Papers by Irini Kadianaki
Media and Social Representations of Otherness, 2020
Sexuality Research and Social Policy, Dec 10, 2023
Introduction While there is extensive quantitative research on factors related to support/opposit... more Introduction While there is extensive quantitative research on factors related to support/opposition of attitudes towards same-sex parenting (SSP), relevant qualitative research is limited, despite the need to identify subtle and ambivalent forms of prejudice. In this study we examined ways that young people, university students at the Republic of Cyprus formulated favourable arguments that constructed only at first appearance supportive representations of SSP. Methods Data were collected in 2021-2022, through 11 focus group discussions with undergraduate and graduate students (26 females and 16 males, 18-27 years old), of different fields of study. Following the principles of discursive/rhetorical analysis, we identified three argumentative lines, all of which included contrasts and comparisons. Results The first argumentative line juxtaposed SSP to being raised in an orphanage, the second to irresponsible/disadvantaged (single) parenting and the third compared the upbringing of children in same-sex to that in heterosexual families. All arguments demonstrate a seemingly supportive stance towards SSP rights. Nevertheless, drawing on heteronormative norms, they construct SSP as "a lesser of two evils" and undermine seemingly positive attributes of same-sex families, through reference to children's exposure to adverse societal reactions. Policy Implications We discuss the implications of the findings for SSP social recognition and for sexual citizenship. We also discuss the implications of this approach for attitude research on the topic, underscoring the ideological implications of 'attitudinal discourse'.
Culture in policy making, 2020
Culture and Psychology, Dec 1, 2007
This review examines how we can use the theoretical and methodological tools of Gillespie&#39... more This review examines how we can use the theoretical and methodological tools of Gillespie's book to become better social scientists. We examine ways of approaching intergroup relations by applying the ideas of the book to the context of immigrants moving to Greece. Issues of the mediation of culture in communication and understanding between people are then examined. Specifically, the paths of understanding through the use of symbolic resources are explored through the contexts of Ladakhi tourism and of immigrants in Greece. Finally, we examine the ways in which social scientists move in their understanding of social phenomena.
British Journal of Social Psychology, Feb 9, 2023
British Journal of Social Psychology, Jan 25, 2023
The phenomenon which dialogism addresses is human interaction. It enables us to conceptualise hum... more The phenomenon which dialogism addresses is human interaction. It enables us to conceptualise human interaction as intersubjective, symbolic, cultural, transformative and conflictual, in short, as complex. The complexity of human interaction is evident in all domains of human life, for example, in therapy, education, health intervention, communication, and coordination at all levels. A dialogical approach starts by acknowledging that the social world is perspectival, that people and groups inhabit ...
Springer eBooks, 2009
... flow of immigration in the 1990s (actually later than the respondents themselves arrived) and... more ... flow of immigration in the 1990s (actually later than the respondents themselves arrived) and as such it bears all the negative stere-otypes that Albanians have been associated with (for discussion on aspects of Alba-nian migration in Greece see: Galanis, 2003; Lazaridis & ...
PLOS ONE, Jun 13, 2019
The relationship between lay theories of gender and attitudes to abortion policy has received min... more The relationship between lay theories of gender and attitudes to abortion policy has received minimal empirical attention. An ongoing theoretical debate in the psychological essentialism literature queries whether biological attributions causally influence social attitudes or primarily function to justify existing attitudinal commitments. The current research used the context of a national referendum on abortion in Ireland to investigate whether endorsement of certain gender theories is contingent on their rhetorical construction as supporting particular attitudes to abortion. Two experimental studies were conducted online in the three weeks preceding the Irish abortion referendum. The studies tested whether participants would adapt their causal gender beliefs after reading that biological (Study 1; N = 348) or social (Study 2; N = 241) accounts of gender supported or conflicted with their intended vote in the referendum. Both studies showed the opposite effect: causal gender theories presented as conflicting with participants' voting intentions subsequently showed elevated support, relative to theories that purportedly aligned with participants' voting intentions. While results confirm that lay theories of gender are mutable, the direction of effects does not support the proposition that gender theories are selectively endorsed to support existing socio-political attitudes to abortion. Potential mechanisms for the results observed are discussed.
Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, Oct 8, 2014
This article uses sociocultural theories of self-reflection to theorize how social representation... more This article uses sociocultural theories of self-reflection to theorize how social representations are transformed. While there are several ways in which social representations change, we focus on one way that entails interactions with alterity, that is, other people, groups and representations. We use sociocultural psychology to explore how social representations can shift from being the medium of thought and action to becoming the object of thought and action. This process, we argue, entails alternative representations becoming the new medium of thought and action. Although this account relies upon the psychological process of self-reflection, it avoids psychological reductionism, because the psychological process is based on social and sociological processes. Self-reflection, however, is more of an exception than a rule, and the ways in which self-reflection is blocked are also examined. Future research, it is argued, should examine the ways in which self-reflection arises through the interaction of representations within situated contexts, thus forging a third way between psychological and sociological reductionism.
Culture and Psychology, Aug 23, 2010
This commentary builds on the contributions of Ali and Sonn (2010), Hale and Abreu (2010) and on ... more This commentary builds on the contributions of Ali and Sonn (2010), Hale and Abreu (2010) and on the growing literature in the field to extend the discussion on the development of identity for immigrant and ethnic populations. I draw attention to the aspects of both social contexts—country of origin and country of residence—and the ways they shape identity for the populations in question. I examine how dominant and normative discourses and power asymmetries constrain identity development, and I conclude by discussing issues of agency and resistance.
