factors (alcohol, age). On the other pole, health is put in the context of the national healthcare system (hospital, local health units, services, treatment, payment system), which is region-based and run by the regional administrations (local administration, regional government, candidate, governor). Factor 2: Functioning of Services Versus Political Regulation The second factor opposes the practical functioning of the local health units (hospital, emergency room, bed, ward, facility, services, regional) to the political national regulation of health—i.e., to the Parliamentary debate on health issues (Democratic Party, law, ban, Chamber of Deputies, Senate, Parliament, guidelines), and specifically to the political debate on assisted reproduction (couple, embryo, insemination, heterologous, abortion, technique).

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Factor 3: Control Versus Guarantee On one pole health is addressed in normative terms, as a domain under constraints and controls (NAS, AIFA, law, authorize), where violations of the law can occur (police, prosecutor, investigation, lawyer, verdict). On the other pole health is framed in terms of the welfare system (resources, services, quality, assistance, country, public, treatment), which is planned to provide services to the population (population, citizens, poor, rich, social) and to guarantee the access to services and health rights. United Kingdom Factor 1: Lifestyles Versus Healthcare System On one pole, this factor represents health as related to individuals’ lifestyles, especially those concerning food and eating habits (sauce, cook, fry, oil, salt, vegetable, chicken, fresh, egg, fruit). On the other pole, health is put in the context of the national healthcare system (NHS, patient, hospital, nurse, doctor, drug, service) and the related health policy (Labour, government, party, fund, minister election, policy, campaign, leader). Factor 2: Personal Stories Versus Health Economics The second factor opposes the stories and the feelings of the individuals and their families dealing with illness and death (marry, friend, daughter, love, mother, son, die, funeral, father, miss, life, sadly, pass away) to the economics of health, the health industry, and investments (company, market, increase, growth, price, rate, share, sale, cost, investment, tax, product). Factor 3: Politics Versus Medicine The third factor presents an opposition between politics (party, Labour, Obama, election, leader, Clinton, minister, lib, dem, Tory, win, president) and the medical approach to health (patient, treatment, drug, hospital doctor, diagnose, prevent, symptom), focused on physical aspects (breast, blood, brain, liver, heart, cell) and illnesses (cancer, disease, survival, die).

6.3.3.2

Participation

Newspaper articles on participation were collected in Greece, Italy, and Malta. Greece Factor 1: Societal Versus Political Dynamics The first factor opposes a general societal dynamics, in which the social, civic, cultural, economic, political, and institutional aspects are intertwined (social, development, state, society, market, economy, economic, social class, unemployment, occupation), with the specific dynamics of local/national politics, mainly accounted for by the electoral and voting mechanisms—i.e., institutional politics (election, Pasok, vote, Syriza, abstention, ND, percentage, voter, ballot). Factor 2: Rupture Versus Order On one pole, participation is related to conflict, revolution, war, and in general to abrupt social change (revolution, power, worker,

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fight, radical, socialist, communist). On the other pole, participation is related to institutions of different types: political, educational, social institutions, which embody the current organized structure of society, its current order (school, municipal, infrastructure, professor, hospital, administration, legal, public, private, sector). Factor 3: Political Practice Versus Political-Economic System One side of the factor refers to grassroots activism in the education field (school, pupil, movement, university, association, professor, struggle), while the other side focuses on the Greek and European political-economical system (European, decrease, increase, billion, euro, debt, state, vote, system, electoral). Italy Factor 1: Societal Versus Political Dynamics The lexemes contributing to one pole describe a general societal dynamics, in which the social, civic, cultural, economic, political, and institutional aspects are intertwined (rights, society, development, economic, cultural, world, citizenship, voluntary, globalization, community, market). On the other pole, participation in embedded in the specific dynamics of local/national politics, mainly accounted for by electoral and voting mechanisms, i.e., institutional politics (candidate, primary elections, vote, voter turnout, elections, ballot box). Factor 2: Institutional Participation Versus Protest The second factor contrasts the institutional forms of participation and the political institutional dynamics occurring at the national or local level (parties, voters, electoral, democratic, political, power, representative, election, majority, candidate) to protest, demonstration, and mobilization, which characterize extra- or anti-institutional forms of politics (demonstration, student, march, police, protest, street, strike). Factor 3: Policy Versus Politics One pole of the factor revolves around the political institutional debate that deals with issues that affect the life of people, specifically health issues (healthcare, income, health system, Chamber of Deputies, parliamentary, services, reduce, guarantee), then with policies that can address them. The opposite side refers to the general dynamics of politics, either inside or outside the institutions (candidate, Berlusconi, demonstration, left, ballot, right, nonvoting, party, leader, protest, vote). Malta Factor 1: Engagement With Community Versus Institutional Dynamics One pole is characterized by a sphere of meaning concerning investment in the local territory and its needs and goals (civic, centre, project, area, waste, island, development, council); the other concerns the institutional context and dynamics (party, politics, election, medium, Labour, candidate). Factor 2: Policy Versus Politics One pole of the factor revolves around the problems to address and the goals of policies (waste, council, project, development, EU, youth, policy). The opposite pole is characterized by a domain of meaning concerned with political actors (Muscat) as well as the political scenario (vote, law, right, Labour, party).

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Factor 3: Electoral Dynamics Versus Societal Needs One pole of the factor concerns the electoral scenario and vicissitudes (party, election, council, candidate, vote, political, Parliament). The opposite pole is characterized by a pattern of meaning that foregrounds social subjects and societal needs (integration, need, society, child, economic, work, family).

6.3.3.3

Subjectivity

Newspaper articles on subjectivity were collected in Greece, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Greece Factor 1: Political Versus Artistic Subjectivity This factor captures the opposition between the political subjectivity embodied by a Marxist view of society (struggle, class, KKE, capitalist, socialist) and artistic subjectivity in theatre, music, cinema (music, performance, theatre, film, song, actor, stage direction, scene, play). Factor 2: Radical Versus Consensual Political Identity Both the poles of the factor refer to the domain of politics: one pole conveys a radically critical view of society (class, exploitation, man, society, consciousness, struggle, morality), the other conveys an idea of politics and society that is in line with the principles of the current democratic political regime (president, minister, elections, government, MP, parliament). Factor 3: Expressiveness Versus Agency The domains of theatre, music, and the arts (scene director, theatre, performance, play, music, exhibition, performance, art, museum) characterize one pole of this factor, while the other one contains unidentified references to individual actions and personal agency (say, want, do, know, go, feel, must, believe, take, see). Italy Factor 1: Society Versus Individual This factor captures the juxtaposition of the social roots of identity—either national, political, religious, cultural, ethnic, civic (European, national, political Christian, religious, catholic, citizens)—with the psychological foundation of self, its pathology (psychologist, disorders, sex, adolescent, psychological, adult, psychic, pathology, trauma, emotions), and the primary context of family (parent, child, mum, mother, adult, kid). Factor 2: Primary Bonds Versus Digital Relationships Whereas on one side of the factor the primary bonds of family are in the forefront (son, father, home, mum, kid, mother child, parent), the other side depicts the digital world of social networks and 2.0 technologies (social media, user, electronic digital, internet, technological, relations, virtual), which mediates relationships and enables different forms of selfpresentation.

