{"resolved":true,"match_type":"uuid","source_type":"original_book","book_id":"1dc0854c-957b-4fb1-af9a-bb4fdb76b77e","title":"Time, Consumption and Everyday Life Practice, Materiality and Culture","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":null,"requested_by":"printed_page","book":{"source_type":"original_book","book_id":"1dc0854c-957b-4fb1-af9a-bb4fdb76b77e","id":"1dc0854c-957b-4fb1-af9a-bb4fdb76b77e","uuid":"1dc0854c-957b-4fb1-af9a-bb4fdb76b77e","title":"Time, Consumption and Everyday Life Practice, Materiality and Culture","normalized_title":"timeconsumptionandeverydaylifepracticematerialityandculture","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":null,"isbns":[],"parsed":true,"ai_readable":true,"document_type":"book","page_count":236,"navigation_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/1dc0854c-957b-4fb1-af9a-bb4fdb76b77e","title_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/title/Time%2C%20Consumption%20and%20Everyday%20Life%20Practice%2C%20Materiality%20and%20Culture","fixed_page_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/1dc0854c-957b-4fb1-af9a-bb4fdb76b77e/page/{printed_page}","path_api_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/book/1dc0854c-957b-4fb1-af9a-bb4fdb76b77e/page/{printed_page}","read_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/read/1dc0854c-957b-4fb1-af9a-bb4fdb76b77e","page_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/1dc0854c-957b-4fb1-af9a-bb4fdb76b77e/page","search_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/1dc0854c-957b-4fb1-af9a-bb4fdb76b77e/search"},"page":{"printed_page":139,"pdf_page":140,"physical_index":140,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"dba67bbf8e5083e62b5452ab2109ae6a47771d17ee171f5d6fb3743ae68a1772"},"chapter":"List of Tables and Figures","content":"Again, this is not the case with fashion, even though the growth of fashion institutes which professionally create new designs in established markets makes this distinction less clear. But a new fashion does not radically have to change anything; ‘all’ the fashion designer has to do is to catch the right, fleeting, moment in order to introduce his or her own invention. They have to listen to the ‘Zeitgeist’ (Blumer 1969). Fads are, in this respect, more mysterious. What makes them so peculiar is the abruptness and totality of their transformation. New practices seem to appear from nothing and disappear again without any trace at all. It is hardly worthwhile to predict and plan them. Trend-setters are of little use in designing the next fad. All that the producer can do is to offer a large variety of items and hope that at least one of them becomes a success. As a consequence, in order to make ends meet or to make a profit, a firm operating in, for instance, book publishing or music producing has to cover the costs of eight or nine failures with the sales of one best-seller (Hirsch 1972).<sup>6</sup>\n\nProducers and sellers, on the one hand, and customers, on the other hand, have their own principles and standards of quality to follow in making decisions, and these only overlap partially and temporarily (Gronow 2004). Therefore producers probe their way around, responding to the moves of their closest competitors or market leaders. Consumers choose from a bigger or smaller variety of alternatives offered on sale at any one time without any clear idea what would be most satisfying for them. In Schulze’s (1992: 442–444) analyses of the modern (mass) consumer society of inner experiences, both sides, producers and consumers, come to favour small gradual changes. Producers offer new ‘numbers’ of old series, consumers stick to the familiar and safe and prefer more of the same with minor variations, making ‘real’ innovations which would radically challenge existing social and cultural practices exceptional and rare. Our everyday observations would seem to confirm such a conclusion. When looking at the great number and variety of commodities in the supermarkets or in home electronics, one often gets an impression of eternal repetition of sameness. Compared to the numerous new everyday items of consumption advertised regularly, which seem to increase exponentially, the emergence of ‘real’ innovations is very rare. Despite all the efforts and money put into product development and innovation, inventions which create new markets and constituencies of customers as well as new social practices or ways of life cannot occur daily or weekly. On the contrary, new fashions abound in most areas of popular consumption. Fashion cycles get more intensive. But they do not, after all, change the world that much. Fads also come and go, initially making a real difference, but then vanishing without leaving any traces in our culture except, perhaps, in our collective memory.\n\nFads, Fashions and ‘Real’ Innovations\n\n139","previous_page":138,"next_page":140}