Ricerc@Sapienza

The goal of this contribution is to present background, mission, ongoing developments and future research directions of the So.Re.Com. “A.S. de Rosa” @-library: a digital platform integrating scientific documentation, networking and training purposes in the field of Social Representations and Communication (So.Re.Com.). It is built on an on-going multi-year project aimed at an empirical meta-theoretical analysis of the whole literature on Social Representations.

The research compares the social representations evoked by brands of the ten European Capitals (Rome, London, Paris, Helsinki, Vienna, Warsaw, Berlin, Madrid, Brussels and Lisbon) among potential first-visitors. The associative network technique has been applied using as iconic stimuli both the institutional stems and the commercial logos of each of the ten Capitals. Moreover, a grid has been created ad hoc to identify the distinctive elements of the institutional stems and the commercial logos.

The EC-funded So.Re.Com. Joint Innovative Doctoral Program (http://www.europhd.net/sorecom-
joint-idp) selected with a total score of 98,80% (threshold 70/100) within the 7th FP-2013 People-ITN-
IDP call and carried out from 1-10-2013 to 30-9-2017 was built on the sound experience of the
European/International Joint PhD in Social Representations and Communication, a pioneer case of

Il contributo e finalizzato a presentare varie linee interrelate d’indagine (media e field studies) di
un ampio programma di ricerca che ha come obiettivo-guida lo studio della polarizzazione delle
rappresentazioni sociali ed atteggiamenti in funzione dei diversi posizionamenti ideologici di
soggetti sociali (individui/gruppi/ organizzazioni/istituzioni, esperti/gente comune) e delle
appartenenze identitarie, che orientano i processi di inclusione/esclusione sociale nei confronti

This contribution is part of a broader research program initiated by de Rosa in the 1980s
on “Place-identity and Social Representations of European Capitals in First Visitors of
Six Different Nationalities” (cfr inter alia: de Rosa, 1995a, 1997; de Rosa, Antonelli &
Calogero, 1995). It has been developed over time in various lines of investigation
interrelated between them: “field studies” (de Rosa, 2013c; de Rosa & d’Ambrosio,
2010, 2011) and “media studies” (de Rosa & Bocci, 2014a, 2014b, 2015; de Rosa,

This chapter evaluates the social representations of historic European capital cities, comparing it before and after the first-time visit that took place in the period from 2011 to 2013. Based on the set of empirical data, it presents and discusses the integrative framework for evaluation of a city conceived as a resource in responsible urban tourism.

The chapter compares the social representations evoked by brands of the 10 European capitals (Rome,
London, Paris, Helsinki, Vienna, Warsaw, Berlin, Madrid, Brussels, and Lisbon) among potential firstvisitors.
The associative network technique has been applied using as iconic stimuli both the institutional
stems and the commercial logos of each of the 10 capitals. Moreover, a grid has been created ad hoc to
identify the distinctive elements of the institutional stems and the commercial logos. The analysis of the

The migration crisis is one of the most defying issues facing the world today and the application of the Social Representations Theory to study such group movements in their geo-cultural context provides an opportunity to understand future world citizens, investigating processes of social inclusion/exclusion in relation to contemporary migratory phenomena.

This article focuses on destination branding using social representations as the main theoretical framework, with a specific focus on ICT-mediated social representations. It tackles the questions related to destination e-branding expressed through web marketing of city brand identity and city brand image of ten European capitals (Rome, Paris, Berlin, Brussels, Helsinki, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Warsaw, and Vienna). The data derives from asynchronous and interactive e-tourism communication channels.

The mass media are more than ever taking on the role of a socialization agency and contributing to the construction of new social representations. They are producing and perpetuating stereotypes that get crystallized in the individual and collective imagination, determined and defined by the goods produced by the culture industry.