Contenu du sommaire : Les représentations.

Denise Jodelet examines the notion of social representation in social psychology ; the phenomena and the process to which this concept refers ; finally, the questions which this concept raises and the ñeld of study which would be specifícally related to this concept.

The open opposition between non scientific and scientific thought constitutes the conceptual core of the great majority of the research projects which study the different relations of objectivization and the different modes of knowing which these systems of thought instaure. It is this opposition which is problematic. Bernard Schiele analyzes the notion of "epistemological rupture". The rupture, as in the process of defining an object , brings about dissociation within social reality. Consequently, the rupture is really a construction of social reality.

Claudine Vacheret privileges the study of the concept of representation in a problematical approach of identity and especially the elaboration process of self representation rather than the contents of representations considered as understanding modalities or knowledge gains. This approach tries to put forth the importance of self representation in its constant and dynamic interactions with the environment, and particularly group environ¬ ment, which is the object of her observations.

Jean Bernabé proposes a theoretical conception where the anorectic experience of a young woman is conceived as a mean of passage from an over-receptive to an interactional mode of being in the world. The author commences by formulating the young woman's family history in structural terms, as exposed by S. Minuchin in his views of a psychosomatic member of a family. This framework thus offers an initial context for a theoretical conception of how an ability to communicate develops.

Michel Denis traces here the major steps in the recent theoretical reconsideration of imagery as a central hypothetical construct in models of cognitive representation. The author then summarizes the main results from a research program on the relationships between imagery and language processing.

Claude Lamontagne et Jean Roch Beausoleil are convinced that at a given level of analysis, the relationship of " managing " the information within the neurophysiology of sensori-motricity presents all the essential characteristics of a communication network. Once this idea materializes itself conceptually in this limited context , it may cross over into the fields of psychosociology of communication and of sociology of communication.

Bernard Miège and Yves de la Haye discuss the field of communication research starting with three queries : how does society speak of itself as a world of communication ? are we witnessing the birth of a new culture, in the ethnological sense ? and what are the ricochet-effects of State intervention into the domain of public communication ?

Geneviève Jacquinot lays out a certain number of theoretical guide marks as a preliminary to the study on the contribution of different "languages" to the elaboration of cognitive functions. A necessity at the educational level at a time when the means of information and communication are multiplying. A necessity at the cultural level at a time when behind the innumerable inter-cultural openings , still looms ethno-centrism. A necessity on the scientific level if there is to be some progress in the understanding of the complex phenomena of cognitive representation.

Rik Pinxten reports on an ongoing research project. He deals with Navajo spatial representation, some notes on the general perspective in geometry teaching and an example of a representational context used to implement geometric thought with respect for the native spatial representation system.

This contribution of Johannes Fabian is part of a larger project arguing that the current prominance of sign-theories in anthropology and other ñelds rest on an ideology of temporal distancing between the decoding subject and an encoded object. The gist of the argument here is that sign-theories of culture tend to be theories of representation, not of production ; of exchange or "traffic", not of creation ; of meaning, not of praxis.

Sylvia Ostrowetsky proposes an analysis of representation as applied to urbanism. It asserts that urbanism functions as a putting into representation of the world and of the subject in the world, but also as an active principle of social production.

All the while postulating that the meaning of space lies within the uses of said space, Charles Perraton raises the question of the context of said uses. For what is the use of space if not the totality of the practices by which the user creates and appropriates space in particular contexts ? It is within such a perspective that the pragmatic relationship between the practices of the producer and those of the user of space are studied.

This article by Jean-Blaise Grize aims at a description of the operations a speaker uses in a discourse in order to communicate his own representa¬ tions of some portion of reality. It shows which operations are at work in the elaboration and determination of discourse objects. It suggests the possibility to extend such an approach so that it could be eventually computerized.

We cannot speak of representation of economy without opening the debate on the relation of science and ideology and taking a stand. The research methodology should correspond to the chosen theoretical line. Pierre Verges has tried to achieve this coherence in several researches with the requirements of large and diversified populations (several age levels, several countries) and whose methodology is critically reviewed.

The approaches to the problem of preconceptions in physics are manifold, but they can be defined with regard to two main trends : studies focused on a conceptual area and studies on problem solving. Jean-Louis Closset and Laurence Viennot strive to situate their investigation in an explicit integration of the two approaches referred to above. The results of their research bring forward the existence of a sequential reasoning in electrodynamics, which prevents the use of the simplest and most fundamental laws.