PRACTICI SOCIALE ȘI IMPLICAȚII ALE REPREZENTĂRII „CELUILALT” ÎN CONSTRUCȚIA REPREZENTĂRII SOCIALE A PANDEMIEI COVID-19

Natalia COJOCARU Universitatea de Stat din Moldova

Аннотация

SOCIAL PRACTICES AND IMPLICATIONS OF THE REPRESENTATIONS OF THE OTHER IN THE GENESIS OF THE SOCIAL REPRESENTATION OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC This article examines how the COVID-19 pandemic is presented as a “sensitive object” and how this social object of representation generates “polemic social representations” (“polemic SR”) given the medical, social and religious controversies. To begin with, I will argue why the pandemic is a “sensitive object” and how this generates the elaboration of a new representation. Therefore, given that the representation of the pandemic is not well articulated in the social imaginary, I will analyse some aspects regarding the process of its elaboration (pre-existing representational contents, meanings attributed to new social practices, and implications of these social practices at the intergroup level) in order to outline some directions for the intended empirical study. I have looked, in particular, at three social practices that I consider defining in the construction of the representation of the pandemic, implicitly with intra- and intergroup effects: 1) mask wearing 2) physical distancing and 3) self-isolation. All three seem to be hardly integrated (for the time being) into the existing system of social practices. Keywords: sensitive objects, polemic social representations, COVID-19 pandemic.