Fine’s “The Sociology of the Local: Action and its Publics”

Fine, G.A. (2010). The sociology of the local: Action and its publics. Sociological Theory, 28(4), 356-376.

Fine’s text feels like the sociologist’s analog to the lingiust’s/literacy scholar’s understanding of discourse communities. Fine’s theorizing of the local–action, interaction, social organization–felt synonymous Gee’s or Johns’ definition of discourse communities. Fine (2010) writes “a local sociology asserts that interaction provides the basis of culture, but also that local culture provides the basis of interaction. Because they are bounded and segmented, groups provide opportunity structure for organizing society” (p. 359). There are a number of highlightable one-or-two-liners in this piece, but nothing felt particularly new for me that I couldn’t dig into with theories I was already using, except until the end of the piece when Fine (2010) delves into the importance of shared histories and locals: “Beyond its material structure, group revel in shared experiences; stories and anecdotes stand at the heart of group life” (p. 365). Similar to literacy scholars like Beverly Moss, who’ve also identified the importance of shared history in rhetorical performance, Fine (2010), I suppose, is defining something broader … culture, something beyond written and spoken discourse to contain all that occurs in public spaces (p. 369).