Dr Eduardo de la Fuente
Lecturer in Sociology
Thought Styles: Social Theory and the Concept of 'Fashion'
The philosophy of science and the sociology of knowledge have both contributed to the widely held view, at least in the humanities and social sciences, that knowledge of the world is organized according to 'epistemes' (Foucault) or 'paradigms' (Kuhn). However, less attention has been given to what we could term the distinctive 'styles of thought' that prevail within particular intellectual or academic communities. This paper argues that the community of social theorists has proven far too resistant to the idea that 'aesthetic apprehension' plays a part in what they do. They have also ignored the usefulness of concepts such as 'style' and 'fashion' for understanding the nature and dynamics of the theoretical enterprise. Drawing on Georg Simmel's formulation of fashion, as a 'general condition' that involves 'imitation' as well as the 'need for differentiation' and the 'desire for change', this paper argues that intellectual work and fashion have many unrecognised parallels. The similarities extend to the fleeting nature of 'fads' and the mechanisms for determining what 'is in'. My argument is that the parallels aren't that remarkable when one considers that both 'theory' and 'fashion' operate within a consumer society that values 'novelty' and instils in consumers an eagerness to consume the 'newest' goods. But should the encroachment of fashion into the sphere of intellectual work be a source of concern? Following Simmel, I argue that fashion is one of the social logics according to which modern humans negotiate the twin pressures of 'individuality' and 'sociability'.
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