The Production of Consumer Society: Cultural-Economic Principles of Distinction (Edition transcript)

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. 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