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Factor 3: Accidental Versus Absolute One pole represents the contingent and changeable aspects of life, changing according to domains (social networks, university), politics (Berlusconi), places (Italy, Italians, country, national, European), and roles (student, user, young). The opposite pole is mainly composed of words that refer to some axiological category, affectively connoted (death-die, faith, love, truth, kill), which represent the unchanging, universal aspects of human life. United Kingdom Factor 1: Vital World Versus Leisure One pole concerns figures and contexts of primary bonds (child, mother, family, people, woman, life, friend, birth). The other pole is characterized by a sphere of meaning concerned with sporting events and context, soccer mainly (league, player, goal, season, cup, premier, score, team), which, in the framework of such an opposition, lends itself to be interpreted in a more generalized way, as the reference to a scenario of leisure. Factor 2: Public Versus Private Sphere One pole is associated with words concerning economic and political decision making (Council, services, rate, government, pay, price, staff, plan, leader, campaign, vote); the other pole is characterized by words concerning the narration of family events (love, know, mother, think, father, play, wife, son, dad, die). Factor 3: Pleasure Versus Pain One pole is associated with enjoying events (favourite, band, song, music, star, theatre, novel). The other is characterized by painful, anxious events, mainly concerning with critical health conditions (doctor, hospital, cancer, damage, health, stress, injury, pain).

6.3.3.4

Synoptic Charts

Tables 6.8, 6.9 and 6.10 show the three main semantic structures characterizing the representation of each object. Semantic structures that the judges interpreted as similar across countries are marked with the same symbol (i.e., *, §). Table 6.8 Health—synoptic chart of the semantic structures per country Semantic structures

Country Greece

Italy

UK

F1

Health policy versus illness*

Illness versus healthcare system*

Lifestyles versus healthcare system*

F2

Economic constraints versus proactive action

Functioning of services versus political regulation§

Personal stories versus health economics

F3

Economic regulation versus functioning of services§

Control versus guarantee

Politics versus medicine§

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S. Salvatore et al.

Table 6.9 Participation—synoptic chart of the semantic structures per country Semantic structures

Country Greece

Italy

Malta

F1

Societal versus political dynamics°

Societal versus political dynamics°

Engagement with community versus institutional dynamics

F2

Rupture versus order

Institutional participation versus protest

Policy versus politics*

F3

Political practice versus political-economic system

Policy versus politics*

Electoral dynamics versus societal needs°

Table 6.10 Subjectivity—synoptic chart of the semantic structures per country Semantic structures

Country Greece

Italy

UK

F1

Political versus artistic subjectivity

Individual versus society

Leisure versus vital world

F2

Radical versus consensual political identity

Primary bonds versus digital relationships

Public versus private sphere

F3

Expressiveness versus agency

Accidental versus absolute

Pleasure versus pain

Table 6.8 provides the synoptic chart of the semantic structures characterizing each country-specific analysis concerning health. Six types of semantic structures were identified, corresponding to nine occurrences (tokens). Though characterized by local specificities, these structures presented important elements of similarity. The opposition between individual (being concerned with illness or with lifestyles) and systemic anchorage characterized the first dimension of the semantic structure of all analyses (semantic structures marked with the sign “*” in Table 6.7). Moreover, in all countries there is a contrast between the management of activities (either concerning the facilities, as in Greece and Italy, or the medical action, as in the UK) and (political or economic) regulative aims—namely, the contrast between the how (procedures, techniques, norms regulating the action) and the why (meaning and aims of the action). (See semantic structures marked with the sign “§” in Table 6.8). Table 6.9 shows the synoptic chart of the semantic structures characterizing the three country-specific analyses focused on participation. Six types of semantic structures were identified, corresponding to nine tokens. Also in this case, the structures presented similarities. The most prominent similarity concerned the contrast that opposes social life and needs to the political and

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institutional machine, with the electoral procedures in the foreground (semantic structures marked with the sign “°” in Table 6.9). A further element of similarity concerned the policy-politics contrast (between Italian and Maltese context; semantic structures marked with the sign “*” in Table 6.8). Table 6.10 offers the synoptic chart of the semantic structures characterizing the three country-specific analyses. Nine types of semantic structures were identified, corresponding to the same number of tokens. Unlike the previous cases, there was no convergence between them.

6.3.4 Exposure to Otherness and Similarity of the Semantic Structures The estimation of the degree of exposure to otherness (DEO) characterizing the six objects gave the following ranking: • subjectivity and participation were associated by judges with the lowest level of exposure to otherness; • health and homosexuality were positioned at the medium level; • immigration and Islam were evaluated at the highest level. This ranking seems consistent with a commonsensical view of the extent to which these objects can be seen to be associated with: (a) the distance between ingroup and outgroup; and (b) their disruptive impact on the canonical order (i.e., compared to a desirable state of the world). According to this standpoint, subjectivity and participation do not necessarily imply the reference to what is outside the ingroup. Health and homosexuality may (but may not) imply it, and with it the rupture of the canonical order, disrupting the normal course of life (i.e., illness in the former case, the subversion of the traditional view of family and desire in the latter case). As to immigration and Islam, the rupture is inherent; moreover, the source of rupture comes from outside, thereby making the ingroup-outgroup distinction more salient. This is consistent with the estimation of these two objects as those characterized by the highest degree of exposure to otherness. As to the level of within-objects similarity, the objects obtained the following WOS scores (calculated as token/type ratio): Islam: 2.5 (token/type ratio: 15/6) Immigration 2.14 (15/7); LGBT: 2 (12/6); Health: 1.8 (9/5); Participation 1.5 (9/6); Subjectivity: 1 (9/9). Figure 6.1 graphically outlines the relation between the degree of otherness and WOS over the six objects. The correlation (Kendall’s tau) between these two parameters is 0.894 (p = 0.017).

