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Cited by 399Contemporary Sociological Theory and PracticeAnthropological Studies and InsightsWeber, Simmel, Sociological Theory

Making sense of culture.

Patterson, Orlando·2014·Annual Review of Sociology
DOI 10.1146/annurev-soc-071913-043123
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Abstract

I present a brief review of problems in the sociological study of culture, followed by an integrated, interdisciplinary view of culture that eschews extreme contextualism and other orthodoxies. Culture is defined as the conjugate product of two reciprocal, componential processes. The first is a dynamically stable process of collectively made, reproduced, and unevenly shared knowledge structures that are informational and meaningful, internally embodied, and externally represented and that provide predictability, coordination equilibria, continuity, and meaning in human actions and interactions. The second is a pragmatic component of culture that grounds the first, and it has its own rules of usage and a pragmatically derived structure of practical knowledge. I also offer an account of change and draw on knowledge activation theory in exploring the microdynamics of cultural practice and propose the concept of cultural configuration as a better way of studying cultural practice in highly heterogeneous modern societies where people shift between multiple, overlapping configurations. Power, power everywhere, And how the signs do shrink, Power, power everywhere, And nothing else to think. —Marshall Sahlins (2002) , Waiting for Foucault, Still O how they cling and wrangle, some who claim For preacher and monk the honored name! For, quarreling, each to his view they cling. Such folk see only one side of a thing. —Parable of the Blind Men and the Elephant Udanam vi.4 (transl. F.L. Woodward, 1948 , p. 83)

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  • Culture is activated during real or imagined interaction and when encountering externalized representations of it.

    “Culture is activated every time members interact in real life or when one member anticipates or imagines interacting with another member; culture is also activated whenever we come into contact with externalized representations of it (Patterson, 2014), such as a Catholic individual seeing a crucifix.”

    From The Social Roots of Suicide: Theorizing How the External Social World Matters to Suicide and Suicide Prevention (2021) · cites this paper as Patterson, 2014

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Authors
Patterson, O.
Affiliations
Harvard University (US)
Corresponding author
Patterson, Orlando
Venue
Annual Review of Sociology
Publisher
Annual Reviews
Published
2014-07-30
Volume
40
Issue
1
Pages
1-30
ISSN
  • 0360-0572 (ISSN-L)
  • 1545-2115
DOI
10.1146/annurev-soc-071913-043123
OpenAlex
W2161797449
Cited by
399
References
248
Citations by year
2026: 44 · 2025: 42 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 36 · 2022: 37 · 2021: 41 · 2020: 37 · 2019: 44 · 2018: 26 · 2017: 24 · 2016: 25 · 2015: 19 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 1
FWCI
7.71
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
Annual Review of Sociology (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice
  • Social Sciences › Anthropology › Anthropological Studies and Insights
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Weber, Simmel, Sociological Theory
Keywords
sociology of culture, cultural practices, cultural configurations, pragmatic knowledge, cultural change, power, contextualism

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