What is a macroculture vs. a microculture topic universe?

Macrocultures are the starting point of any analysis.

Microcultures are the networks of meaning you’ve identified within the context set by the Macroculture.

For example, if you’re studying the culture of sustainable products, the first thing you see is a set of up to 30 topics that refer to the dominant language and meaning that consumers associate with the idea of sustainable products.

This is what we refer to as the Macroculture topic universe.

Now, let’s select a topic (”recyclability”) that is relevant to us and ‘double click’ into it. We’re now entering the microculture universe (but still in the context of its macroculture).

A microculture refers to the language of the consumer around a topic in the context of another. So in the example above, applying recyclability as a microculture topic allows us to now see the language used by the consumer around recyclability but in the context of sustainable products (our macroculture topic).