European / International Joint Ph.D. in
Social Representation and Communication

6th International Summer School 2000 - Announcement

European Ph.D. on Social Representations and Communication

6th International Summer School on
Social Representations and Communication

"Social Representations Theory Around the World"

 

Date and Location

The 6th International Summer School on "Social Representations and Communication" will be held in Rome, Italy 28th May-3rdJune 2000.

Rome is currently enjoying the Jubilee Year, with a wide variety of upcoming cultural and religious events. Major rebuilding work in the city has restored many historic buildings and created new artistic areas for cultural events. The climate is mild and sunny, the average summer temperature being 25-28°C.

The location of the 6th International Summer School on "Social Representations and Communication" is the University of Rome "La Sapienza", the largest University in Europe. Participants will be welcomed at the Congress Centre of the Faculty of Sociology.

The residential venue for participants is located in the centre of the capital in the elegant Parioli-Trieste district. It is a "green" area with sports facilities and parking, close to the magnificent Villa Ada park, not far from the University and very well connected to the Rome historic centre, Termini railway station and Fiumicino airport. This is the same location as was used for the 1999 International Summer School and was highly praised by all participants for the quality of its hospitality and its efficiency. Details of accommodation and of how to get to the venue will be sent with the letter of acceptance.

 

Organiser

Like the previous scientific events, the 6th International Summer School on "Social Representations and Communication" is organised by prof. Annamaria Silvana de Rosa, scientific co-ordinator of the European PhD on Social Representations and Communication.

 

Aims

The annual International Summer School on "Social Representations and Communication" is the most intensive didactic stage for participants in the European PhD on Social Representations and Communication. Its new advanced curriculum has been approved by DGXXII SOCRATES and formally recognised by the University of Rome "La Sapienza", Helsinki University and I.S.C.T.E. in Lisbon. It is supported by Erasmus-Socrates, the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme in Paris and the EuroPACE network, which deals with telematic applications for open distance learning.

In accordance with the main purposes of both the I.P and C.D.A. SOCRATES programmes co-ordinated by the University of Rome "La Sapienza" - approved by DGXXII (IC 29415-IC-1-99-IT-ERASMUS-1) - the 6th International Summer School aims to promote the European dimension of higher education by offering academic research training in an international setting. It is characterised by intensive formal and informal exchanges between teachers from different European scientific laboratories and a small number of Ph.D students and young researchers from different countries, some from outside Europe.

The general aims of the International Summer Schools on "Social Representations and Communication", which take place over a period of several years, are as follows:

 

a) to give participants the chance to deepen their knowledge of the theory, methodology and application of the Social Representations paradigm, working with people from other universities in a multinational setting and availing themselves of the experiences of an international team of experts in their particular field of study

b) to involve participants in different learning sessions so that they are not merely "onlookers" but drawn in to the learning method, sharing what they have learned from training in their native land

c) to monitor the advanced training of the EU PhD students - principally by training through research and trans-national mobility and co-operation - and develop joint criteria of evaluation which can gradually set "European standards" for and beyond research

d) to take advantage of the meeting of invited experts to enrich teaching methods in the international arena; as teachers of a sort of "extended European Faculty" the teaching team will be encouraged to meet for a "joint didactic exchange" with a new generation of researchers from different nations

 

 

Topic and structure within a long term planning framework

The 6th International Summer School on "Social Representations and Communication" will develop the successful intensive programmes of the 1995 summer school on "Everyday thinking, Social Representations and Communication" held in Finland (Lahti), the 1996 summer school on "Multiple strategies in the investigation of Social Representations" held in France (Aix-en-Provence), the 1997 summer school on "Social Representation Theory: historical roots, articulation and development" held in Portugal (Lisbon), the 1998 summer school on "The theory towards applications" held in the Spain-Basque country (San Sebastian) and the 1999 summer school "Developing European Doctoral Training".

This 6th International Summer School will conclude the cycle of the International Summer School focussed on Social Representation Theory, Methods, Applications and Diffusion. The next cycle of the International Summer Schools dedicated to the European PhD on S.R.& C. already planned for 2001-2003 will be focussed on Communication and will be open to a multi-disciplinary and multi-methodological approach.

