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Culture in transnational Interaction: how Organizational Partners Coproduce Sesame Street

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Abstract

Given the extraordinary politicization of culture in an era of globalization, it is surprising that Sesame Street has gained acceptance and legitimacy in more than fifty countries during the last five decades. Sesame Street’s ubiquity around the world presents us with the question I address in this article: how do partner organizations work together, on the ground, to locally adapt a hybrid cultural product? Using data from real-time interactions between NY staff and partners, I show how teams from different cultures who do not share collective representations are able to create them through transnational interaction by: (1) constructing value to align their interests (2) exchanging complex cultural knowledge to customize and build alliances together. The Sesame Street case, then, allows us to grapple with “culture in interaction” at the transnational level, shedding light on culture in transnational interaction.

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Notes

  1. In the data presented here, I edited quotations for clarity and brevity.

  2. ““Maybe an Astronaut” The Measurable Impact of Alam Simsim”, p. 10.

  3. Thanks to a reviewer for this insight.

  4. Thanks to a reviewer for this insight.

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Acknowledgement

I thank Peter Evans, Asad L. Asad, Joshua Bloom, Bart Bonikowski, Michael Burawoy, Jim Collins, Frank Dobbin, Roberto Fernandez, Robert Fiala, Neil Fligstein, Duana Fullwiley, Filiz Garip, Marshall Ganz, Heather Haveman, Nicole Arlette Hirsch, Simone Ispa-Landa, Isabel Jijón, Julia Kowalski, Michèle Lamont, Isaac Martin, Erin McDonnell, Terence McDonnell, Rory McVeigh, Ann Mische, Susan Ostermann, Jeff Sallaz, Sarah Soule, Jason Spicer, Sid Tarrow, Jessica Tollette, and Kim Voss for their insightful and helpful comments. An earlier version of this article was presented at the University of Pennsylvania, UCLA, the University of Arizona, Michigan State University, University of New Mexico, Yale University, Harvard University, Northwestern University, University of Michigan, and the University of Notre Dame. Many thanks to all of those who, at each of these institutions, offered invaluable suggestions and ideas. And of course, many thanks to the editors, reviewers, and production team that improved the article and made this process a pleasure.

Funding

This study was funded, in part, by: Harvard Medical School; the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies, and; David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Harvard University.

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  1. Keough School of Global Affairs, Department of Sociology, University of Notre Dame, 1010 Jenkins Nanovic Halls, 46556, Notre Dame, Indiana, United States

    Tamara Kay

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Correspondence to Tamara Kay.

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Kay, T. Culture in transnational Interaction: how Organizational Partners Coproduce Sesame Street. Theor Soc 52, 711–737 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-022-09484-2

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