1st International LAB Meeting Winter Session 2005 - Announcement

Social Representations in Action and Construction in Media and Society

"Virtual Group Training and Individual Supervision Relating to the Distant Cooperative Research Program aimed at the Meta-Theoretical Analysis of the Comprehensive Literature on Social Representations and Communication"

at the European PhD on Social Representations & Communication Multimedia LAB & Research Center, Rome-Italy

in combination with Worldwide on-line connection points

From 22nd to 30th of January 2005

 

Project Summary

 

The European PhD on Social Representations and Communication International Lab Meetings, successor to the decade of International Summer Schools, provides an important opportunity for young researchers to obtain advanced academic and technical skills needed to conduct state-of-the-art research. Twelve ten days-long courses are organised around the theme of Social Representations in Action and Construction in Media and Society and focus on advanced practical training for 25 participants.  The first two events each year integrate virtual and face-to-face sessions, aimed at training doctoral students in meta-theoretical analysis of the literature. The following one is face-to-face intensive training courses requiring the physical mobility of participants and open to long-term dissemination via web. These events share common objectives and have a didactic structure with multiple training opportunities for critical analysis of the link between multi-media communication systems and social representations. The methods, techniques, software packages and related method theory guiding applications in research design, will provide the unifying theme for each event of the proposed advanced courses. The topics developed in the participants' research projects presented and discussed during the workshops will provide a variety of societal issues mediated and constructed via traditional and new media.  The program's originality is in its training methods, integrating face-to-face interaction (workshops, lectures, presentations) with mediated virtual interaction (Internet forum discussion, web-videoconferencing, streaming videos). Key lectures expand the horizon to other communication fields (semiotics, linguistics, sociology, mass communications, media studies etc.). The phenomena we cover (information society, new socialization and communication strategies and applications for politics, health, the environment, social minorities, gender, etc.) are clearly relevant to EU policy.

Compared  to  that  successfully  used  in  the  past  ten  years  of  the  International  Summer  Schools,  the  European   PhD  on  Social Representations and Communication International Lab Meetings will offer a slightly different formula for advanced training. The originality of this program is found in its innovative training methods, combining face to face interaction in a variety of training situations  (workshops, lectures, presentations)  with mediated  virtual  interaction  (internet  forum discussion,  web-videoconferencing, streaming  videos on the web) for training  purposes,  especially  long term dissemination  of the scientific  events.   Our intention is to continue  the International  Summer School's  tradition  of achieving  "steps forward"  by addressing  state of the art scientific  problems through valuable research training methods and innovative applications.

The formula adopted for this new series of events is even more innovative compared previous ones for the following reasons:

• it   gives  research  trainees  a more  active  role allowing  a number  of  them  to  take  on  responsibilities  as  research  event assistants;
• it will accept a limited number of post-doctorate  researchers  as participants,  not only doctoral  candidates.   This will allow for the improvement of cross-fertilization  of ideas and research practices between research trainees with different levels of expertise as well as providing new training opportunities for researchers who already have  4-10 years of experience at the time of the event;
• the practical advanced training sessions (in the physical lab as well on-line) reduces the number of   participants  in each event and increases the number of events each year;
• it  includes  complementary  sessions  aimed  at  international  research  management  training  valuable  for  researchers'  career development;
• it promotes  post-event  forum discussions  among the participants  via web on the knowledge  acquired  during  the practical  courses and its later applications.  They can also request on-line feedback from guest experts, as consultants.

The draft  agenda  for  the  first three  sessions of  the  Advanced  Research  Training  Courses  to  be  organised  on the first year  (2005) in winter, spring and summer is as follows.

The first event will be led by the European Ph.D. Program Director prof. Serge Moscovici (E.H.E.S.S.-L.E.P.S.-M.S.H.) and the Scientific Co-ordinator prof. Annamaria Silvana de Rosa (La Sapienza University of Rome – Italy).

Besides the specific group and individual training Virtual group and individual training in  the use of European Ph.D. web-Auditorium  via Marratech Pro multi-point video conference system. it will also include:

Ø     MAGISTERIAL LECTURES by prof. Klaus.Peter.Koepping University of Heidelberg (Germany) about the topic:

“The crisis of representation from the anthropological point of view with reference to the problem of hegemonial and antihegemonial ideologies in postmodern globalized environment.”