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Islam

immigration

2

LGBT health

participation

1

subjectivity

Low

Middle

High

Degree of exposure to otherness (DEO)

Fig. 6.1 Relation between similarities of the semantic structures underpinning the representation of the objects across countries and their degree of exposure to otherness

6.4 General Discussion The comparative analysis of the representations of the three ‘others’ addressed in the current volume (immigration, Islam and LGBT ), showed that the semantic structures grounding the representations are similar across different countries. However, the presence of similarities should not prevent one from recognizing the countryspecificity of social representations. Indeed, each of the semantic structures emerging from the analyses showed a particular profile that can be interpreted in the light of the specificity of the national socio-political context. Moreover, each social representation consisted of a unique combination of semantic structures, different from all the others. It is worth adding that even when the semantic structures are similar, the contents of the representation may vary. Indeed, two similar semantic structures polarize patterns of lexemes that can vary, due to the local circumstances and/or geopolitical factors: the prominence of lexemes concerning the electoral procedures in Greece, as well as those concerning the emergency of the migration flows in the Mediterranean countries are emblematic, just to give a few examples. Moreover, the findings of the meta-analysis proved to be consistent with both our hypotheses. For the first hypothesis, the meta-interpretation of the semantic structures in terms of the generalized affective meanings mapped by the Re.Cri.Re. analyses (i.e., the three lines of semiotic force) reached a high level of coverage: almost four out of five semantic structures identified by the first-level analyses were interpreted as specimens of the more general affect-laden, generalized meaning modelled by the three lines of semiotic force. The coverage even increased when considering the tokens,

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reaching 85.7%. These findings are quite consistent with—and provide empirical support to—the SCPT hypothesis that social representations are not fully independent, self-contained systems of meanings, but are embedded within basic affectiveladen generalized meanings that are active in the cultural milieu, constituting their domain-specific instantiation. This is an important result for theoretical, methodological, and practical reasons. From the theoretical perspective, it adds a further brick to the SCPT conceptual building; more specifically, it supports two complementary SCPT core ideas. First, the claim of the role played by affective meaning in channelling the socio-cultural dynamics of sense-making. Second, the claim of the indirect action of the affective sense-making process, namely its capacity to exert its action by orienting the access to domain-specific socio-cognitive resources. From a methodological perspective, it is worth highlighting that the reference to an underpinning hyper-generalized transversal dimension of sense-making develops the multi-method and multi-object approach suggested by Bauer and Gaskell (1999). It provides the chance to introduce a second-order level of interpretation of social representations, enabling to see whether and to what extent the ways of representing the objects are affected by a deeper level of cultural dynamics crossing the social milieu. This latter aspect has practical implications too. Indeed, the acknowledgement that a social representation of a certain object is not autonomous, but is embedded in a more general affective meaning, implies that both the understanding of the object and the actions aimed at changing it need to take its affective roots into account (for a discussion of this point, see Mannarini et al., 2012). As to the second hypothesis of our meta-analytic study, the findings were consistent with it. The salience of affective sense-making (operationalized as the similarity among the semantic structures of the representations of the same object across countries) proved to be clearly associated with environmental uncertainty (operationalized as the degree of exposure to otherness involved in each object). The more the object involved the exposure to otherness, the more similar the semantic structures proved to be. According to the SCPT framework, this finding can be explained as the consequence of the salience of homogenizing affective, generalized meanings crossing the local cultural milieu, triggered by the contextual uncertainty conveyed by the exposure to otherness. To paraphrase Tolstoy (“All happy families are alike …”, 1877/1918, p. 1), all affectively activated cultural milieus are alike. This result is worthy of interest for understanding the role of affects in the current socio-political scenario, because it provides empirical support to the assumption (Salvatore et al., 2018b) that affects are a kind of “semiotic survival device”. That is, they serve as the extreme effort of defending the capacity to make sense of the world in conditions of exponentially increasing contextual uncertainty. Nevertheless, the motives of interest of the findings reported in this chapter must not conceal the limitations of the study. In particular, the narrowness and heterogeneity of the sources of data across time and countries, especially of the objects used as control (participation, subjectivity, and health), as well as the non-independence of the judges used for the meta-analysis, and the lack of control on the reliability of

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their interpretations, suggest considering the results with caution. In this perspective, the current chapter can be seen as a first step of a methodological approach aimed at taking into account the nexus between semantic, domain-specific meanings and the generalized, affect-laden dimensions of socio-cultural dynamics.

6.5 Conclusion Globalization has made the world more and more inter-connected and complex. As a result, no Ego—be it individual or group—can escape from the relation with Alter. This should be recognized as a matter of fact that no wall is able to cancel. However, the results of the meta-analysis presented above highlight that there is also another side to the story, namely that the recognition of the fact that otherness is part and parcel of the reality of the globalized world is not enough to enable identities to enter the relationship with what-is-other-from-them. Indeed, otherness is a disruptive event that destabilizes people’s frames of sense, challenging the capacity of being-in-the-world. The enslaving of social discourses, practices and politics to the affect-laden friend-foe schema is the way larger and larger segments of European societies try to cope with the radical otherness the socio-institutional dynamics exposes them to. However, it is apparent that this schema is not only unable to serve as an actual solution to the dramatic issues contemporary societies have to face (e.g., migration, climate change, unsteady democracy, inequality, nuclear proliferation), but it also conveys remarkable institutional, social and psychological costs (e.g., dehumanization, enemization of otherness, hate crimes, xenophobia, social polarization). Yet what our research highlights is that the simplifying power of the affective interpretation of the social world is the form of socio-psychological survival when no further semiotic resources are available to reduce the excess of complexity in contemporary reality. Therefore, those who are interested in developing a new, more advanced synthesis of the identity-otherness dialectics, have to go beyond the mere critique of the affective mobilisation of identity. By rejecting the principle that the affective mobilisation of identity is nothing but an irrational reaction of uneducated people who will open their eyes once someone explains it to them, it is time that we recognized the necessity of addressing the radical demand for sense that this mobilisation signals.

References Bauer, M. W., & Gaskell, G. (1999). Toward a paradigm for research on social representations. Journal for Theory of Social Behaviour, 29(2), 163–186. Ciavolino, E., Redd, R. R., Avdi, E., Falcone, F., Fini, V., …, Salvatore., S. (2017). Views of context. An instrument for the analysis of the cultural milieu. A first validation study. Electronic Journal of Applied Statistical Analysis, 10(2), 599–628.

