Social Representations and Social Imaginaries as Analytical Categories in the Study of Suicidal Ideation: A Critical Review
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Abstract
Objective: To comparatively analyze social representations and social imaginaries as analytical categories from an epistemological perspective in the context of suicidal ideation, highlighting their complementarity for strengthening humanistic and epistemological analyses. Methodology: A critical documentary review was conducted using specialized databases such as Scopus and Web of Science, complemented by recent literature from key authors in the field. Fifty indexed academic references were selected based on criteria of relevance, recency, and methodological rigor. The analysis focused on identifying convergences and divergences between the categories in terms of level of abstraction, temporality, and sources employed. Results: Social representations and social imaginaries share the function of providing methodological and epistemological coherence but differ in scope. Social representations organize and delimit concepts, while social imaginaries capture collective symbolic structures that contextualize narratives and cultural meanings. Their contrast allows for a dual perspective: categorical precision and symbolic contextualization. Conclusions: The two categories are not interchangeable but complementary. Their articulation enables a critical and in-depth understanding of suicidal ideation, integrating individual and collective dimensions of meaning. This integration strengthens the conceptual bridge between imagining and representing in humanistic studies. Implications: The incorporation of social representations and social imaginaries as analytical epistemological categories provides solidity to methodological designs in doctoral and advanced research. At the same time, it offers a useful framework for generating culturally sensitive approaches to suicide prevention, recognizing the interaction between the collective symbolic and the representational.