In line with the long term planning for the summer schools, the 6th International Summer School, entitled "Social Representations Theory Around the World. The diffusion of the theory within different cultural contexts and in a multi-generational perspective" will be dedicated to the presentation of research reports by EU PhD students enrolled in the European doctoral programme on Social Representations and Communication and will include the presentation and evaluation of final Euro PhD theses by some of the EU PhD students enrolled in the European doctoral programme on Social Representations and Communication since 1996-1997.

The content of the workshops may be adjusted depending on the current research interests that the participants may propose for in addition to those that will be made by the Euro PhD students.

The scientific structure of the 6th International Summer School is expected to be as follows:

 

 

There will be keynote lectures presented in plenary session by the Euro PhD Teaching Staff and leading international experts (from the U.S. and Latin America) focussing on this year’s chosen subject "Social Representations Theory around the World", highlighting the diffusion of the Theory in different parts of the world. They will be closely linked to the fields addressed in the workshops and Forum Discussion

Presentation of EuroPhD theses by some students enrolled in the first cycle of the Euro PhD and evaluation by the Final Jury including international experts external to the Euro Ph.D network.

Parallel workshops focussing on three main areas relating to the current projects of young researchers enrolled in the EU PhD programme. The workshops, which will be introduced by the two tutors responsible for co-ordination and will involve the active participation of the whole teaching staff, will be dedicated to illustrations of research projects by young researchers. The young researchers are expected to prepare their reports in English (in short article or brief research report format ready for submission to an international journal) to be sent to tutors before the summer school. As well as the young researchers enrolled in the PhD programme, a limited number of participants may attend the workshops on the basis of an order of ranking of their choice.

Open discussion within the parallel working groups of the research reports illustrated in the workshop sessions. Discussion will be led by the two tutors who will also co-ordinate the workshops. Other EU PhD tutors belonging to the network and invited members of the teaching staff who attend these sessions as external experts, are also expected to contribute to the discussion, together with the other summer school participants.

At the end of the session the tutors will be asked to summarise the key points arising during the discussion in a list of questions to the EU PhD researchers aimed at improving their research reports.

There will be a special training session on the didactic use of the internet site of the EU PhD on Social representations and Communication. It will look particularly at the section on the meta-analysis of the literature on social representations, introduced by the scientific co-ordinator of the EU PhD programme.

Forum Discussion will focus on the crucial issue "what are the criteria for defining a ‘good research’", a question of particular relevance in the context of research training and editorial policy development. This session is aimed at developing within a face to face interactive context between the participants and the whole teaching staff, the virtual interaction that has already been activated on the website by network researchers, teaching staff, invited experts and editors of the main international journals.

There will be dedicated meetings between EU PhD young researchers and their national and foreign tutors and the representative members of the European PhD Executive Committee including the programme director and co-ordinator

These will be informal meetings between participants and teaching staff providing an opportunity for individual tutoring for EU Ph.D. young researchers and mutual knowledge-sharing.

 

 

 

Teaching staff

The teaching staff includes teachers from Universities and research centres spread over 8 European countries (Austria, Finland, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, UK) and outside Europe (U.S. and Latin-America). They are all known experts in the area and will include the founder of the theory of Social Representations, Serge Moscovici.

The tutors from partner universities are listed below:

 

 

Austria

E. Kirchler University of Vienna

Finland

K. Helkama and A.M. Pirttila Backman University of Helsinki

France

S. Moscovici, D. Jodelet, and E. Lage E.H.E.S.S., Paris

 

J.C. Abric and P. Vergès University of Marseille, Aix

Italy

A.S. de Rosa and .G.Losito University ‘La Sapienza’, Rome

Portugal

J. Jesuino and L. Amancio I.S.C.T.E., Lisbon

F. Costa Pereira Escuola Superior de Comunicaçao Social, Lisbon

Spain

J. Valencia University of Basque Country

U.K.

G. Duveen University of Cambridge

 

G.Gaskell (London School of Economics)

 

The following academics from outside the Socrates EU PhD network have also been invited:

 

 

Brazil

M.T.Avila Univ. Federal do Rio de Janeiro Brasil

USA

G.Philogene, Sarah Lawrence College, New York

 

* in the final programme, the list of lecturers may change slightly but this will not affect the scientific and thematic articulation of the programme

 

Level

The level of the summer school will be "specialised" rather than "basic". Contents will not deal with elements already noted in theory but will give greater emphasis to meta-theoretical, methodological and applied aspects necessary for the formation of the "how" and "why" of the research.

