Getting attached to a classic Mustang. Use, maintenance and the burden of authenticity

This paper investigates the relationships consumers cultivate with mass-market commodities while caring for their authenticity. Drawing on a six-year ethnography of classic Mustang owners communities in France, Switzerland and Belgium, the authors show that, far from being a symbolic value only, or a resource into which people can “invest” in a mechanism of social distinction, authenticity can also appear as a burden that weighs constantly on the relationship between people and things. Indeed, throughout their uses and maintenance, the material integrity of classic Mustangs is of great concern for their owners, who apprehend every breakdown or maintenance intervention as threats that could jeopardize their car's authenticity. For the sake of security, comfort or health, because new regulations come up, or because some original parts are not available anymore, classic Mustangs owners compose with heterogeneous elements, constantlyreshaping both their cars and their concerns for authenticity. The authors draw on Hennion's notion of “attachement” to describe the intimate relationship that grows through these arrangements. The notion particularly helps to grasp the ambivalence of the bonds between people and things: while they get more and more attached to their classic Mustang, owners are getting more and more worried. Moreover, throughout this growing relationship and the recurrent material interventions it draws on, the car does not remain passive. It progressively reveals itself, sometimes surprising its owner. Therefore, not only is authenticity “in the making” in this process, the contours of the thing itself evolve, as well as the knowledge of its owner.

Consumption and social distinction in the cultural field of music

Objetivo: Este estudo tem por objetivo identificar padrões de consumo e de gosto no campo cultural da música no Brasil e caracterizar a influência de variáveis sociodemográficas.Método: Foi utilizada a abordagem quantitativa: 1.168 pessoas foram consultadas por meio da aplicação de questionários semiestruturados em três cidades do estado de Minas Gerais: Belo Horizonte, Juiz de Fora e Lavras. Para análise dos dados, foi utilizada a Análise de Correspondência Múltipla (MCA).Relevância/Originalidade: O entendimento dos mecanismos e das consequências sociais do consumo de status tem sido o centro de um rico debate teórico. No entanto, estudiosos tem apontado a necessidade de mais pesquisas, visto que os dados empíricos são extraídos quase que exclusivamente em países europeus ou nos Estados Unidos. Portanto, este estudo pode contribuir ao suprir parte da lacuna teórica e gerar dados para a compreensão dos padrões de gosto e consumo musical em um país em desenvolvimento.Principais Resultados: A MCA confirmou a existência de uma acentuada divisão entre o gosto por gêneros musicais culturalmente legitimados e gêneros musicais populares, sendo essas diferenças operadas, especialmente, pela escolaridade e capital cultural dos indivíduos. Apenas 4,5% dos respondentes foram classificados como onívoros. Desta forma, defende-se que, embora muitos estudiosos encontrem evidências da teoria do onívoro cultural, é por meio da homologia e do gosto esnobe que as diferenças de gosto musicais, no contexto estudado, são melhor explicadas.Contribuições Teóricas/Metodológicas: As informações podem ser valiosas para os acadêmicos aprofundarem seus estudos ou elaborarem novas questões de pesquisa, abrindo espaço também para a comparação entre diferentes regiões e países. Este estudo também gera insights para o refinamento de análises e classificações referentes aos conceitos de capital cultural e ao onívoro cultural, e aponta para o papel central do consumo de status nos gostos musicais no contexto brasileiro.

Son Preference in India

Through a focus on Rajasthan, this chapter analyses how government awareness campaigns for gender equality, as well as a sharp rise in institutional deliveries throughout the country in the 2000s, have affected how son preference is discussed and treated in hospitals. Drawing on 3 months of ethnographic fieldwork in a government hospital in Jaipur, this chapter shows that the condemnation of son preference has enhanced regimes of medical and moral surveillance within obstetric wards. Not only does it contribute to further castigation and self-disciplining mechanisms, but it also constitutes a new opportunity for social distinction. While condemning son preference practices, women, nurses, and doctors are constantly finding scapegoats in social classes, state, and generational differences. Thus, this chapter considers whether the public condemnation of son preference, currently jeopardizing the relationship of trust between caregivers and patients, could undermine government policies on safe motherhood.

