ABSTRACT
Commonsense ideas often view culture as something that is given, fixed, and in some cases seen as unimportant. Some scholars have argued that culture is a (too) complicated concept. First, it is difficult to define what we mean by culture. Do we mean culture in the narrow sense – that is, culture as creative or artistic forms of expression or communication – or culture in the broad sense – culture as a way of life, encompassing the activities, beliefs, and customs of a social group? This book focuses on awkwardness primarily in the broad sense. Second, culture consists of many different elements. The authors mostly draw on culture as interactions and rituals, as well as norms, beliefs, and vocabularies. Third, this book takes an interpretive approach to culture, drawing primarily on qualitative methods. Finally, the authors study awkwardness as culture primarily through the lens of social interactions and focus to a lesser extent on cultural objects or organizations. The authors here draw upon cultural sociology, the study of meaning-making processes. As meaning-making creatures, humans use categories to make sense of the world around them. Therefore, awkwardness as a label represents both an outcome of social interaction and an emotion, which can be used to categorize experiences, allowing people to interpret what is happening and developing lines of action.
