To explore how the process shapes the outcome, we are going to dive a bit into the topic of culture production in groups.
It can be small groups, where each member can interact with every other member. In this case, their subculture can be referenced as idioculture, like with the group of teenagers from the bus.
These teenagers also belong to much larger groups, like people their own age, that share certain elements of their own subculture, that many adults or younger children don’t really access.
Subcultures are, of course, found in adulthood too! And it can be quite powerful in some professional sectors (professional subcultures) and organisations (organisational subcultures).
For instance, if you work in a company, there are good chances that you and your colleagues have your own way of doing things and that you carry some cultural elements that are proper to the place.
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- Common references. For example, with teenagers, it can be the music they listen to or the shows they watch, the nicknames they give each other, common memories;
- Common elements of language: own terminology or using certain words in a certain way;
- Common values and ethics (e.g., journalistic ethics is part of their professional culture).
- Common norms. The social norms cover everything that is considered acceptable behaviour in the group. Most of them are unspoken. However, there are good chances that if you don't comply with them, you might find yourself in a position where you will be excluded from the group. On the other hand, if you are very legitimate and esteemed member of the group and you decide to challenge the norms, then you might accelerate the process of evolution of what is considered “normal” for the group.
- Common knowledge. Groups share a common pool of knowledge to a specific profession that characterises the field. This includes formal knowledge, but also an understanding of the social norms, etiquette, beliefs, etc.
We would talk about professional culture or subculture. It doesn't really matter if we say culture or subculture: the term “subculture” simply highlights the fact that it's a subgroup of society.
This cultural production has a social function.
It helps the group collaborate and communicate more easily. This is why so many workplaces invest in teambuilding activities: they know that strengthening the sense of community will make the collective work more effective. When you have a larger common background, you can solve problems quicker together. HR just hope to accelerate this process by putting their collaborators in settings that are a bit different from what they do every day at work.
Cultural production is a process that is never finished, as long as there are interactions. It's not good or bad, just something that helps us function together and sometimes get the nice feeling of belonging to a group.
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