Defending symbolic convergence theory from an imaginary Gunn

Collective Virtuosity in Organizations: A Study of Peak Performance in an Orchestra

“…A shared consciousness akin to communitas can emerge as group members move from talking about ‘I’ to ‘us’. This occurs through the sharing of fantasies and narratives that are communicated from one group member to another through a process of chaining (Bormann, 1972; Bormann et al., 2003; Wood, 2005). When these narratives are triggered (e.g.…”

Lope de Aguirre, the Tyrant, and the Prince: Convergence and Divergence in Postcolonial Collective Memory

“…They are, in Bakhtin's view, inevitably heteroglossic, and while they may be situationally and culturally specific, they contain traces and mixtures of other diverse social meanings, values, situations, and uses. In this light, Bormann's (1972Bormann's ( , 1982Bormann's ( , 1985Bormann et al, 1994Bormann et al, , 2003 convergence aligns with what Bakhtin (1981) refers to as the centripetal forces that ''serve to unify and centralize the verbal-ideological world'' (p. 270). Convergence is the centralizing of discourse into a ''unitary language'' that reflects an uncomplicated and ''monoglossic'' reality.…”

“…From a rhetorical perspective, they are important because they draw attention to the ways in which the past is invoked to both support official, sanctioned narratives and to simultaneously challenge them in what is a richly textured, dynamic, and ongoing process. Bormann's (1972Bormann's ( , 1982Bormann's ( , 1985Bormann et al, 1994Bormann et al, , 2003 theory of Symbolic Convergence/Fantasy Theme Analysis affirms that communities are formed and maintained by the stories they share. It argues that recurring narratives create identification and common bonds across a group.…”

“…And while it may be a way to represent how groups of people work to maintain a coherent sense of identification, it largely ignores alternate visions of reality. Gerard Hauser's (1999) analysis of vernacular cultures brings the main weakness of Bormann's (1972Bormann's ( , 1982Bormann's ( , 1985Bormann et al, 1994Bormann et al, , 2003 method into sharper focus: ''Members of pluralistic societies belong to several, perhaps many, overlapping discursive arenas in which they experience the polyphony of concurrent conversations as vernacular languages that rub against one another, instigating dialogues'' so that ''vernacular exchanges both lack and transcend the force of official authority'' (p. 67).…”

Man-Child in the White House

“…Incorporating Mohrmann's critique, Gunn (2003) concluded that fantasy theme analysis was doomed to remain stagnant unless it embraced either its alleged Freudianism or a more distinctively ideological stance. Bormann et al (2003) rejected that critique as, essentially, an attack on someone else's theory altogether. (For a summary, see Cragan and Shields, 1995, chap.…”