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This study investigates the emergence, development and structure of ethnic identity during childhood. Forty Roma children living in Greece aged between 2.8 and 11.9 years answered questions about their awareness/recognition of four aspects of their ethnic identity-namely place of habitation, traditional costumes, the Roma language, and early betrothal of children-their identity and their sense of stability and constancy. The study also investigates how the children feel about the abandonment of those four aspects. The evidence from the current data supports the hypothesis that awareness of ethnic identity emerges before the age of 4. Moreover, this study offers direct empirical evidence of the multidimensionality of ethnic identity. A model of three concentric rings is proposed, extending from a core containing the most highly valued aspects of ethnic identity to the outer annulus that comprises the nonpermanent and nonstable aspects of ethnic identity. The aspects in each annulus differ in terms of the development of the sense of stability and constancy and the feelings associated with loss of the aspects in question. Even the youngest participants considered the aspects in the core to be stable and constant as well as emotionally charged; and even the 11-year-olds did not consider the aspects contained in the outer, more fluid annulus as stable and constant aspects of their ethnic identity. The development of an aspect is determined by what the majority of adults in a society, at a particular time in history, consider to be most important.

The aim of this study is to investigate how culture and expertise of a complex phenomenon, the economic crisis, influence the construction of different social representations. In order to analyse the ???naïf theories??? elaborated by the common sense with regard to the economic thinking and acting, this research has been conducted inside the theoretical framework of SRT (Social Representation Theory). By interviewing Italian and Greek subjects belonging to different social groups, we examined how ???expert??? and ???lay??? people face this unfamiliar phenomenon. Inspired by the Structural Approach, which considers SRs (social representations) as constituted of two parts, a structure and a content, data were collected through a multi-method strategy (hierarchized evocations method, characterization and multiple choice questionnaires). Four groups of participants (n = 120 for each country; n = 30 for each group; gender balanced) were employed: university students (the second/third year; faculty of economics), mid-level bank clerks, shopkeepers, and laypeople. Obtained data were treated with rang/frequency and similarity analysis, as well as mono and multivariate statistical analysis. Discussion focuses on the relationships between culture, group membership and social representations of crisis and economic behaviors. The main findings demonstrate culture and group appurtenance differences in the ways participants define and foresee strategies to face the crisis. In particular, in both Italian and Greek samples, differences were founded among expert and lay groups. Methodological implications associated with combining qualitative and quantitative methods, in SRT???s Structural Approach, are systematically presented and discussed.

International audience; The aim of this article is to present an international research on the social representation of the economic crisis. Given the complexity and the recency of this object, we chose a multimethodological approach. The data analysis was conducted in three successive stages: descriptive, interpretative, and comparative. In each country, the sample was made of participants from three different socio- economic categories: bankers, small merchants, economy students. This choice of categories allowed us to empirically test the concept of “distance to the object”. Strategies and techniques of data collection and processing are complex and quite innovative. In this article, we’ll present only results related to the first phase of the whole research.; L’article présente une recherche internationale sur la représentation sociale de la crise économique. Etant donné la complexité et l’extrême actualité de l’objet, on a choisi une approche "multi-méthode". L’analyse des résultats s’est faite en trois étapes. la première descriptive ; la seconde interprétative; la troisième comparative. Dans chaque pays, l’échantillon a été constitué par des sujets appartenant à trois catégories socio-économiques différentes: employés de banque, petits commerçants, étudiants en économie. Le choix de l’échantillon nous permet de tester empiriquement la notion de «distance à l’objet». Les stratégies et les techniques de relevé et d’analyse des données sont complexes et sous certains aspects absolument novatrices. Dans cet article, on présentera seulement les données relatives à la première étape de la recherche.

International audience; The aim of this paper is to study the contribution of the Alceste software in analysing diachronic data and social representations processes. Two diachronic researches are proposed as examples: the first one studies an ancient object: politics; the second one studies an emergent object: cremation in a precise sociocultural context. These two studies are characterised by a variability concerning data collection, type of object and methods of analysis, making it interesting to associate them for methodological purpose. The article seeks to proof the empirical properties of Alceste convenient for the study of emergence, process of objectivation and anchoring, and also transformation in social representations. In this study, temporal factor is determinant in the outset of representational dynamics.; L'objectif de cet article est d'étudier l'apport du logiciel Alceste à l'analyse des processus des représentations sociales dans le cadre de recherches diachroniques. Deux études sont rapportées à titre illustratif, l'une sur la politique - objet stable -, et l'autre sur la crémation - objet en émergence dans un contexte socioculturel précis. Ces deux études se caractérisent par une variabilité méthodologique concernant la technique de recueil, le type d'objet étudié et les techniques d'analyse. Les résultats de ces recherches mettent en évidence les possibilités empiriques du logiciel Alceste pour l'étude de l'émergence, des processus d'objectivation, d'ancrage, ainsi que de la transformation des représentations sociales. Dans cet article le facteur temporel est déterminant pour relever la dynamique représentationnelle.

Geka Maria. Chapitre VII. Les jeunes et la politique: dimensions, interprétations et approches chez les jeunes Grecs. In: Adolescences méditerranéennes. L'espace public à petits pas. Paris : L'Harmattan, 2007. pp. 171-186. (Débats Jeunesses, 20)