"Burning Man was better next year:" a phenomenology of community identity in the Black Rock counterculture

Abstract

This study illustrates and explains communal identity performance and maintenance as manifested by the participants in the counterculture community at Burning Man. This community is dedicated to countercultural ideals set forth by the Burning Man Organization. This study uses multiple phenomenological and ethnographic methods including in-depth interviews, participant observation, and discourse analysis to investigate, identify and describe how individual behaviors, both verbal and nonverbal, influence the social climate and communal identity of the temporary society of Black Rock City. The study uses the socially constructed community of Burning Man as a prototype of a counterculture environment to develop an understanding of shared maintenance of social norms, values and beliefs specific to counterculture communities.