With a novel quality theory of consumption which treats opulence and self-restraint in consumption styles symmetrically, Ernst Mohr shows how social distance and proximity are communicated by consumption and produced by communication. He positions fringe styles with those of the mainstream in an overall stylistic system of society and analyses their encounters. Rigorously derived, the approach casts fresh light on the cultural and social evolution as well as the business models of the consumer industry. It provides a coherent interdisciplinary access to the aesthetic turn of society that has so far been treated with contradictory paradigms.
Author(s): Ernst Mohr
Series: Edition transcript | Volume 9
Edition: 1
Publisher: Transcript Verlag
Year: 2021
Language: English
Commentary: TruePDF
Pages: 341
Tags: Consumers: Psychology; Consumer Behavior: Mathematical Models; Consumer Behavior: Social Aspects
Cover
Content
Preface
Part 1: Culture of Dissimilarity
Chapter 1 Material
Singletons: Piña
0/+Consumption
Identity, Quality, Motivation
Chains: Purple, Titian, Uniform
Excursion into Nature
A Glimpse at the Peculiarities of Culture
Cultural Trees: Oriental Carpet, Traditional Costume, Archaic Style
The Illusion of Total Cultural Order
A Glimpse at a Colourful World
Beyond the World of Things
We and the Others and We Amongst Ourselves
Fluid Society
Chapter 2 Style
Beauty versus the Aesthetic
Individual versus Common
Original versus Mutation
Signature versus Expression
Representation versus Exemplification
What versus How
The Material versus the Personal
The Material versus the Social
Overview
Chapter 3 Distant and Near Vision
Excursion: from Nature to Culture
Segmented Order
Comparability
Ornament
Diversity Based on Comparability
Incomparable Ornaments
Incomparability
Diversity Based on Incomparability
Psychology of Distant and Near Vision
Proximity in the Collectivistic versus Individualistic Society
Distant and Near Vision and Style
Part 2: The Productive Consumer
Chapter 4 Inside Culture’s Sorting Plant
Pattern Recognition
Fuzziness
Assigning Objects to Styles
Similarity of Objects
Clustering in Nature
Clustering in Culture
Style Leadership and Innovation
Repertoire and Structural Fluidification
Stylistic Viscosity
Classification of People
Preferences and the Nucleus of the Social Space
Identification and Identity
Above-Average Type/Syndrome and Extreme Type/Syndrome
New Age and Performance Cult
Chapter 5 Social Volition and Cultural Prowess
Proximity Clarified
Distance Clarified
Style Nucleus and Periphery in the Social Whole
Objective Function in the Social
Psychology of the Objective Function
Egoism/Altruism Obsolescence
Poststructuralism of the Objective Function
Club Goods and Public Collective Goods Production
Restrictions for Style Followers
Restrictions for Style Leadership
Culture as Dynamic Institution
Lingua franca as Restriction
The Cultural Trade-off
Chapter 6 Cultural Selection
Feature Inflation
The Rise of Anti-Aesthetics
Singletons adieu
Phylomania
Quality Inflation
Up-to-Date Forever
More and More Savants
Phasing-Out of the Uniform
Polytomisation
Nucleation
Charisma of Style Leadership
Chapter 7 Social Evolution
Opening of the Closed Society
Equalisation of Individuality and Happiness
Destabilisation of Elective Affinities
Social Cellular Division
Societal Structuring
The Old with the Old – The New with the New
End of History
Utopia and Disruption
A Variegated World and the Silence of the Orthodoxy
Variegation in Nature and Culture
Gene(tics), Meme(tics), (Bio)semiotics, Human Being
Part 3: The Stylish Present Day
Chapter 8 Cultural Juxtaposition and Stylistic Fertilisation
Distance Type and Syndrome – Individuality Type and Syndrome
Style Groupings
A New Home for Modernism
Special Groupings
Refinement and Limitations
Stylistic Encounters
Spiral into the Extreme
The Innovation Cycle
Cool
Coolness and Viscosity of the Mainstream Style
Aesthetic Liking and Interest
Honecker’s Legacy
To Have or to Be
Happy in Style
Chapter 9 Identity Industry
Industrial Revolution
Singularity Mass Production
Length Extension
Simplification of Thought
Mass Market and Criticism of Consumerism
Fashion
Dialectics of Postmodern Business Models
Culturally Dynamic Time
The Ecological Footprint
Brand (Equity) and Ecology
Chapter 10 The Added Value of Becoming
Signalling and Sign Transformation
Semiotics of Being and Having
Creative versus Conservative Signalling
Stylistic Engagement
Signalling Typology and Signalling Cascade
Industrial Transfer and Scaling
Brand Groupings
Cascade Position and Brand Erosion
Brand Upgrade and Stylistic Ship Wrecking
The Size of the Mainstream
Customer Touchpoint Management
Brand as Mediator
‘Brand per se‘ Signification
The Cultural Foundation of Economic Activity
Bibliography
List of Figures
Figures
Tables
Index
