Media reviews

The first time I became aware of John Mohr’s work was as an undergraduate student, when I developed a fascination for the impact that social and cultural meanings have on behaviour in and around organizations. The field of cultural sociology was strongly marked theoretically and methodologically by John Mohr (for instance, his frequently cited article on formal methods for the measurement of meaning structures, published in 1998). Such works have inspired scholars to further investigate how social life is influenced by and constructs cultural meanings and how to measure these processes. It is therefore unsurprising that so many talented scholars, who have each made outstanding contributions to the field, have come together to craft and publish this fascinating book after John Mohr’s passing in August, 2019. Measuring Culture is addressed to all scholars interested in ‘the development of theories and methods that explain how people assign meaning to events, objects, individuals, or groups, as well as how people interpret and live through such meanings themselves’ (p. 2). In four chapters, complemented by a rich introduction and conclusion, the authors’ aim is to give a considerable overview of existing work that deals with the measurement of meaning, discuss methodological decisions underlying this work, and give a prospect to the future of the measurement of meaning. The book’s aim is well achieved, as the authors, with their various disciplinary backgrounds, provide a broad and diverse selection and description of existing work. Furthermore, in one chapter, the summaries of existing work are supplemented by in-depth interviews conducted with the authors of selected research projects, namely Ann Mische, Ronald Breiger, Paul DiMaggio and Robin Wagner-Pacifici, each of them outstanding scholars with significant contributions to (cultural) sociology. What is particularly interesting about the interviews is that readers gain new insights into how methodological decisions were made and which challenges the authors faced when they conducted their research projects. The first chapter of the book focuses on ‘the measurement of cultural processes and patterns that can be observed in individuals’ (p. 21). In this context, the authors describe existing approaches that aim to measure culture based on what and how people think, talk and act. Although this is a complex area of research, the authors succeed in creating an exciting journey through this territory, which provides deep insights without getting lost in detail. They start by providing a brief historical outline on the measurement of thinking, talking and acting by roaming through the work of prominent 997375OSS0010.1177/0170840621997375Organization StudiesMedia Reviews research-article2021