Small Groups and Culture Creation: The Idioculture of Little League Baseball Teams

TLDR

The idioculture of a group comprises the cultural elements that characterize its interactions, and understanding these elements requires examining their meanings within small‑group communication. Following interactionist theory, this study argues that cultural creation and usage can be examined by conceptualizing cultural forms as originating in a small‑group context. The study identifies five characteristics—recognizability, usability, functionality, status support, and event‑triggered activation—that determine whether a cultural form becomes part of a group’s idioculture, and illustrates this with participant observation of Little League baseball teams. The influence of these characteristics manifests only through group members’ interpretations of their situations.

Abstract

Following interactionist theory, this study argues that cultural creation and usage can be examined by conceptualizing cultural forms as originating in a small-group context. Those cultural elements which characterize an interacting group are termed the idioculture of the group. This approach focuses on the content of small-group interaction, and suggests that the meanings of cultural items in a small group must be considered in order to comprehend their continued existence as communication. Five characteristics of cultural items affect which items will become part of a group culture. Cultural forms may be created and continue to be utilized in situations if they are known to members of the interacting group, usable in the course of group interaction, functional in supporting group goals and individual needs, appropriate in supporting the status hierarchy of the group, and triggered by events which occur in group interaction. These elements have impact only through the interpretations of group members of their situations. Support for this approach is drawn from a participant observation study of Little League baseball teams.