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Cognitive Polyphasia, Social Representations and Political Participation in Adolescents

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Abstract

Studies conducted in the last few decades show that young people have a negative evaluation of politics since they relate it to conventional forms of participation. In addition, they engage in unconventional forms of political participation, though they do not think of them as political practices. In this context, a qualitative study was carried out in order to describe the social representations of politics through the narratives provided by adolescents during an interview based on Piaget’s clinical method. The results obtained reveal the coexistence of two representations of politics: a conventional and an unconventional one. The representation in which politics is mainly understood as conventional forms of participation appears to be hegemonic, although a polemic unconventional representation was identified. Moreover, in many of the subjects both representations coexist in state of cognitive polyphasia that express a relation of selective prevalence between them, depending on the discursive context they are elicited.

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Notes

  1. Indicates the age of the participants.

  2. Indicates the gender of the participants. M means male and F means female.

  3. The following criterion was used for the transcription of the interview extracts: the interviewer’s words are written in square brackets []; the interviewee’s words are written in italics. Whenever a fragment of the interview has been omitted, (…) is written and when the omitted fragment belongs only to the interviewee’s words, (…) is written.

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Acknowledgments

This work was conducted as part of the following research projects: UBACYT 20020170100222BA: Constraints to concept construction processes in the social knowledge domain: possibilities and setbacks for the constructivist research program, led by Dr. José Antonio Castorina and co-directed by Dr. Alicia Barreiro; and PICT-2016-0397: Social justice constructions: social representations, prejudice and civic commitment in young people, led by Dr. Alicia Barreiro.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Social Investigations of Latin America, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Daniela Bruno & Alicia Barreiro

  2. Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Daniela Bruno & Alicia Barreiro

  3. National Scientific and Technical Research Council, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Daniela Bruno & Alicia Barreiro

  4. University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Daniela Bruno & Alicia Barreiro

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  1. Daniela Bruno
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Correspondence to Daniela Bruno.

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Bruno, D., Barreiro, A. Cognitive Polyphasia, Social Representations and Political Participation in Adolescents. Integr. psych. behav. 55, 18–29 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-020-09521-8

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