Introducing Contemporary Neo-Tribes

This chapter introduces the concept of neo-tribes and provides an in-depth, critical evaluation of its impact and influence on contemporary academic writing, by focusing upon aspects of culture and society. In the first instance, the chapter considers how neo-tribal theory has been applied across a variety of disciplines, often to different ends, with the result that the neo-tribal lens is somewhat multifarious. While this is to be expected when a concept assumes a multi-disciplinary resonance in the way that neo-tribes has, a key contention of this chapter is that there is a critical need to begin weaving together some of the conceptual threads pursued through the adoption and adaptation of neo-tribal theory across diverse disciplinary areas. Such a synthesis is necessary, it is argued, in order to ensure an underlying cohesion in both the way that neo-tribalism is understood by academic researchers and how it is applied as a theoretical framework.