Microculture

Draft

Introduction

Interpretive social research presumes that the meanings-in-action that

are shared by members of a set of individuals who interact recurrently

through time are local in at least two senses.

First, they are local in that

they are distinctive to that particular set of individuals, who as they inter-

act across time come to share certain specific local understandings and tradi-

tions--a distinctive microculture.

Such microcultures are characteristic of

all human groups whose members recurrently associate.

These are so-called

natural groups, which are the typical unit of analysis studied by fieldwork

“The root problem in ecological psychology is conceptualization of the environment. The study of the subject’s behavior in his natural habitat is not the same as the study of natural habitats.” (Gump, 1969:201 cited by Erickson, 1977:67).

“Goodenough has defined culture ideationally as “a system of standards for perceiving, believing, evaluating, and acting” (1971:41). What one has to know in order to act appropriately as a member of a given group includes knowing not only what to do oneself but also how to anticipate the actions of others.” (Erickson, 1977:64).

Bibliography

Erickson, Frederick (1977). Some Approaches to Inquiry in School-Community Ethnography. Anthropology and Education Quarterly 8(2):58-69.

Erickson, Frederick (1982). Taught Cognitive Learning in Its Immediate Environments: A Neglected Topic in the Anthropology of Education. Anthropology and Education Quarterly 13:149–180.

Goodenough, W. Culture, Language, and Society (Addison-Wesley Module). Reading (Mass.): Addison-Wesley, 197 1.

Mottier Lopez, L. (2016). La microculture de classe : un cadre d’analyse et d’interprétation de la régulation située des apprentissages des élèves. In S. Cartier & B. Noël (Ed.), De la métacognition à l’apprentissage autorégulé (pp. 67-78). Bruxelles : De Boeck