5th International LAB Meeting - Spring Session 2006
Social Representations in Action and Construction in Media and Society
"Modelling and Positioning Approach in Research on Social Representations"
at the European PhD on Social Representations & Communication Multimedia LAB & Research Center, Rome-Italy
in combination with Worldwide on-line connection points
From 29th April to 7th May 2006
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.
| Event No | Event duration of whole series | |
| Start date | End date | |
| 1 | 22/01/2005 | 30/01/2005 |
| 2 | 29/04/2005 | 08/05/2005 |
| 3 | 02/07/2005 | 10/07/2005 |
| 4 | 21/01/2006 | 29/01/2006 |
| 5 | 29/04/2006 | 07/05/2006 |
| 6 | 28/08/2006 | 06/09/2006 |
| 7 | 20/01/2007 | 28/01/2007 |
| 8 | 28/04/2007 | 06/05/2007 |
| 9 | 07/07/2007 | 15/07/2007 |
| 10 | 26/01/2008 | 03/02/2008 |
| 11 | 26/04/2008 | 04/05/2008 |
| 12 | 05/07/2008 | 13/07/2008 |
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.
| N° | Year | Session | Start date- End date | Typology and Location |
Topic Advanced Research Training Objective |
| 4 | 2006 | Winter |
21/01/06 29/01/06 |
Integrated On Line and Face-to-Face held at the European Ph.D. on S.R. & C. Research Centre and Multi-media Lab Rome - ITALY
with multi-points connection via web auditorium |
Virtual group training and individual supervision relating to the meta-theoretical analysis of the literature on Social Representations Special training sessions will be organized using as didactic materials: guidebook for the use of the European PhD. Marratech Pro. Web auditorium and the guide of conduct designed to participate in the on-line events; the new grid aimed at the meta-theoretical analysis of the comprehensive literature on Social Representations and Communication and at building the specialized Intelligent Virtual Library on S.R. & C.. the new tools for the on-line evaluation of the research reports developed by the research trainees at different stages of their doctoral training. |
| 5 | 2006 | Spring |
29/04/06 07/05/06 |
Integrated On Line and Face-to-Face held at the European Ph.D. on S.R. & C. Research Centre and Multi-media Lab Rome - ITALY with multi-points connection via web auditorium |
Modelling and positioning approach in research on Social Representations mediated by traditional and new media: the analysis of textual data via Multiple Analysis of Correspondence applying tha packadge SPAD-T. |
| 6 | 2006 | Summer |
28/08/06 06/09/06 |
Face-to-Face held at the European Ph.D. on S.R. & C. Research Centre and Multi-media Lab Rome - ITALY with integrated sessions with the 8th International Conference on Social Representations |
Dialogical and Conversational Analysis in Focus Groups. The application of DiscAn (Discourse Analysis) to research designs on Social Representations |
The teaching staff will include internationally recognised experts in the field of communication and social Representations, most of them partners in the SoReCom Thematic Network of excellence.
Keynote speakers will be chosen from among leading scientists in various disciplines (anthropology, sociology, social psychology, psychology of art, media studies, science communication, etc.) with different research traditions in the area of communication. The aim is not only to present state-of-the-art of research and theory from various fields, but also to stimulate the cross-fertilization of ideas in a multidisciplinary arena.
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 events, are transmitted simultaneously in real time to all the participants and/or transmitted in streaming videos on the web for a post event connection.
Following the three 2005 sessions and the 2006 winter session, the fifth International lab meeting will be held in Rome (April 24th to May 7th) at the European Ph.D. Research Centre and Multimedia LAB.
During the 5th International Lab Meeting theoretical issues on research methods concerning the modelling and positioning approach in research on Social Representations mediated by traditional and new media, and in particular the so called "Geneva School" approach.
The application of SPAD-T statistical package to research designs on Social Representations will be presented during intensive computer mediated training sessions concerning the analysis of textual data via Multiple Analysis of Correspondance.
The audience will consist of two different groups of participants. One group will participate in the meeting from multi-media lab in Rome, the other group will be connected from various countries worldwide. Both groups will be joint into the interactive learning process via the use of Marratech pro multi-point video conference system called the European PhD web auditorium.
The first part of the event will consist in training the participants in the technical use of the online conferencing tool. The second part will include Keynote lectures followed by interactive discussion with the participant, from inside and outside the lab.
The meeting will be chaired by Prof. Annamaria Silvana de Rosa (La Sapienza University of Rome – Italy), Scientific Co-ordinator of the European Ph.D. program.
The meeting also will include:
- INTENSIVE GROUP WORKING SESSIONS ON PARTICPANTS’ RESEARCH PROJECTS
ACTIVE PARTICIPANTS’ CONTRIBUTION
The whole series of practical courses will involve substantial hands-on laboratory and/or field experience for the participants, who will be asked to bring their research data files, if available.
The various topics developed in the participants' research projects presented and discussed during the workshops will provide a variety of societal issues mediated and constructed via different traditional and new media. 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 training courses.
The European PhD on S.R. & C. International Lab Meetings will be led by qualified academic experts, who will commit for the entire ten days-long event, assisted by one or two doctoral or post-doctoral candidate research assistants who are already familiar with the specific technique and software.
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).
Priority in the selection procedure will be given to the regularly enrolled European PhD on S.R. & C. research trainees, by taking into account that the European PhD on Social Representations and Communication International Lab Meetings is a crucial didactic stage in their training, for which 10 credits per year are awarded under the Euro PhD system. Each young researcher has a national tutor and a foreign tutor, possibly present at least in one of the three per year European PhD on Social Representations and Communication International Lab Meetings or connected via web-auditorium.
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".
APPLICATION FOR MSCF-CT-2004-013264 FUNDING
The eligible candidates may apply for MSCF-CT-2004-013264 funding (including scientific participation fees, travel expenses at the lowest fare, accommodation and lunches according to the arrangement provided by the organiser). Eligible applicants are:
- research trainee enrolled in the European Doctorate on Social Representations and Communication
- new candidate of the European Doctorate on Social Representations and Communication for 2007/2008 with no more than 4 years of research activity, since gaining a University Degree giving access to doctoral studies
- potential candidate of other doctoral program in Social Sciences with no more than 4 years of research activity, since gaining a University Degree giving access to doctoral studies or as doctoral research trainees who had not yet obtained a doctoral degree
- Experienced Participant with at least 4 years and less than 10 years of Research Experience - since gaining a University Degree giving access to doctoral studies (no more than 5 experienced participants will be admited, free of charge)
Those who do not fulfill the eligibility criteria, - if admitted – are requested to pay the amount of 1000 Euro for the scientific participation fee (not including travel, accommodation, and living expenses) as soon they receive the letter of acceptance. The deadline and method of payment will be communicated with the letter of acceptance