Resumen

VERGARA QUINTERO, María del Carmen. The nature of social representations. Rev.latinoam.cienc.soc.niñez juv [online]. 2008, vol.6, n.1, pp.55-80. ISSN 1692-715X.

Social representations are considered as a guide to action and as a framework for reality reading. From this assumption, social representations are highly relevant for the study of social problems, either as a research approach or as a methodological strategy. Social representations allow interpretations of the course of events and of social activities; they express those relationships people hold with the world and with each other; from these, it is possible to understand what the central nodes and what the peripheral systems are that people construct about different social realities. Given their manifestations in language and practices, their symbolic function and the frameworks they furnish to codify and categorize the life-world, the approach through social representations becomes a theoretical-heuristic apparatus to deepen the knowledge of conceptions and practices that orient the life experience of different population groups.

Palabras clave : Social representations; social construction of reality; research approaches; methodological strategies; life-world.

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