Sociology of a Trend: a first look at pattern ecosystem
Part I — Introduction to Trend Studies
What is a trend’s ecosystem made of?
A Trends Ecosystem has a structure.
We understand the structure as the mentality — a well defined and solid information — that exist in each individual mind. It is this information that represents our actions, behaviors and directly influences the lived zeitgeist.
Usually, we address people most conscious thoughts and the rational mindset, but I truly believe that is the unconscious thoughts the most value and strong influence in our daily choices, routines, and interactions.
Thinking about Jung’s Collective Unconscious concept, it is the shared ancestral memories and structures of the unconscious mind that we use as a specie to imagine, create and shape our living present.
Although get to uncover the hidden mentality it’s important to identify a trend it would be very difficult (kinda impossible) to deeply understand a mentality without observing the associated behavior with it.
We can not (till now at least) read one specific individual mind and get to know “why was she wearing that jeans retro jacket on the subway?” or “why was he chilling at the park using a black and worn Vans sneakers?”
If it is not through behavior observation, how could we understand the real human needs and meanings hidden underneath those self-identity symbols?
It is through the individual behavior that we begin our study of patterns ecosystem. But still, the behavior by itself does not gives information enough to identify a trend.
Behaviors represent an action, the aspiration to achieve something more and for its ephemeral nature can easily be seen as ambiguous or be misunderstood. For instance, I may have opposite behaviors on similar occasions and it can represent all source of needs/feelings.
There is still an essential missing piece in this ecosystem puzzle: to study a trend we need to understand a hidden mentality, but first, it's necessary to identify it’s behaviors associated objects.
A Trends Ecosystem has an object.
The visible manifestation of a mentality occurs only through its associated objects. The cultural artifacts are the first thing to be identified in the field: to understand a cultural movement we first need to map the tangibles signs/objects to be able to analyze the mentalities associated with them.
To be easier to understand, I will explain this mentality-object flow using the two street cool-hunting examples below: the first one starting from the identification of a mentality and the second one by the object.
Case study 1: mentality — behavior — artifact
For instance: I’m walking on the street. Passing by the door of a vegan grocery store I see a girl coming out with a green tea smoothie cup in her hands …
As I start my observations by her (possible) mentality, I could assume that she was thirsty and decide for a healthy drink. Or maybe she was already buying other stuff in the store and it was convenient to have that green tea smoothie at the moment. Is she vegan?
Problem #1: as I begin my observation by the mentality I have to create a starting point — a premise. But how could my assumption makes sense since I do not know that girl or even what/why/how she was in that particular store?
Problem #2: as I try to observe directly the mentality, I lose the focus in the object and all my previous field trip experience. How many times did I saw similar artifacts as these? Where? Can I cross a pattern between this girl and others that I had already see?
Short story: starting the observation discovering a hidden mentality the only reference that I have is my initial assumption. Allied to this, in this analysis I had to give lower relevance to the object turning it a mere detail in the scene.
Caso 2: artifact — behavior — mentality
(same scenario) For instance: I’m walking on the street. Passing by the door of a vegan grocery store I see a girl coming out with green tea smoothie cup in her hands …
As I begin my observation by the object, the green tea smoothie cup is my starting point. From previous field observations, I can correlate this to similar smoothies and juices that I’ve seen being consumed by other girls in this same neighborhood. I notice those girls were located near 100% natural fabrics shoe stores and near yoga academies. It seems this neighborhood is starting to have health, well-being, and sustainability signs. Could I identify here more cultural artifacts similar to this girl needs and lifestyle?
Looking closer to her green tea smoothie I can see the cup is made of plastic. This fact does not support the sustainable patterns that I had previous imagine. At this point I start to question myself whether her mentality is correlated to “natural and healthy life choices”, or in fact her decision of buying a smoothie rather than an apple juice it was based in her deepest need of been accepted and seen as equal by other members of a potential social group ~tribe~ in this area.
This is a quite simplistic example, but the fact is that when we are studying trends we always have to search for the hidden patterns.
As I have written before in the Forget Everything You Imagine as a Trend story, “Identifying trends is mapping patterns and changes” and this is only possible when we start to search for similar signs and repetition. It is with repetition that we are able to trace patterns and current human behavior and consumption trends.
An example of how repetition works:
Object: urban gardens.
~ Repetition: vertical green walls, plastic-free, local food, vegan leather …
~ Pattern: sustainability
Structure/associated mentalities: protect the environment, reuse-reduce-re-sell, consume less, sustainable future …
A Trends Ecosystem is made by a structure and an object.
The mentality and the object are important to understand a cultural movement. The object is the cultural artifact to be identified. It is the manifestation that takes the structure/mentality out of the invisible world and turns it possible to be studied.
ANDRÉA FREIRE
[register 002–2019:0627]
Research journal on contemporary culture.