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Salvatore, S., Valsiner, J., & Veltri, G. A. (2019). The theoretical and methodological framework. Semiotic cultural psychology, symbolic universes and lines of semiotic forces. In S. Salvatore, V. Fini, T. Mannarini, J. Valsiner, & G. A. Veltri (Eds.), What future for Europe? Symbolic universes in the time of (post)crisis. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. Salvatore, S., & Venuleo, C. (2013). Field dependency and contingency in the modelling of sensemaking. Papers on Social Representation [On Line Journal], 22(2), 21.1–21.41. Sammut, G., & Buhagiar, L. J. (2017). The sociocultural determination of planned behaviour. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 51(1), 164–170. Solomon, S., Greenberg, J., & Pyszczynski, T. (1991). A terror management theory of social behavior: The psychological functions of self-esteem and cultural worldviews. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 24, 93–159. Taggart, P. (2002). Populism and the pathology of representative politics. In Y. Mény & Y. Surrel (Eds.), Democracies and the populist challenge (pp. 62–80). New York, NY: Palgrave. Tolstoj, L. (1918). Anna Karenina (L. Maude & A. Maude, Trans.). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. (Original work published 1877). Tonti, M., & Salvatore, S. (2015). The homogenization of classification functions measurement (HOCFUN): A method for measuring the salience of emotional arousal in thinking. American Journal of Psychology, 128(4), 469–483. Turvey, M. T., Fertig, J., & Kravetz, S. (1969). Connotative classification and proactive interference in short-term memory. Psychonomic Science, 16, 223–224. Valsiner, J. (2007). Culture in minds and societies. Foundations of cultural psychology. New Delhi, India: Sage. Valsiner, J. (2014). An invitation to cultural psychology. London, UK: Sage Publications. Veltri, G., Redd, R., Mannarini, T., & Salvatore, S. (2019). The identity of Brexit: A cultural psychology analysis. Journal of Community and Applied Psychology, 29, 18–31. Venuleo, C., Salvatore S., & Mossi, P. G. (2015). The role of cultural factors in pathological gambling. Journal of Gambling Studies, 31(4), 1353–1376.

Sergio Salvatore is Professor of Dynamic Psychology at the Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, “La Sapienza” University of Rome. President of the European Institute of Cultural Analysis for Policy (EICAP). His scientific interests regard the psychodynamic and semiotic theorization of mental phenomena and the methodology of analysis of psychological processes as field dependent dynamics. He also takes an interest in theory and the analysis of psychological intervention in clinical, scholastic, organizational and social fields. On these issues he has designed and managed various scientific projects (e.g., Re.Cri.Re.) and published about 250 works. Viviana Fini is psychologist, psychotherapist, and holds a Ph.D. in Territorial Policies and Local Project. She has engaged in action-research activities in the sphere of local, social, and organizational development. Those activities were supported by an epistemic and theoreticalmethodological re-conceptualization of the notion of development. Her work is focused on the socio-symbolic dimensions that orientate individual and collective actions. She has published several articles on the mediation of socio-symbolic dimensions in the interpretation of public policies. Terri Mannarini is Associate Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Salento, Lecce, Italy, and editor-in-chief of the international journal Community Psychology in Global Perspective. Her research interests cover political, social, and community psychology, and focus specifically on community participation and development processes, collective action, acculturation processes, and gender issues.

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Ahmet Suerdem is a Professor in Business Administration Department Istanbul Bilgi University and a Senior Academic Visitor at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is working on the international research project MACAS (mapping the cultural authority of science) for developing routines for science news corpus construction from on-line sources and for the automatic analysis of thematic contents. He is also experimenting with the operationalisation of higher order text intuitions (semantic and discursive levels). Giuseppe Alessandro Veltri holds a B.A. in Psychology of Communication from the University of Siena, an M.Sc. in Social Research Methods (Statistics) from the Methodology Institute of the London School of Economics (LSE) and a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the LSE. He is Associate Professor of Research Methodology and Cognitive Sociology at the Department of Sociology and Social Research of the University of Trento. He was Senior Lecturer at University of Leicester. He has been Lecturer at University of East Anglia and a scientific fellow at the European Commission JRC Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS). Before joining the IPTS, he has been a research associate at the Institut Jean Nicod (Ecole Normale Supérieure) in Paris. He has published in scientific journals such as Nature, PLOS One, Computers in Human Behavior, Public Understanding of Science, Big Data and Society and others.

Chapter 7

Implications for Policy-Making and Further Developments Giuseppe A. Veltri, Terri Mannarini, Anna Krasteva, Marco Cremaschi, Gordon Sammut and Sergio Salvatore

7.1 Introduction In the previous chapters of this volume, we have presented several cases that show how important the role of sense-making is in shaping important social issues, both from the perspective of institutions and from that of citizens in everyday life. Specifically, there are three aspects that are worth recalling for the purposes of this chapter, which addresses the role of culture in policy-making. First, we have highlighted how the identity-otherness dynamics is a general encompassing dynamics that underlies many different social phenomena, from closure of national borders to rejection of political elites, mistrust towards institutions, and stigmatization of minorities and diverse groups. Racism, as well as the upsurge G. A. Veltri (B) Università di Trento, Trento, Italy e-mail: [email protected] T. Mannarini Università del Salento, Lecce, Italy e-mail: [email protected] A. Krasteva New Bulgarian University, Sofia, Bulgaria e-mail: [email protected] M. Cremaschi SciencePo, Paris, France e-mail: [email protected] G. Sammut University of Malta, Msida, Malta e-mail: [email protected] S. Salvatore “La Sapienza” University of Rome, Rome, Italy e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 T. Mannarini et al. (eds.), Media and Social Representations of Otherness, Culture in Policy Making: The Symbolic Universes of Social Action, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36099-3_7

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of sovereignist, anti-European and anti-elitist attitudes can all be viewed as specific instances of this general dynamics. Media narratives of otherness are also part and parcel of this picture. Second, we have conceptualized identity processes, that is, the ongoing definition of ‘who we are’ and ‘who the others are’, as a fundamental act of sense-making. Sense-making generates meanings that become socially shared among large groups of people: both condensed in symbolic universes (according to Semiotic Cultural Psychology Theory, see Salvatore, 2016; Valsiner, 2007), conveyed in social and media representations (according to Social Representations Theory, Moscovici, 1984), and embedded in social practices, meanings work as a guide for individual and collective decisions, behaviours, attitudes, and expectations. They drive the interpretation and the response to events of large numbers of citizens. From this point of view, the portraits of otherness contained in the public narratives on immigration, Islam, and LGBT issues are valuable not only because they mirror the current zeitgeist and reveal how societies are responding to otherness and diversity, but they also indicate how societies, seen both as institutions and people, are likely to respond to otherness and diversity in the near future. Indeed, meanings have pragmatic effects: they come from the past, being our social heritage, shape the present, and steer the future. Third, we have brought to the fore the affective nature of sense-making, emphasizing that meanings are not pure cognitive products but are saturated with affects. This is not an accessory feature: the logic of affects offers an explanation of human behaviour which does not overlap with the rational models of actions that have been used so far in political sciences and policy-making. Taken as a whole, these three aspects highlight the need for a significant, thorough revision of the main assumptions that currently underpin policy-making processes, in the perspective of taking culture and subjectivity (in its semiotic conceptualization as sense-making) into account in the design and evaluation of public policies. The aim of this chapter is to provide a contribution in this direction. It is divided into two parts. The first (Sect. 7.1–7.4) outlines the semiotic framework to policymaking, based on the recognition of the role of sense-making in mediating the relation between policies and their impact. The second part (Sect. 7.5) provides some methodological implications drawn from the framework, in terms of a brief presentation of a toolkit of criteria and strategies designed for taking into account and giving value to the inherent cultural dimension of social and institutional dynamics.

