Fashion, Mediations & Method Assemblages

This paper discusses relations between aesthetics of fashion and the sociality of fashion. It takes as its premise that aesthetics and sociality are co-constructed, and cannot be regarded as separate - although this has been the norm in the academic traditions of aesthetics and sociology, respectively. The paper thus takes on aesthetics and the social in a manner closely related to a core argument of STS - namely that the scientific fact, and the social processes of constructing, distributing, and using that fact, are co-constructed (Callon, 1986; Latour, 1993). The paper thus contributes to STS literature by expanding one of its central debates to a new empirical setting; fashion specifically, and the aesthetic-cultural field on a more general level.

In trying to make a theoretical connection between aesthetics and sociality of fashion, the paper suggests the term of "mediator" (Hennion, 1997). "Mediation" is an activity rather than an actor; a co-constructive relation that creates what it mediates - the producer and the consumer. Hennion argues "that something effectively `happens´ in this process, which transforms the ways things were before" (Hennion & Grenier 2000, p. 346). Hennion belongs to a small but growing group of post-critical cultural sociologists, much inspired by contributions of STS.

Methodologically, however, there seems to be a shortage of tools of approaching "that which effectively happens" within this post-critical movement of cultural sociology, and therefore, it is an important ambition of this paper to go into a methodological discussion of how "that which effectively happens" can be approached. To this end, the paper will combine Hennion's term of the "mediator" with John Laws methodological term of "method assemblages". Method assemblages is a suggested as a way of handling multiple, fluid realities with multiple, fluid methods.

Empirically, the paper works with mediation in fashion - that is efforts the active shaping of relations between producer and consumer through communication, marketing and PR. Fashion mediation is by no means simple, but organise complex relations between individuals and social contexts, aesthetics and production, distribution and consumption, as well as relations between fluidity and stability. By addressing the field of fashion, the paper proposes to shed light on an empirical setting which has so far been studied either as a purely aesthetic-cultural phenomenon, or as a purely economic-sociological one. Moreover, the paper proposes to contribute to the debate in the STS community and literature by expanding the reach and breadth of some of its core arguments. 

References:

Callon, M. (1986). Some Elements of a Sociology of Translation - Domestication of the Scallops and Fishermen of St. Brieuc Bay. Power, Action, and Belief - A New Sociology of Knowledge. J. Law. London, Routledge and Keagan Paul: 196-233.

Hennion, A. (1997). "Baroque and rock: Music, mediators and musical taste." Poetics 24: 414 - 435.

Latour, B. (1993). We Have Never Been Modern. New York, Harvester-Wheatsheaf.

Law, J. (2004). After Method - mess in social science research. London and New York, Routledge.