 

Target participants

Like previous summer schools, the 6th International Summer School on Social Representations and Communication will target the following participants:

 

European PhD students

     

    • Students enrolled in the European PhD programme in 1996-97, 1997-98, 1998-99 or 1999-2000.
    • Students selected for the 2000-2001 on condition that they are enrolled for the 2000-2001 academic year (see conditions for application to the European PhD on the appropriate sheet). Once enrolled, European PhD students will be allowed to take part in the Summer School free of charge.

     

    Postgraduates

       

      • Postgraduates, preferably enrolled in national PhD courses or at least involved in team research programmes, will be selected to attend the summer school as long as they have been introduced by one of the universities of the Socrates-Erasmus network (IC 29415-IC-1-99-IT-ERASMUS-1).
      • Postgraduates from a university not in the network, even from outside Europe, subject to availability of places.

       

      Previous participants

         

         

        • The summer school will be open to participants of previous summer schools selected from the new list of applicants.

         

        Number of participants

        Maximum 40.

         

        Selection of applicants

        Selection of applicants — both for the EU PhD and the 6th International Summer School - will be carried out by the EU PhD Executive Committee, comprising the Programme Director, the Co-ordinator and the two representatives from the University of Helsinki and the I.S.C.T.E., who, besides the University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’, have recognised the EU PhD on S.R. & C.

         

        Conditions for Application

        The entrance requirements for admission to the European doctoral programme, entrance procedures and application form (to be sent both by Internet and by fax in one signed copy) are available on Internet at the address:

         

        http://www.europhd.psi.uniroma1.it/admission/forms.htm

         

        Applicants for the 6th International Summer School are requested to send an application both by Internet and by fax in one signed copy using the enclosed form or printing an empty form available on the web-site.

        The application form should be returned to the following Internet address:

         

        http://www.europhd.psi.uniroma1.it/ss6/forms.htm

         

        and by fax in one signed copy by 15th April 2000 to :

         

        prof. Annamaria Silvana de Rosa 
        Facoltà di Psicologia - Università degli studi di Roma 'La Sapienza' -
        via dei Marsi, 78 - 00185 Roma ITALIA
        fax: +39-06-4991.7652; E-mail: annamaria.derosa@uniroma1.it

         

        Financial support

        Expenses are available on the following terms, according to the different sources of funds and their criteria of eligibility:

         

        EU DG XXII: SOCRATES (contract IC 29415-IP and CDA-1-99-IT-ERASMUS-1)

        assigned to the co-ordinating University and co-funded by the University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’:

         
        • item expenses of general interest: selection and co-ordinating meeting, didactic materials, technical equipment and O.D.L., administrative costs (personnel labour costs and overheads), publicity of the event, venue hire, external services (digital video-recording, simultaneous translation, etc.;
          • registration fee for participating in the 6th International Summer School for the students enrolled in the EU PhD, including those accepted onto the EU PhD for 2000-2001. If none of the new candidates are accepted as participants in the EU PhD for 2000-2001, other summer school applicants will be considered for some financial support if funds are available.
          • Accommodation costs for the invited experts not belonging to the EU PhD network.

           

          EU DG XXII: SOCRATES (contract IC 29415-CDA-1-99-IT-ERASMUS-1)

          assigned to the partner Universities of the European PhD on S.R. & C. :

           

          • EU PhD teaching staff travel and accommodation,
          • part of general expenses (see above).

           

          T.M.R. funds are NOT available this year.

          Fees

           

          This year’s fees (including conference participation, accommodation and social events)

             

            • NO FEES for students regularly enrolled in the EU PhD on S.R. & C. for 2000-2001 (of any country).
            • 650 EURO for applicants introduced by the partner universities of the European PhD on S.R. & C. Socrates-Erasmus network, UNICA-network (http://www.ulb.ac.be/unica/), EuroPACE 2000 network (http://www.europace.be/) and for previous participants.
            • 730 EURO for other participants.

             

             

            Method of payment

            Details about the method of payment and deadline for the registration will be sent with the letter of acceptance. No participants will be admitted without proper registration.