Fine (2003) ‘Public Narration and Group Culture.’
Citation: Fine, Gary Alan (2003) ‘Public Narration and Group Culture: Discerning Discourse in Social Movements,’ in Hank Johnston and Bert Klandermans (eds.) Social Movements and Culture, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 202-227.
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Fine (2003:202-203): Notes growing interest in culture and recognition that “a social movement is not only politically and socially situated, but culturally situated as well.” Culture influences tactics and organisation, definitions of legitimacy, and framing strategies. Some movements, e.g. feminist, gay rights, explicitly orient themselves towards shaping broader culture.
Fine (2003:203): Argues that discourse helps shape the internal culture of movements, and that movements can be conceived as a “bundle of narratives” that serve to strengthen commitment to goals and identities.
Fine (2003:204-205): “Every group — of whatever size and with whatever instrumental goals — develops a culture: a bounded set of images and traditions that come to characterize those individuals to themselves and often to outsiders.” Calls this an idioculture, which ”consists of a system of knowledge, beliefs, behaviors, and customs shared by members of an interacting group to which members can refer and which they can employ as the basis of further interaction.”
Fine (2003:205): Sees internal movement cultures as variable, affected by things such as length of time of operation, level of organisation, and the internal elaboration. They can also differ in terms of impact.
Fine (2003:206): “Through the public sharing of talk and behavior, culture becomes a resource. The group legitimates and implicitly endorses topics and styles of interaction that might not be either appropriate or meaningful elsewhere.” Reactions and performance impact the legitimacy of texts, and actors will perceive certain type of talk as legitimate.
Fine (2003:225): “A movement culture can be a powerful force promoting internal cohesion and group satisfaction, ultimately facilitating the conditions of action. An organizational idioculture provides a set of nonmaterial resources and rewards that allows movements to overcome the free rider problem. Culture can, at least potentially, be an effective tool by which social movements achieve their instrumental ends, while ostensibly serving expressive needs.”