Multimedia and Distance Learning System

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:

The draft  agenda  for  the  first three  sessions of  the  Advanced  Research  Training  Courses  to  be  organised  on the fourth year (2008) in winter, spring and summer is as follows

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.

Following the 2008 winter and spring sessions, the 2008 summer session 12th International Lab Meeting (14th International Summer School), entitled  "Social Representations, Collective Memory and Socially Shared Emotions: narrative and empirical approaches" will be held from 26th July to 3rd August 2008. Among invited professors, Nikos Kalampalikis and Valérie Haas (Université Lumière Lyon II, France), Giovanna Leone (University of Rome La Sapienza, Italy), Bernard Rimé (University of Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium), Alberto Rosa (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain), and José Valencia (Universidad del Pais Vasco, Spain) have confirmed their participation.

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