In the previous series, we traced how meaning becomes binding. We followed proposals as they were taken up, aligned, expected, modulated, and preserved through institutional mechanisms. We saw how readiness transforms into commitment, how responsibility distributes across configurations, and how obligations can persist or fail.
This post shifts perspective. It asks:
What happens when meaning readiness is not confined to a single event, conversation, or interaction?What emerges when multiple micro-bindings recur, overlap, and accumulate over time?
We move from weather — discrete, localised meaning events — to subclimate — patterns of semiotic tendencies that reveal themselves at the meso-level.
Micro-Bindings as Building Blocks
Each discrete interaction — a proposal, an uptake, a modulation, a stabilised obligation — is like a storm in a climate system. Alone, it has local impact:
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It shapes expectation in its immediate context
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It stabilises readiness for specific participants
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It may even ripple briefly through adjacent interactions
But individual events are ephemeral. Their influence is local and contingent. Micro-bindings are necessary but not sufficient to produce persistent semiotic tendencies at scale.
Aggregation: From Weather to Weather Type
When similar micro-bindings recur within an interactional network, patterns begin to appear. Certain proposals are taken up more reliably, certain modulations are consistently reinforced, and some expectations become habitual.
This is the subclimate, or “weather type”:
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It is neither fully potential (systemic possibilities) nor fully actual (discrete events)
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It captures typical interactional tendencies
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It allows us to see emergent semiotic pressures that guide future interactions
For example:
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A team that routinely responds promptly to scheduling proposals develops a high-uptake subclimate.
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A department that consistently escalates tasks through hierarchical channels produces a modulation-heavy subclimate.
Subclimates are probabilistic, patterned, and observable, even if no individual intends them. They reveal the tendencies of meaning-making beyond the immediate instance.
Feedback Loops and Reinforcement
Subclimates emerge through repetition and reinforcement:
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Each micro-binding contributes a small weight to the emerging pattern
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Participants adjust their orientation in response to recurring trends
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Institutions, procedures, and routines accelerate the sedimentation of these tendencies
Crucially, this is relational:
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No one is “creating” the subclimate consciously
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It emerges from the interplay of repeated micro-bindings and their semiotic stabilisation
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It is maintained as long as interactions continue to reproduce the pattern
Subclimates are thus semiotic structures — they have durability, directional force, and influence, but they remain relationally generated, not authored.
Why Subclimates Matter
Recognising subclimates allows us to:
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Predict semiotic tendencies: Which proposals are likely to be taken up? Which modulations are likely to stick?
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Understand emergent expectations: How do repeated interactions shape chronic readiness or urgency?
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Bridge micro and macro: Subclimates are the stepping stone from local binding to the long-term semiotic climates that shape societies and institutions.
They show that meaning-making is cumulative: repeated local stabilisations create patterns that constrain and shape future interactions, even before any formal institution intervenes.
Looking Ahead
In the next post, we will explore habitual modulation: how repeated micro-level modulations generate semiotic patterns of expectation and obligation, and how these patterns begin to exert influence across interactions.
From weather to subclimate, the story of meaning-making is now emerging as a semiotic ecosystem, one where discrete events accumulate into enduring tendencies, shaping readiness, expectation, and obligation across time and space.
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