7.2 From Rational Choice to Bounded Rationality While few would deny the importance of culture in shaping how people take decisions and behave, the role of culture in the design of public policy-making is far less obvious, at least in tangible terms. Any public policy that aims at regulating citizens’ behaviour needs to consider how to socially and culturally ground such interventions. While culture is often mentioned at the level of anecdotal discourse, in reality it is often ignored at the stage of policy design. The reason for its absence is in part due

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to the difficulty of translating a broad concept like culture into more operational entities, moving from a generic description of a set of social norms and traditions to a more precise definition of culture. While policies regarding citizens’ behaviour might appear ‘objective’ and somewhat a-cultural, they contain implicit models of human behaviour that make certain assumptions about what works and what does not in terms of social change. For a long time, the model used for establishing policies has been borrowed from economics and in its various forms it is known as the “theory of rational decision making”. According to this model, people’s preferences have a well-defined structure and the choice is an almost automatic mechanism in which the individual applies his system of preferences to a limited set of options (for example, the set of products that fall within the budget available). In the last two decades psychologists have distinguished between two systems of thought with different capacities and processes (Evans & Stanovich, 2013; Kahneman, 2011; Kahneman & Frederick, 2002; Metcalfe & Mischel, 1999; Sloman, 1996; Smith & DeCoster, 2000; Strack & Deutsch, 2004), referred to as System 1 and System 2 (Stanovich & West, 2000). System 1 (S1), which consists of intuitive thought of high level, is based on associations acquired through experience and quickly and automatically calculates information. System 2 (S2), on the other hand, involving slow deliberative thinking, is based on rules acquired through culture or formal learning and calculates information in a relatively slow and controlled manner. The processes associated with these systems have been defined as Type 1 (fast, automatic, unconscious) and Type 2 (slow, conscious, controlled) respectively (Frankish & Evans, 2009). The perspective of the dual system has become increasingly popular, even outside the academy after the publication of the book by Daniel Kahneman Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011). As already mentioned, all policies that aim to change people’s behaviour have an explicit or implicit model of how people make decisions and act on the reality. This implicit or explicit model plays an important role in policy-making, for example in deciding which tools and interventions to use. In past years, the dominant model in the world of policy-making came from economics: the rational choice model (Green & Shapiro, 1994). More importantly, it also established how we judged people’s attitudes and behaviour as rational or irrational. Rather than rejecting what did not correspond to the strict description of the rational choice model as irrational, other models of human behaviour have been proposed and empirically validated. The dominance of the rational choice theory has meant that the regulation of citizens’ behaviour has been based on the introduction of incentives or disincentives and in some cases on providing more information to support the choice based on the preferences of each citizen. According to this model, people’s preferences are well defined, assuming that in individual choices individuals apply their preference system to a set of limited options. The limits of this implicit model are apparent. There are cases in which incentives can be an effective tool, but there are many in which they are not, as in the illuminating case examined by Gneezy and Rustichini (2000). Scholars studying organizations (March & Simon, 1958; Cyert & March, 1963) and political scientists studying decision-making in governments (Allison, 1969; Cohen, March & Olsen, 1972; March & Olsen, 1984) have also questioned these hypotheses,

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demonstrating that decisions are the result of various organizational biases, including rules, norms and procedures; the limited rationality of the actors; and random flows in organizational processes. The critique of the rational choice model from economics has revealed how and why some policy interventions that were implicitly based on it were not successful. Example of such cases are the early interventions to reduce smoking in the population by increasing cigarette prices, attempts to reduce crime by increasing the stiffness of criminal convictions, all approaches based on a cost-benefit frame that people or criminals would supposedly use before deciding to act. The critique of homo economicus led to the bounded rationality paradigm, while homo behaviouralis emphasized the heuristics and biases that are part of human decision-making and behaviour.

7.3 The Role of Culture: Homo Semioticus In parallel with the critique of rational choice, the concept of culture has been at the centre of intense research and debate across the social sciences and in particular in psychology and sociology. In recent years, the common ground between psychology and cultural sociology has grown. This is due to the change in perspective on culture that has increased the complexity of the way social scientists conceptualize it. Only thirty years ago, most social scientists—and policy makers too—viewed culture as a kind of continuous canvas that enveloped social groups and contexts in a complete and coherent way (Swidler, 1986). In other words, culture was considered a latent variable (or alternatively an independent variable) that influences people, their attitudes and responses to important questions, and their values, which were expressed in everyday practices. Individuals receive this cultural baggage through socialization processes and apply it with relatively few problems. This implied that there was no reason to worry too much about the constructs used to study culture, since there were different ways of referring to this latent cultural structure. In contrast, recent studies represent culture as fragmented in social groups and diverse in its manifestations (Martin, 1992). The conception of culture affecting other aspects of beliefs, intents and collective life has been supplanted by an idea of culture as a set of complex structures of quasi-rules that constitute resources that people can put to strategic use (Bourdieu, 1990; Sewell, 1992; Swidler, 1986). This change makes the study of culture much more complicated and potentially much more useful to policy makers. Once it is acknowledged that culture is ‘fragmented’—that people’s norms may deviate from what the media represent as normal or that our unconscious images and discourses of a phenomenon may differ—it becomes crucial to identify units of cultural analysis and concentrate on the relationships between them. In effect, our measures cease to be indicators of a latent variable (culture) and their relationship with culture becomes analogous to that of education, income and place of residence with social stratification: distinct phenomena, analytically linked to a common theory, with the relationships between them being a matter

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1)

Y

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X 1+X 2 +Cultural variable +…X n

(Any dependent variable used in the social science)

2)

Y

=

X 1 +X 2 +X 3 +…X n

(Culture, often expressed as a nominal variable)

Fig. 7.1 Culture: from being an independent and often latent variable to a dependent one

of empirical investigation (D’Andrade, 1997 observes similar trends in anthropology). Figure 7.1 outlines the difference in considering culture as an independent given variable or a dependent variable to be determined. Likewise, once it is recognized that people behave as if they were using culture strategically, it follows that cultures in which people are socialized leave many opportunities for choice and variation. Thus, our attention is directed to ways in which different cultural frames or understandings can be situationalized (Cerulo, 2010, 2014). Addressing these problems requires more elaborate and contestable psychological assumptions than the cultural latent variable. What are the dependent variables of cultural variations is object of debate, but in the Re.Cri.Re. project as well as in this volume, a semiotic approach is adopted (Salvatore, 2016; Salvatore, Valsiner & Veltri, 2019; Valsiner, 2007) meaning that what determines cultural variation is the different semiotic-interpretative framework (i.e., symbolic universe) that people use to make sense of reality, These frameworks are abstract and generic, not related to a specific topic but they orient the way we make sense of everyday life and experiences. They are like lenses that augment or distort certain aspects of social reality. In this context we will discuss how the use of culture not as a black box or latent variable can be considered in ways of designing, developing and evaluating policies.

