IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/anname/v619y2008i1p130-148.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Culture and Microsociology: The Anthill and the Veldt

Author

Listed:
  • Gary Alan Fine

    (Northwestern University)

  • Corey D. Fields

    (Northwestern University)

Abstract

The authors argue that sociologists must use the investigation of interpersonal situations as a strategy through which “culture†can be understood in practice. Culture includes a broad range of social processes, institutions, and value systems. In contrast to perspectives that treat groups and individuals as units to be shaped by powerful cultural forces, the authors contend that culture is established, manipulated, and promoted by individuals and groups. Microsituations serve as arenas of action in their own right, locations where culture is both produced and experienced. Drawing examples from five areas of microsociology—groups, cognition, identity/ self, performance, and emotion—the authors demonstrate how a distinctively microsociological perspective allows sociologists to examine how culture, across its various conceptions, has an effect on actors and, in turn, is affected by actors. By exposing the workings of culture in situ, microsociology forces us to theorize the connections between meaning, behavior, and structure.

Suggested Citation

  • Gary Alan Fine & Corey D. Fields, 2008. "Culture and Microsociology: The Anthill and the Veldt," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 619(1), pages 130-148, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:619:y:2008:i:1:p:130-148
    DOI: 10.1177/0002716208320138
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0002716208320138
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0002716208320138?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Russ Vince, 2006. "Being Taken Over: Managers’ Emotions and Rationalizations During a Company Takeover," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(2), pages 343-365, March.
    2. Aaker, Jennifer & Benet-Martinez, Veronica & Garolera, Jordi, 2001. "Consumption Symbols as Carriers of Culture: A Study of Japanese and Spanish Brand Personality Constructs," Research Papers 1668r, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lau, Hei Tong & Lee, Richard, 2018. "Ethnic media advertising effectiveness, influences and implications," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 216-220.
    2. Daewook Kim & Myung-Il Choi, 2013. "A Comparison of Young Publics’ Evaluations of Corporate Social Responsibility Practices of Multinational Corporations in the United States and South Korea," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 113(1), pages 105-118, March.
    3. Elfenbein, Hillary Anger, 2007. "Emotion in Organizations: A Review in Stages," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt2bn0n9mv, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    4. Tischer, Sven, 2012. "Measuring the impact of critical incidents on brand personality," SFB 649 Discussion Papers 2012-064, Humboldt University Berlin, Collaborative Research Center 649: Economic Risk.
    5. Martijn G. de Jong & Jan-Benedict E. M. Steenkamp & Bernard P. Veldkamp, 2009. "A Model for the Construction of Country-Specific Yet Internationally Comparable Short-Form Marketing Scales," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(4), pages 674-689, 07-08.
    6. Oana Țugulea, 2017. "City Brand Personality—Relations with Dimensions and Dimensions Inter-Relations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-22, December.
    7. Das, Gopal, 2014. "Factors affecting Indian shoppers׳ attitude and purchase intention: An empirical check," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 561-569.
    8. Wang, Xuehua & Wang, Xiaoyu & Fang, Xiang & Jiang, Qingyun, 2018. "Power distance belief and brand personality evaluations," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 89-99.
    9. Seung-Hun Shin & Sung-Byung Yang & Kichan Nam & Chulmo Koo, 2017. "Conceptual foundations of a landmark personality scale based on a destination personality scale: Text mining of online reviews," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 743-752, August.
    10. repec:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2012-064 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Yakup Durmaz & Sinan Çavuºoglu & Özlem Özer, 2018. "The Effect of Brand Image and Brand Benefit on Customer Loyalty: The Case of Turkey," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 8(5), pages 528-540, May.
    12. Ralf van der Lans & Bram Van den Bergh & Evelien Dieleman, 2014. "Partner Selection in Brand Alliances: An Empirical Investigation of the Drivers of Brand Fit," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 33(4), pages 551-566, July.
    13. Deleersnyder, B. & Dekimpe, M.G. & Steenkamp, J-B.E.M. & Leeflang, P.S.H., 2007. "The Role of National Culture in Advertising’s Sensitivity to Business Cycles: An Investigation Across All Continents," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2007-095-MKT, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    14. WooHyuk Kim & Kristin Malek & NamJo Kim & SeungHyun “James” Kim, 2017. "Destination Personality, Destination Image, and Intent to Recommend: The Role of Gender, Age, Cultural Background, and Prior Experiences," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-18, December.
    15. Richard R. Klink & Lan Wu, 2017. "Creating ethical brands: the role of brand name on consumer perceived ethicality," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 411-422, September.
    16. Mark Holder & Ben Coleman & Kamlesh Singh, 2012. "Temperament and Happiness in Children in India," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 261-274, April.
    17. Lim, Elison Ai Ching & Ang, Swee Hoon, 2008. "Hedonic vs. utilitarian consumption: A cross-cultural perspective based on cultural conditioning," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 61(3), pages 225-232, March.
    18. Abhishek Kumar & R. Venkatesh Kumar, 2015. "A Curious Case of Business-media Brand Personality Scale," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 40(1-2), pages 95-108, February.
    19. Yanhui Mao & Yao Lai & Yuwei Luo & Shan Liu & Yixin Du & Jing Zhou & Jianhong Ma & Flavia Bonaiuto & Marino Bonaiuto, 2020. "Apple or Huawei: Understanding Flow, Brand Image, Brand Identity, Brand Personality and Purchase Intention of Smartphone," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-22, April.
    20. Roland L. Leak & Kimberly R. McNeil & David Crockett, 2021. "Does history really matter: Investigating historical branded executions' effects on contemporary consumer attitudes," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(2), pages 445-463, June.
    21. Yi Xie & Siqing Peng & Daniel P. Hampson, 0. "Brand user imagery clarity (BUIC): conceptualization, measurement, and consequences," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 0, pages 1-17.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:619:y:2008:i:1:p:130-148. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.