| Postmodernism |
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| Preceded byModernism |
| Postmodernity |
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| Reactions |
Neotribalism, also known asmodern tribalism ornew tribalism, is a sociological concept which postulates thathuman beings have evolved to live intribal society, as opposed tomass society, and thus will naturally formsocial networks constituting newtribes.
French sociologistMichel Maffesoli was perhaps the first to use the termneotribalism in a scholarly context in his 1988 bookThe Time of the Tribes. Maffesoli predicted that as the culture and institutions ofmodernism declined, societies would embracenostalgia and look to the organizational principles of the distant past for guidance, and that therefore thepost-modern era would be the era of neotribalism.[1]
Work by researchers such as American political scientistRobert D. Putnam and a 2006 study by McPherson, Smith-Lovin and Brasiers published in theAmerican Sociological Review seem to support at least the more moderate neotribalist arguments.[2]
The notion of neotribalism is used in the field of consumer research under the labelconsumer tribes.[3]