7.4 A Typology of the Roles of Culture for Policy Design When one thinks about policy and culture there are two fundamental aspects of the relationship between these two notions: a policy that takes culture into account and a policy that aims at changing culture. Accordingly, it is worth making a general distinction between two types of policies related to culture. We have named them, respectively: policy through culture and policy of cultural development. The two approaches use knowledge about a community culture in different ways: • Policy through culture. Policies relate to culture because of the very fact that they are designed and implemented within a situated cultural milieu. The cultural context is both a constraint and a key resource for policies. Indeed, the cultural

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elements (e.g., values, beliefs, social scripts, discursive practices, social representations, etc.) that mediate the relation between a policy and the target population can therefore work as drivers of the interventions as well as their limits. The policy therefore has to adopt an active attitude toward the cultural milieu, aimed at: (a) recognizing and adjusting to the cultural constraints; (b) identifying and valorising the cultural resources. • Policy of cultural development. At this level of intervention, the policy does not take the cultural milieu for granted, but sees it as the target of the change sought. This level is particularly relevant when the cultural milieu is in critical shape, thus becoming a problem in itself, namely when it works as a constraint on policy, rather than a resource. The two types of integration of culture into policy design have aims that are similar but different. In the case of policy through culture, the idea is to increase the chances of a policy intervention that takes culture variability into account across a target population in the context of the regulation or change of a specific set of citizens’ behaviours. In the case of a policy of cultural development, the aim of the policy intervention is the change of culture itself. Surprisingly enough, the second type is more common than the first one. Examples are health policies and environmental policies implemented through education in order to change the culture of a community. For example, many environmental policies aim at changing the relationship that people have with natural resources, moving from a culture of exploitation (at least in Western European countries) and commodification to one of coexistence and interdependence. A policy that explicitly takes culture into account is less common though sometimes there might be an implicit recognition of cultural patterns in a community to justify one measure over another. Moreover, as we have already mentioned, taking culture into account in policy design is largely dependent on how specific and operationalised the notion of culture is. For instance, in many cases the lack of an explicit policy design framework that takes cultural variation into account may be due to the fact that the cultural dimension is confused with the wider issue of representation of interests. In the following pages we will focus only on the first type, the implications of which are less explored. Firstly, let us define better what we mean by policies and policy interventions. In the recent past, policy design focused on identifying tools, while contemporary evidence-based design studies have shifted attention to identifying larger collections of policies, forming portfolios or toolkits (Howlett, Mukherjee & Woo, 2015; Schneider & Ingram, 1990), which are compilations of tools used to help in the policy process. Rather than supporting one step only of the policy design, the toolkit refers to several analytical and methodological tools directed over the longer lifespan of the policy intervention. In the next section, we will provide a brief and simplified account of the policy through culture toolkit.

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7.5 Policy Through Culture Toolkit Once we recognize that sense-making processes are necessary to design and deliver successful policies, the open question remains what type of cultural information is useful for policymakers in policy design. In order to include the role of culture in the policy design, one of the outcomes of the Re.Cri.Re. project was to formulate a toolkit with a set of analytical and methodological strategies. The final toolkit was made up of ten elements. In this section, we focus on some of the tools that are most exemplary of the “policy through culture” toolkit. The reduced form of the toolkit contains five tools1 : 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Cultural segmentation Demand at the core of policy Target population’s otherness Flexibility to cultural variability Interpretative agency.

Cultural segmentation Segmentation is widely used in policy-making. It is usually based on socio-demographic factors (e.g., age, gender, income, geographical position); however, cultural differences within the population are a major source of variability that has to be taken into account in designing and implementing policies, because the way of reacting to policy may largely depend upon it (see Fig. 7.2 for a visual exemplification of visible and invisible differences). Accordingly, cultural differences can be used for differentiating the population, in order to identify sub-sets of people, each of them characterized by a particular system of meanings. Segmentation is usually associated with profiling—the description of the pertinent characteristics of the cultural segment identified—socio-demographic characteristics, job position, geographical and spatial position; health status; attitudes towards important facets of the policy. This approach draws upon classical “social standpoint” theories in the sociology of knowledge such as that of Fleck (1935/Fleck 1979), who proposed the idea of “thought collectives” or “thought communities” that come to see the world from a particular institutional or subcultural paradigm, and that of Mannheim (1936/1985, pp. 79–81), who further advanced the idea that humans think as members of collectives, located in a particular social location, and that their mental structures are shaped by social structures; their worldviews result from affiliations such as professions, generations, social classes, and status groups. An example of such cultural segmentation is the analysis of the Brexit vote in the UK and how different cultural milieus are predictive of such a vote (Veltri, Redd, Mannarini & Salvatore, 2019). Demand at the core of policy The need is an objective condition of necessity or of a critical lack that the policy intends to address. The need is defined independently 1 By

tool, we mean a conceptual, analytical or methodological strategy of data collection, analysis and interpretation.

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Fig. 7.2 The increasing complexity of detecting differences within groups

from the target – it is a fact that justifies the intervention per se (e.g., from the medical standpoint, the disease defines the need for medical intervention regardless of the sick person’s view of his/her state of health). The demand is the target individual’s interpretation of his/her condition—why it happened, if and how to address it and with what aims. Thus, the demand goes beyond the need—it consists of the meaning in terms of which the target makes sense of his/her current state in the context of her/his world (i.e., sense of self, expectations, values, projects, social roles and so forth).

