Social Representations of Economic Crisis in Italian and Greek Social Groups

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.