Communication and ritual at the comic book shop
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the rituals and communicative practices that simultaneously create community, out-groups and perceptions of stigma at a local comic book retail organization through autoethnography. As such this piece explores personal identity, comic book culture and...
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cremerald:10.1108/joe-06-2017-0027 2024-06-09T07:50:07+00:00 Communication and ritual at the comic book shop The convergence of organizational and popular cultures Herrmann, Andrew F. 2018 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/joe-06-2017-0027 https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JOE-06-2017-0027/full/xml https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JOE-06-2017-0027/full/html en eng Emerald https://www.emerald.com/insight/site-policies Journal of Organizational Ethnography volume 7, issue 3, page 285-301 ISSN 2046-6749 journal-article 2018 cremerald https://doi.org/10.1108/joe-06-2017-0027 2024-05-15T13:24:57Z Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the rituals and communicative practices that simultaneously create community, out-groups and perceptions of stigma at a local comic book retail organization through autoethnography. As such this piece explores personal identity, comic book culture and how this comic book shop acts as important third place as defined by Oldenburg. Design/methodology/approach Autoethnography allows for the simultaneous research into self, organizations and culture. As a layered account, this autoethnography uses narrative vignettes to examine a local comic book retail organization from the first person perspective of a collector, a cultural participant and geek insider. Findings The term geek, once brandished as an insult to stigmatize, is now a sense of personal and cultural pride among members. Various rituals including the “white whale” moment and the specialized argot use help maintain community in the comic book shop creating a third place as categorized by Oldenburg. However, these shared communication practices and shared meanings reinforce the hegemonic masculinity of the store, leading the author to wonder if it can maintain its viability going forward. Originality/value This autoethnography was performed at a local comic book shop, connecting communicative and ritual practices to organizational culture, hegemonic masculinity, geek culture and personal identity. It also argues that one need not be an embedded organizational insider to perform organizational autoethnography. Article in Journal/Newspaper White whale Emerald Oldenburg Journal of Organizational Ethnography 7 3 285 301 |
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English |
description |
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the rituals and communicative practices that simultaneously create community, out-groups and perceptions of stigma at a local comic book retail organization through autoethnography. As such this piece explores personal identity, comic book culture and how this comic book shop acts as important third place as defined by Oldenburg. Design/methodology/approach Autoethnography allows for the simultaneous research into self, organizations and culture. As a layered account, this autoethnography uses narrative vignettes to examine a local comic book retail organization from the first person perspective of a collector, a cultural participant and geek insider. Findings The term geek, once brandished as an insult to stigmatize, is now a sense of personal and cultural pride among members. Various rituals including the “white whale” moment and the specialized argot use help maintain community in the comic book shop creating a third place as categorized by Oldenburg. However, these shared communication practices and shared meanings reinforce the hegemonic masculinity of the store, leading the author to wonder if it can maintain its viability going forward. Originality/value This autoethnography was performed at a local comic book shop, connecting communicative and ritual practices to organizational culture, hegemonic masculinity, geek culture and personal identity. It also argues that one need not be an embedded organizational insider to perform organizational autoethnography. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Herrmann, Andrew F. |
spellingShingle |
Herrmann, Andrew F. Communication and ritual at the comic book shop |
author_facet |
Herrmann, Andrew F. |
author_sort |
Herrmann, Andrew F. |
title |
Communication and ritual at the comic book shop |
title_short |
Communication and ritual at the comic book shop |
title_full |
Communication and ritual at the comic book shop |
title_fullStr |
Communication and ritual at the comic book shop |
title_full_unstemmed |
Communication and ritual at the comic book shop |
title_sort |
communication and ritual at the comic book shop |
publisher |
Emerald |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/joe-06-2017-0027 https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JOE-06-2017-0027/full/xml https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JOE-06-2017-0027/full/html |
geographic |
Oldenburg |
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Oldenburg |
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White whale |
genre_facet |
White whale |
op_source |
Journal of Organizational Ethnography volume 7, issue 3, page 285-301 ISSN 2046-6749 |
op_rights |
https://www.emerald.com/insight/site-policies |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1108/joe-06-2017-0027 |
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Journal of Organizational Ethnography |
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7 |
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3 |
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285 |
op_container_end_page |
301 |
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