The cognitive interface in processes of categorization and identity construction

Abstract

The article aims to analyze the identities attributed to social actors participating of Brazil’s Movimento Passe Livre (Free Pass Movement) and to investigate the way these are categorized by the news talk. We are based on the argument that all categories are marked by a “constitutive instability”, in other words, they are transformed by the contexts (MONDADA; DUBOIS, 2003). About the context theme, we are based on the Socio-cognition assumptions. That provides that there is a cognitive interface between categorization and identity construction. We analyzed on-line news pieces about the Movimento Passe Livre. We realized that, even if there is a change in the categorization attributed to the movement’s social actors, the categories nominated by the news speeches have allowed a better social visibility of negative images of these groups. The context was considered as one of the key elements for the categorizations and identity attributions to occur.