Space switch as Pulleys: Collective sensemaking of "cultural singleton" and "cultural ensemble"

• In Event: Sociology of Culture Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): 19. Production, Consumption & Evaluation in Arts Markets

Abstract

This study examines how cultural singleton—the sole cultural minority within an otherwise culturally uniform organization—achieves collective sensemaking with the cultural ensemble (the majority). Drawing on five months of autoethnographic fieldwork at an American resale shop, I develop a process model theorizing how strategic movement between organizational spaces, termed space switch, functions as the primary mechanism through which cultural singleton initiates and leads shared meaning-making. Analysis of twelve episodes reveals a two-stage process. In the first stage, cultural singleton employs parallel space switch—retreating to invisible spaces to privately acquire cultural knowledge—thereby brokering information gaps rooted in cultural difference. In the second stage, cultural singleton uses intensive space switch to activate emotional contagion in time-sensitive situations and extensive space switch to gradually build relational trust and legitimacy over time. Using the pulley metaphor, I theorize how these three types of space switch vary in attentional focus and temporal investment. The study makes three contributions: advancing evolutionary models of collective sensemaking in cross-cultural contexts, introducing a motion perspective on organizational space, and demonstrating that cultural minorities can exercise sequential agency even in extreme power-asymmetric environments.

Author

• Eureka Guo, Oklahoma State University