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The value that the target population attributes to the policy as well as the level of commitment and cooperation depends on the demand, namely on how the target population interprets the policy. Moreover, need and demand are not necessarily associated with each other. There can be need without demand (i.e., many people live in a state of educational deprivation, yet they do not consider that as a problem that needs to be addressed) as well as demand without need (e.g., the problem of the abuse of drugs and medical interventions). In many, even most, cases, the policy is focused on the need, namely on the setting of goals and actions based on the objective conditions the policy intends to address. Putting the demand at the core of the policy means recognizing that goals and actions have to be defined not only in terms of the state of affairs identified by the policy makers but also by taking into account the meaning that people attribute to them. This therefore makes the criterion of appropriateness (to the target population’s project) important. The value and efficacy of goals and actions do not only depend on their inner functional/technical quality, i.e., on how consistent they are with the objective conditions addressed, but on whether, how and to what extent the policy is perceived as meaningful by the target population as well as a resource for their projects and developmental tasks. Target population’s otherness The centrality of the demand implies that it must also be recognized that one cannot take it for granted that the target population interprets the policy in the same way as the policy makers, or at any rate in a way consistent with their view. Accordingly, the policy has to adopt devices aimed at understanding and monitoring the target population’s interpretation of the policy, in order to make it as consistent as possible with the policymaker’s framework. An example of the interpretative distance between policy-making and target population is provided by a study (Gneezy & Rustichini, 2000), which analysed the case of a school that had the problem of parents dropping off their children late for school. The senior management of the school decided to intervene and voted for the introduction of a financial fine to impose on those parents that arrived late with their children. Yet, paradoxically enough, the outcome of this intervention was that more children were late than before! This was because of the interpretative distance between policy makers and target population. Indeed, the school’s senior managers interpreted the intervention as the provision of a negative incentive, and therefore they expected that parents would stop being late as a response to it. On the contrary, the parents’ interpretation was very different: due to their interpretative autonomy, they viewed the fine as the “price” to be paid for being allowed to be late. They responded to their own interpretation, rather than to the one that motivated the policy-maker’s decision. Flexibility to cultural variability The target population is culturally plural: people vary in their way of feeling, thinking and acting, because each sense-maker interprets the reality in accordance to one of the several symbolic universes that are active in the cultural milieu. Therefore, the policy has to be designed in ways that allow the flexibility required for taking into account the cultural dimension of differences in the target population, as well as other dimensions (e.g., socio-demographic, linguistic, and so forth). The teaching of catholic religion in the Italian school system is an

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example of how hard it can be to introduce flexibility to cultural variability. Until 1989, even though Italian legislation envisaged the principle that the teaching of catholic religion was optional, various practical and procedural constraints limited its application. It was only with the intervention of the Constitutional Court (i.e., the highest Italian Juridical Body)—in an intervention external to the legislative system—that these constraints were overcome, and the optional nature of the subject was assured to students. Interpretative agency The policy is not meaningful in itself for the target population. Rather, people make the (engagement with) policy meaningful through the very process of interpreting it. This means that, in order to promote the target population’s commitment and cooperation, the policy has to leave room for—even trigger—the population’s active interpretation and negotiation of meanings. In other words, actors can be “assimilated” by the policy only if and insofar as they can assimilate the policy. This might seem counterintuitive, given that in many cases the target population’s demand is conflictual and centrifugal with respect to the policy’s goals and requirements. On the other hand, leaving room for the expression of the demand does not mean being forced to accept any form of it whatsoever. Rather, it means making the functional boundaries of the policy as flexible as possible in order to enable it to include forms of demand that otherwise would be considered critical deviations. From a complementary standpoint, it means designing and implementing ad hoc institutional and organizational settings that allow the demand to be expressed in compatible ways, namely in forms that promote—rather than damage—the target population’s engagement with the policy. The very many forms of community participatory processes are instances of this criterion. Citizens participate in discussion where they can actively express their point of view and discuss it with others. By interpreting and negotiating it, they appropriate the subject of the discussion and, at the same time, they become involved, an integral part of the collective action on it. In the final analysis, these instances show how the person becomes part of the whole when she/he can make the whole part of her/himself.

7.6 Functions and Contexts of Use of the Tools The five tools outlined above can be employed at different stages of a policy release process: cultural segmentation is particularly suited to the ex-ante stage, because it refers to a strategy of segmenting the target population; the interpretative agency tool is important both at the ex-ante and during the monitoring of the intervention in itinere because it allows the mismatch between the policy objectives and citizens’ interpretation of the policy to be identified. Table 7.1 summarises the idea outlining how the policy through culture toolkit can intervene in the different stages of the policy intervention process. At the same time, we can identify the role of the policy through culture toolkit according to the dimensions of evaluation of a policy intervention that we have

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Table 7.1 Proposed policy through culture strategies during the policy evaluation stages

Policy through culture

Ex ante (before release)

In itinere

Ex post (after release)

• Cultural segmentation • Demand at the core of policy • Flexibility to cultural variability • Interpretative agency

• Target population’s otherness • Interpretative agency

• Target population’s otherness • Interpretative agency

outlined in the previous section. While all the tools presented aim at improving the efficacy of a policy intervention, some are better suited to different dimensions of the policy evaluation as presented in Fig. 7.2. For example, the issue of fidelity is covered by the influence of culture on the citizens’ interpretations but also by taking into account their cultural variability (and therefore their symbolic resources that mediate between the policymaker’s intended policy goals). Similarly, cultural segmentation helps both the effectiveness and efficiency of a policy intervention. In the first case because it helps tailor instruments based on the cultural variability within the target population. An analogy here is precision medicine that is an emerging approach for disease treatment and prevention that takes into account individual variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle for each person. In the context of policy, the unit cannot be the individual but subgroups of the target population that will respond differently to the same policy intervention. Cultural segmentation plays a big role in improving efficiency since it can alert about the deployment of policy interventions that are likely to be ineffective with specific subgroups and therefore help to develop solutions that take cultural specificity into account. Next, we will examine some of the components of the policy through culture toolkit that are take the form of analytical and methodological strategies. To this end, it is useful to make the following distinction. Policy evaluation can be conceptualised around a number of features: efficacy, effectiveness, efficiency, fidelity and sustainability (O’Donnell, 2008; Gertler, Martinez, Premand, Rawlings & Vermeersch, 2016). Efficacy refers to the ability of a program to achieve the overall planned purpose. Effectiveness is related to the extent to which an intervention made a difference toward that goal. Efficiency describes the relationship between the resources used and the success achieved. Fidelity denotes whether an intervention was implemented and interpreted by the actors involved the way it was planned. Sustainability indicates the estimated life of the effect observed and whether it is expected to continue after the implementation is completed. All these dimensions of evaluation are relevant for the impact of cultural elements as we will see in the example of the policy through culture toolkit (Table 7.2).