Springer eBooks, Nov 12, 2013
Nations and Nationalism, Jan 11, 2021
Culture and Psychology, Aug 19, 2014
While the issue of power within the research relationship has been evoking constructive discussio... more While the issue of power within the research relationship has been evoking constructive discussions for over two decades in qualitative research, existing approaches fail to understand power both as macro-socially determined and interpersonally negotiated in the micro-space of research communication. In this article, I use ideas from Social Representations Theory (SRT) to conceptualize the macro-social conditions that give meaning to power asymmetries expressed through the identities in the micro-space of the research relationship and to examine how these identities and their power asymmetries mediate research communication. Three instances of research between a local researcher and immigrant participants are analyzed. Analysis shows that the identities of a Greek researcher and immigrant participants introduce power asymmetries in the research communication due to the meanings they carry in the Greek social context. These asymmetries mediate communication by evoking reflection, challenge, resistance and reversal of positions. It is suggested that this double micro and macro focus achieved through SRT contributes to qualitative methodology by inviting important questions regarding data construction (under which identities are data constructed, how are they constructed and why are they constructed in such a way) and by advancing an epistemologically reflective stance to research. Further, the present approach contributes to SRT by advancing a power-inclusive understanding of interpersonal dynamics, which is considered underdeveloped by SR theorists.
Political Psychology, Oct 3, 2022
The problematic of diversity today circulates a discourse on human differences and similarities w... more The problematic of diversity today circulates a discourse on human differences and similarities which is also taken up by actors with controversial political agendas, notably right‐wing populist and neoconservative movements. Focusing on contestation over the meaning of “diversity” by lay actors in social media, we suggest here that different constructions of diversity may be seen as clashing projects largely shaping each other through their emphasis on differences or similarities among people. In a qualitative analysis on the tweets mentioning diversity in Greek over a year, constructions of diversity were mirror images of each other across two independent ideological tensions, with distinct social stakes. Individualist constructions of diversity praising individuals' differences clashed over the legitimation of power with majoritarianist constructions emphasizing social homogeneity, and universalist constructions of diversity advocating the fundamental similarities of individuals clashed over the legitimation of social identities with particularist constructions praising cultural differences. Those constructions converse with basic social psychological models of diversity, suggesting that the emphasis on difference or similarity across people may stem from a dynamic context of political confrontation. The findings also suggest that right‐wing populist representations may be channeled by the content of contestation and the positions held by the other side.
Culture in policy making, 2020
Oxford University Press eBooks, May 2, 2012
Gillespie, Alex and Kadianaki, I. and O'Sullivan-Lago, R.(2012) Encountering alterit... more Gillespie, Alex and Kadianaki, I. and O'Sullivan-Lago, R.(2012) Encountering alterity: geographic and semantic movements. In: Valsiner, Jaan,(ed.) The Oxford handbook of culture and psychology. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. ISBN 9780195396430 (In ...
British Journal of Social Psychology
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Papers by Irini Kadianaki
Alex Gillespie (University of Stirling, UK)
1. Introduction: Opening the dialogue
Editors
Part I. Challenges to Dialogical Science
2. Writing a Dialogical Science: Resisting the Temptations to Nominalize
Michael Billig (Loughborough University, UK)
3. Locating the Dialogical Self within a Cultural Sphere
Amrei Joerchel (University of Vienna, Austria)
4. What is an Utterance?
Andres Haye (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile) & Antonia Larraín (Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Chile)
5. Dialogical Theories at the Boundary
Sanne Akkerman (Utrecht University, Netherlands) & Theo Niessen (Maastricht University, Netherlands)
Commentary to Part I
Ivana Marková (University of Stirling, UK)
Commentary to Part I
John Shotter (University of New Hampshire, USA)
Part II. Reflections on Dialogical Methodologies
7. Repairing Ruptures: Multivocality of Analyses
Brady Wagoner (Aalborg University, Denmark), Alex Gillespie (University of Stirling, UK), Jaan Valsiner (Clark University, USA), Tania Zittoun (University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland), João Salgado (Instituto Superior da Maia- ISMAI, Portugal), Livia Simão (University of São Paulo, Brazil)
8. Voices of Graphic Art Images
Marcela Lonchuk (Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina) & Alberto Rosa (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain)
9. Dialogues about Research
Pernille Hviid (University of Copenhagen, Denmark) & Zachary Beckstead (Clark University, USA)
10. Commentary on Part II
Kyoko Murakami (Bath University, UK)
Pat III. Dialogicality in Social Practices
11. Innovative Moments in Psychotherapy: Dialogical Processes in Developing Narratives
Miguel Goncalves (University of Minho, Portugal) , Carla Cuhna (University of Minho & ISMAI, Portugal) , Anita Santos (University of Minho, Portugal), Marlene Matos (University of Minho, Portugal), Ines Mendes (University of Minho, Portugal), Liliana Meira (University of Minho, Portugal), Antonio Ribeiro (University of Minho, Portugal), João Batista (UTAD, Portugal), João Salgado (Instituto Superior da Maia- ISMAI, Portugal), Eugénia Fernández (University of Minho, Portugal) , Lynne Angus (York University, Canada), & Leslie Greenberg (York University, Canada)
12. Empathy and the Dialogical Self
Thorsten Gieser (University of Aberdeen, UK) & Hubert Hermans (Radboud University, Netherlands)
13. Gender, Body Image and Positioning in the Dialogical Self
Peter Raggatt (James Cook University, Australia)
14. Dialogicality and the (De)securitization of Self: Globalization, Migration and Multicultural Politics.
Catarina Kinnvall (Lund University, Sweden) & Sarah Scuzzarello (Lund University, Sweden)
15. Commentary to Part III
Jaan Valsiner (Clark University, USA)
16. In place of a conclusion
Editors