in this article, the writer discusses the concept of modernity and its relationship with social movements, as is reflected in classical works on modernity as well as in the contemporary modern political and sociological thoughts. the purpose is not to present a quantitative analysis of the development of the concept of modernity, but to explain the relationship between modernity and political a...

Following Moscovici (1972), this paper addresses the questions: What is the aim of research within a social representations perspective? Is it to support or to criticize the social order? Is it to consolidate or transform it? After a brief overview of social representations theory, I argue that while the theory appears to have the conceptual tools to begin this critical task, there are serious ...

Can people influence others solely by virtue of shared group membership? To address this and related questions, we offer a theory of group-mediated social influence and then test it in a standardized collective task setting. The theory capitalizes on uncertainty reduction principles found in two longstanding social psychological traditions: social identity theory and status characteristics theo...

This paper argues for a robust notion of collective identity which is not reduced to a psychological conception of identity. In a first part the debate on the concept of identity raised by several authors is taken up critically with the intention to defend a strong sociological conception of identity which by definition is a collective identity. The basic assumption is that collective identitie...

The concept of sustainability is encouraged to preserve natural resources, social values, cultural heritage, and economic capital, which already exist to make available them for the next generations. Moreover, to enhance the level of sustainability in communities, numerous scholars indicated both individual and community identities play a crucial role. Sustainability is attainable and successfu...

Prevalence of HIV after age 50 is considerable, especially in southern Africa. Negative social constructions of HIV in older age, and the health consequences of ageing with the virus, mean that having HIV presents a challenge for many people's roles and social memberships, threatening to disrupt their sense of self. Using constructivist grounded theory and qualitative data from rural Malawi, th...

The issue of psychological empowerment in crowd events has important implications for both theory and practice. Theoretically, the issue throws light on both intergroup conflict and the nature and functions of social identity. Practically, empowerment in collective events can feed into societal change. The study of empowerment therefore tells us something about how the forces pressing for such ...