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Table 7.2 The policy through culture toolkit and the different dimensions of policy evaluation Efficacy

Effectiveness

Efficiency

Fidelity

Sustainability

Cultural segmentation

Cultural segmentation

Cultural segmentation

Interpretative agency

Flexibility to cultural variability

Demand at the core of policy

Flexibility to cultural variability

Demand at the core of policy

Flexibility to cultural variability

Flexibility to cultural variability Interpretative agency

7.7 Final Remarks Grounding theories of human nature on more realistic assumptions is certainly fundamental to increasing the effectiveness of interventions. The role of culture has long been neglected if we exclude good intentions and statements that were not followed by actual ways of including cultural variability in the policy design process. The first important contribution of this volume and the Re.Cri.Re. project is that culture is in the picture with an operational and scientifically specified notion of culture that can be investigated rather than considered a latent construct. Second, while the introduction of culture is important for national governments and institutions, it is particularly important for international ones. For example, the European Union has been dominated by a ‘benchmarking logic’ in which European policy evaluations are made by comparing different countries and taking the ‘best’ as the example to be followed by the nations lagging behind (Codagnone, Bogliacino & Veltri, 2018). Both cultural diversity within a country and between countries is important here because different countries can contain similar cultural population clusters (Salvatore et al., 2018). One potential danger of the policy implications of the cultural analysis proposed is that of falling into the pitfalls of evidence-based policy (Codagnone, Bogliacino & Veltri, 2018). In 1997, Tony Blair launched the project of an evidence-based policy (PBE), which aimed to formulate and evaluate any policy based on the empirical evidence available with regard to its efficiency and effectiveness. Was he right? Is it possible to have a non-evaluative science, not a slave to partisan interests and not guided by the personal inclinations of the researcher able to suggest to politicians an objectively better choice? Clearly not, if we consider that science is by nature full of doubts. However, while we cannot abandon ourselves to “scientism” and technocracy, nor can we give into the narrative built by “entrepreneurs of emotions”, a narration that, precisely because it is not empirically founded, can also incorporate data that does not coincide with it. Some theorists of democracy say that the best decisions are those made through the enhancement of the contribution of citizens: in

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their view, the “collective intelligence” that is released in participatory processes does away with fictitiously scientific political decisions. Consistent with their argument, the authors do not agree with this approach. Finally, there is a third decision-making mechanism, this too not a problem-free option: that based on the political decisionmaking capacity of the opposing interests of scientists and citizens. Nothing in the psychological and social sciences tells us that policy-making will become a simpler matter or that it is generally optimal to restrain interventions or to use lean regulation instead of structural reforms. Policy will remain a domain of contrasts between interests but providing more robust evidence will improve transparency. Thorngate (2001), for example, states that some public policies are introduced or modified not only for rigorous evaluation of the same, but for pressure from the actors or peers, to obtain promotions or recognition, or to guarantee legitimacy. In this context, even if the evidence is high quality, other socio-psychological factors can play a much more important role in explaining the behaviour of the bureaucrat. So, we can think that group dynamics, like the sense of belonging, the distortion of confirmation, and conformity, are processes that guide the appropriate selection of evidence when making decisions. A possible solution may be for decisions of public policy to become the result of the different combinations of three factors in constant mutual tension: scientific uncertainty, concentration of interests and presence of conflict of values. The different combinations allow us to identify the most appropriate decision-making mechanism (PBE, deliberation or conflict mediation) (Codagnone, Bogliacino & Veltri, 2018). The last important point is that taking cultural variability into account does not shield policy makers from the potential conflict of values and interests that are present in complex contemporary society. What a culturally informed based policy can do is to understand the reasons for some of these conflicts while finding solutions that are both democratically legitimated and as much as possible grounded on realistic models of human nature.

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Giuseppe Alessandro Veltri holds a BSc in Psychology of Communication from the University of Siena, an MSc in Social Research Methods (Statistics) from the Methodology Institute of the London School of Economics (LSE) and a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the LSE. He is Associate Professor of Research Methodology and Cognitive Sociology at the Department of Sociology and Social Research of the University of Trento. He was Senior Lecturer at University of Leicester. He has been scientific fellow at the European Commission JRC Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS). Before joining the IPTS, he has been a research associate at the Institut Jean Nicod (Ecole Normale Supérieure) in Paris. He has published in scientific journals such as Nature, PLOS One, Computers in Human Behavior, Public Understanding of Science, Big Data & Society and others. Terri Mannarini is Associate Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Salento, Lecce, Italy, and editor-in-chief of the international journal Community Psychology in Global Perspective. Her research interests cover political, social, and community psychology, and focus specifically on community participation and development processes, collective action, acculturation processes, and gender issues. Anna Krasteva is professor of political sciences at the New Bulgarian University, founder and director of CERMES (Centre for Refugees, Migration and Ethnic Studies), doctor honoris causa of University Lille 3, France. She has authored and edited 29 books and published numerous articles in about twenty countries. Her main fields of research and teaching are migration and border policies and politics; populism; citizenship and civic mobilisations on- and off-line. She has been guest professor at numerous universities. She is editor-in-chief of Southeastern Europe (Brill), Member of the editorial boards of Nationalism and ethnic politics (Routledge) and Europeana (Shangai and Paris). Marco Cremaschi is “Professeur des Univesités en Urbanisme” and director of the Master in Urban Planning and Design at the Urban School, SciencePo, Paris. His research interests lie mostly in the fields of urban development, policies, planning and design. He has been working on a few major projects dealing with the changing spatial organization of European cities and their consequent impacts on urban policies: and the arrival of refugees and immigrants, in particular in small cities. He published or edited 12 books and more than 140 papers on housing, urban planning, and the European Union programs for cities. Gordon Sammut is senior lecturer in social psychology at the University of Malta and visiting fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research interests concern intercultural and intergroup relations, social influence, the spiral of conflict and group polarisation, attributions of ignorance in outgroup evaluations and issues relating to divergent perspectives

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in social relations. In particular, his recent work has focused on European perspectives towards Arab integration in Europe. He is coeditor of Papers on Social Representations and chief-editor of Cultural Encounters and Social Solidarity [special issue: Papers on Social Representations], The Cambridge Handbook of Social Representations [Cambridge University Press], Understanding Self and Others: Explorations in Intersubjectivity and Interobjectivity [Routledge], and Methods of Psychological Intervention: Yearbook of Idiographic Science Vol. VII [Information Age]. Sergio Salvatore is Professor of Dynamic Psychology at the Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, “La Sapienza” University of Rome. President of the European Institute of Cultural Analysis for Policy (EICAP). His scientific interests regard the psychodynamic and semiotic theorization of mental phenomena and the methodology of analysis of psychological processes as field dependent dynamics. He also takes an interest in theory and the analysis of psychological intervention in clinical, scholastic, organizational and social fields. On these issues he has designed and managed various scientific projects (e.g., Re.Cri.Re.) and published about 250 works.