Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here to submit your manuscript to SPPS

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Culture & Psychology
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Toomela, A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

How Should Culture be Studied?

Aaro Toomela

University of Tartu, Estonia

What should be studied in order to understand culture depends on how culture is defined. Different definitions imply different methods and research questions. Sneddon (2003) suggests that, to understand culture, it is necessary to study cultural activities, tacit and explicit representations. I propose that Sneddon's account is incomplete; there are more than only two kinds of representations that should be differentiated. In addition, there is no way to study representations without studying activities. Thus, it is necessary to understand what kinds of representations can be studied through different activities. I also draw attention to communication, which is not just another cultural activity, but rather a very special social-cultural activity through which limits of sensory-based information processing can be transcended.

Key Words: communication • culture • `everyday' concepts • representation • `scientific' concepts

Culture & Psychology, Vol. 9, No. 1, 35-45 (2003)
DOI: 10.1177/1354067X03009001003
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Culture PsychologyHome page
J. Valsiner
Cultural Psychology Today: Innovations and Oversights
Culture Psychology, March 1, 2009; 15(1): 5 - 39.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Culture PsychologyHome page
A. Toomela
Commentary: Activity Theory is a Dead End for Methodological Thinking in Cultural Psychology Too
Culture Psychology, September 1, 2008; 14(3): 289 - 303.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Culture PsychologyHome page
T. K. Jensen
The Interpretation of Signs of Child Sexual Abuse
Culture Psychology, December 1, 2005; 11(4): 469 - 498.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Culture PsychologyHome page
J. Valsiner
Three Years Later: Culture in Psychology--Between Social Positioning and Producing New Knowledge
Culture Psychology, March 1, 2004; 10(1): 5 - 27.
[Abstract] [PDF]