This broad-ranging volume introduces social representation theory to a general readership, explaining how humans construct a framework of shared references which defines how we think about our world. The material has been grouped into three themes: theory; methodology; and finally case studies.

Preface and Acknowledgments. List of Contributors. Part I: Framing the Issues. 1. Introduction. (Gina Philogene and Kay Deaux) 2. Why a Theory of Social Representations? (Serge Moscovici) Part II: Doing Social Representation Research. 3. A Theory of Methods. (Gina Philogene) 4. A Structural Approach to Social Representations. (Jean-Claude Abric) 5. The King is Naked. Critical Advertisement and Fashion: The Benetton Phenomenon: Annamaria Silvana de Rosa. 6. Social Positioning and Social Representations. (Alain Clemence) 7. Human Rights Studied as Normative Social Representations. (Willem Doise) 8. From Race to Culture: The Emergence of African American. (Gina Philogene) Part III: Social Representation and Social Construction. 9. Functional Aspects of Social Representation. (Saadi Lahlou) 10. Killer Tomatoes! Collective Symbolic Coping with Biotechnology. (Wolfgang Wagner and Nicole Kronberger) 11. Social Representations, Public Life and Social Construction. (Sandra Jovchelovitch) 12. Social Representations: Catching a Good Idea. (Hazel Rose Markus and Victoria C. Plaut) 13. What We Do and Don't Know about the Functions of Social Representations. (John T. Jost and Gabriel Ignatow) Part IV: Social Representation and Social Categorization. 14. Social Categorization: Towards Theoretical Integration. (Martha Augoustinos) 15. The When and the Why of How: From Mental Representation to Social Representations. (Fabio Lorenzi-Cioldi) 16. Attitudes, Social Representations and Beyond. (George Gaskell) 17. Social Cognition, Social Representations, and the Dilemmas of Social Theory Construction. (Arie W. Kruglanski) 18. Social and Societal Pragmatism: Susan Fiske. Part V: Social Representation and Social Identification. 19. Representations, Identities, Resistance. (Gerard Duveen) 20. Social Representational Constraints upon Identity Development. (Glynis M Breakwell) 21. Identity, Language and Representations: A Natural System at Work. (Marisa Zavalloni) 22. Social Identities and Social Representations: A Question of Priority? (Marilynn B. Brewer) 23. Meaning and Making: Some Comments on Content and Process. (Kay Deaux) 24. Epilogue. (Kay Deaux and Gina Philogene) References. Index.

"Social psychology urgently needs greater rapprochement between its theories. This valuable volume directly addresses this need. With the social representations paradigm as their starting point, Deaux and Philogene have assembled a diverse selection of 24 essays. American readers especially will benefit from the book's many European authors and wide-ranging bibliography." Thomas F. Pettigrew, University of California, Santa Cruz "This brilliant collection of essays is going to become a seminal reader for cultural psychologists on both sides of the Atlantic." Richard A. Shweder, University of Chicago "The book consists of an excellent and highly diverse collection of essays" Ivana Markova, University of Stirling, Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, Vol.13, No.5, September-October 2003