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Emergent meanings: Reconciling dispositional and situational accounts of meaning-making from cultural objects

Publication ,  Journal Article
Rawlings, CM; Childress, C
Published in: American Journal of Sociology
May 1, 2019

Across a wide variety of topics and methodological approaches, researchers find that meaning is segregated along sociodemographic lines. Using real-world data, this article evaluates and helps reconcile the often-theorized but rarely tested mechanisms that segregate meaning. Shared meaning is defined as both greater agreement on a cultural object’s interpretive dimensions and a similar schema organizing how these interpretive dimensions interrelate. The setting is 21 book groups across the United States, all discussing the same previously unknown novel. The authors find that, through their interactions with similar others, the meanings individuals make out of cultural objects rapidly become demographically situated as individuals resonate with one another and the work itself. Results indicate that sociodemographically segregated meanings for even nonideological cultural objects may be the routine outcome of social structure and interaction. Researchers, by focusing largely on snapshots of segregated meanings on specific issues rather than on meaning-making processes, may contribute to an overly ingrained view of a divided culture.

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Published In

American Journal of Sociology

DOI

ISSN

0002-9602

Publication Date

May 1, 2019

Volume

124

Issue

6

Start / End Page

1763 / 1809

Related Subject Headings

  • Sociology
  • 4410 Sociology
  • 1608 Sociology
 

Citation

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ICMJE
MLA
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Rawlings, C. M., & Childress, C. (2019). Emergent meanings: Reconciling dispositional and situational accounts of meaning-making from cultural objects. American Journal of Sociology, 124(6), 1763–1809. https://doi.org/10.1086/703203
Rawlings, C. M., and C. Childress. “Emergent meanings: Reconciling dispositional and situational accounts of meaning-making from cultural objects.” American Journal of Sociology 124, no. 6 (May 1, 2019): 1763–1809. https://doi.org/10.1086/703203.
Rawlings CM, Childress C. Emergent meanings: Reconciling dispositional and situational accounts of meaning-making from cultural objects. American Journal of Sociology. 2019 May 1;124(6):1763–809.
Rawlings, C. M., and C. Childress. “Emergent meanings: Reconciling dispositional and situational accounts of meaning-making from cultural objects.” American Journal of Sociology, vol. 124, no. 6, May 2019, pp. 1763–809. Scopus, doi:10.1086/703203.
Rawlings CM, Childress C. Emergent meanings: Reconciling dispositional and situational accounts of meaning-making from cultural objects. American Journal of Sociology. 2019 May 1;124(6):1763–1809.
Journal cover image

Published In

American Journal of Sociology

DOI

ISSN

0002-9602

Publication Date

May 1, 2019

Volume

124

Issue

6

Start / End Page

1763 / 1809

Related Subject Headings

  • Sociology
  • 4410 Sociology
  • 1608 Sociology