Abstract
Central to the idea of social representations is the proposition that abstract scientific and ideological concepts filter through to people in general and become ‘common-sense’ general knowledge. Moscovici (1976) makes the distinction between the ‘ sacred’ sphere of science and the ‘profane’ sphere of ordinary life which is central to his perspective. He refers to these as different worlds of meaning, which he calls the reified and consensual universes. The sciences are the means by which we understand the reified universe, and social representations deal with the consensual. Moscovici sees this distinction as a relatively modern phenomenon, unique to our culture: ‘Science was formerly based on common sense and made common sense less common, but now common sense is science made common.’ (Moscovici 1984, p. 29).