Abstract:

 

W. Wagner (2003).
People in Action and Social Representation:
A Comment on Jaan Valsiner’s (2003) “Theory of Enablement”.
Papers on Social Representations, 12, pages 8.1-8.7.
[http://www.psr.jku.at/]

 

This comment on Valsiner’s (2003) theory of enablement appreciates the theory’s
contribution to fill the lacuna of social representation theory in dealing with individual
reasoning and behaviour through a mechanism of semiotic mediation. It is shown,
however, that the experimental illustration of the theory falls slightly short of
providing evidence for the claims. In re-interpreting the experiment it is argued
that action justification and social representation is one and the same, that social
representations in the public sphere appear as holistic in comprising mental content
as well as behaviour and that representational change comes about through collective
controversy instead of semiotic mediation through internal dialogue as suggested
by the author.