Keynote speakers have been chosen from among leading scientists in various disciplines  (anthropology, sociology, social  psychology)  with different  research traditions  in the area of communication.  Their role will be not only to present the state of the art in their fields, but also to stimulate cross-fertilization of ideas in a multidisciplinary area.

      (Depending on the technical conditions of the speed connection available across the online participant’s network and the accomplished technical requirements, the magisterial lectures, produced during the scientific event, will be transmitted simultaneously in real time to all the participants or to be transmitted in streaming videos on the web for a post event connection)

Ø     Training sessions relating to ODL use of the Euro PhD website and methodological skills for distant monitoring of research progress

Ø     Virtual or face-to-face group training and individual supervision relating to distant co-operative research aimed at the meta-theoretical analysis of the comprehensive literature on Social Representations and Communication.

The 12 sub-programmes are related to each other by:

• common pedagogical objectives in training European PhD researchers
• the general topic: "Social Representations in Action and Construction in Media and Society"
• links between specific topics (the theory of the methods and their applications) around which the 12 events are organised
• a focus on social psychology from a multidisciplinary perspective
• a didactic structure involving different types of training sessions (empirical research methods advanced training, workshops with participants'  presentations,  keynote lectures, integrated  training sessions using the European PhD website, post-event forum discussion, streaming videos on the web, etc.)
• integration  of  on-site  training  (face  to  face  interaction)  with  web-videoconferencing (virtual  interaction)  with  European PhD network university sites, including the Marie Curie Multi-Partner Organisation and the SoReCom Thematic network.

Target participants  include the following:

• Doctoral research trainees enrolled in the European PhD on S.R. & C.
• European PhD on S.R. & C.  Marie Curie Fellows.
• A limited  number  of young  researchers  (no more than 5) with  4-10  years  of post-graduate  experience  from  organisations,  institutions,  and public or private research centres interested in the subjects (preferably  among participants in previous European PhD on Social Representations and Communication International Summer Schools or introduced by  one  of  the universities of the Socrates-Erasmus network or the European PhD Vinci network).
• Postgraduates,  doctoral research trainees including those  not belonging  to the European PhD on S.R.   & C.  network and from outside Europe enrolled  in  national  PhD  courses  or in  team  research  programmes   (preferably  among participants in previous European PhD on Social Representations and Communication International Summer Schools or introduced by  one  of  the universities of the Socrates-Erasmus network or the European PhD Vinci network).

If places will be still available, young researchers not enrolled in the Euro PhD programme will be selected. For them the European PhD on Social  Representations and  Communication  International  Lab  Meetings  provide  an  opportunity  to broaden  their  specialised knowledge in the subject area. 

 

Dissemination

The  European  PhD  on  Social  Representations  and  Communication  International Lab  Meetings  deal  with  “Communication”  as  it relates  to  Social Representations, an  area  of  study  which  originated  in  and  spread  out  from Europe.   Past International  Summer Schools, particularly through their link with the European PhD, have reinforced the European origin of the research area and helped to re-establish the world wide intellectual leadership of European Social Psychology.   The European PhD on Social Representations and Communication  is now well established  as a permanent  European forum for disseminating  state of the art research in this area. Continuation  of the Euro  PhD Summer  School  experience  in future  years  is crucial  if Europe  is to maintain  its role  as the leading “voice”  in  what  has  now become  a multilingual  worldwide  research  field  which  is  closely  tied  to  social policy-making  processes including  immigration  and  minority  groups,  quality  of life,  health,  environment,  and   information  technology . There  is  also European added value in  training researchers who can pool the knowledge gained from academic research and expertise acquired by the  private  sector  and  political institutions  to  conduct  future  comparative  studies  in  social  sciences  in  areas of importance  for  EU citizens. Continuing  to  offer  these  advantages,  now  via  the European  PhD  on  Social  Representations  and  Communication International  Lab Meetings  that  have  a consistent  ethos  and format  (didactic  and administrative structure,  monitoring  system)  will help  to  set  and  maintain  European  standards  for  both  research  and  teaching.   In  this  respect  the  European  PhD  on  Social Representations  and  Communication  International  Lab  Meetings  will  be  yet  another  step  towards  the  construction  of  a  "Virtual University of Europe".