The discursive construction of self care: Confronting different cultures on the meaning of well-being [La costruzione discorsiva della cura di s�: Culture a confronto sull'idea di benessere]

By adopting a qualitative perspective, this contribution aims at highlighting some occurrences within the communicative practices which are responsible for the subjective evaluations about psycho-physical well-being according to the expectations prescribed by the main scripts of �self care�. To this purpose the social representation of well-being conveyed by mass media has been compared with the conversational elaboration of this concept given by some privileged witnesses of the practices of �self care�. Actually, the social reality of subjective well-being has been anchored to the meanings expressed by a sample of customers and operators of some �wellness centres� who collaborated with the research, by giving their representation of the world through some in-depth interviews. The discursive data have been triangulated with the images of well-being and self care conveyed by mass media, both in its traditional format -two magazines specifically dedicated to the topic (Viver sani e belli e Star bene) - and in the format of virtual communication - two web sites dedicated to the topic, an Italian one (www.benessere.com) and an English one (www.thefitmap.com). The data have been ana-lysed by adopting a diatextual framework (Mininni, 1992; 2000; 2003a, 2003b) as to better highlight the interpretative repertoires (Potter e Wetherell, 1987) and the rhetorical formats, which give consistence to the discursive construction of subjective well-being.