Between “Medical” and “Social” Egg Freezing

Egg freezing has led to heated debates in healthcare policy and bioethics. A crucial issue in this context concerns the distinction between “medical” and “social” egg freezing (MEF and SEF)—contrasting objections to bio-medicalization with claims for oversimplification. Yet such categorization remains a criterion for regulation. This paper aims to explore the “regulatory boundary-work” around the “medical”–”social” distinction in different egg freezing regulations. Based on systematic documents’ analysis we present a cross-national comparison of the way the “medical”–”social” differentiation finds expression in regulatory frameworks in Austria, Germany, Israel, and the Netherlands. Findings are organized along two emerging themes: (1) the definition of MEF and its distinctiveness—highlighting regulatory differences in the clarity of the definition and in the medical indications used for creating it (less clear in Austria and Germany, detailed in Israel and the Netherlands); and (2) hierarchy of medical over social motivations reflected in usage and funding regulations. Blurred demarcation lines between “medical” and “social” are further discussed as representing a paradoxical inclusion of SEF while offering new insights into the complexity and normativity of this distinction. Finally, we draw conclusions for policymaking and the bioethical debate, also concerning the related cryopolitical aspects.

Die Italienreise des Freiherrn Guidobald von Welsperg und Primör 1675–1676

The article exemplifies the role of the Grand Tour as the conclusion and culmination of an aristocratic education. The educational journey of the Tyrolean nobleman Guidobald of Welsperg began immediately after he completed his academic studies at the university of Innsbruck, taking him and his tutor through Italy, which was particularly popular as a Grand Tour destination thanks above all to its political diversity and cultural richness. Although Rome’s importance was waning, it continued to be regarded as the Caput Mundi by Catholic noblemen, especially during the 1675 Jubilee, underscoring the religious aspect of the journey. The advantages Rome had to offer must inevitably have had a formative effect on the young Tyrolean nobleman. The costs of the journey were high and out of reach of the majority, and therefore represented an important element of social distinction. At the same time, such an educational journey was a means of improving one’s education and polishing one’s manners that was almost obligatory for career purposes. Only by visiting foreign countries and courts could one acquire the Weltkenntnis, or knowledge of the world, qualifying an individual for higher posts at court, in the diplomacy or administration.

Rationales and Functions of Disliked Music: An In-Depth Interview Study

Music serves to satisfy emotional and social needs. In its individual quality as liked or disliked music, it can also be used to create and affirm one’s own identity. While studies on musical preferences are abundant, dislikes have rarely been considered in musical taste research. The current study is centered on the rationales and functions of musical dislikes using semi-structured interviews with participants from different age groups (N = 21). The observed rationales for disliked music followed three main themes of (1) object-related reasons such as the composition, the lyrics, and aesthetic dichotomies, (2) subject-related reasons such as emotions evoked – or not evoked – in the listener, physical reactions, self-related and normative reasons such as a mismatch with the self-image, and (3) social reasons which reflect a rejection of the values presented by the music and its fans and therefore underlining the importance of social distinction as a function of musical dislikes. Other functions include identity expression, the avoidance of negative emotional and physical states, and the implicitly expressed demonstration of musical competence. The explanations for disliked music are based on both an excess or lack of certain qualities of the music or emotional reaction to the music, pointing to the idea of a missing ideal mean of music. Quantitatively, the rationales found relate to a combination of reference points which is mainly the music, but often in combination with the lyrics, the performance, the artist, and the fans. Further, the degree of dislike ranged from a slight dislike to strong hatred. To conclude, musical dislikes are a complex, multidimensional component of musical taste. Taking musical dislikes into account, the diversity and complexity of an everyday aesthetics of music can be captured, extending our understanding of attitudes toward music and the functions of music.

The Aesthetics and Emotions of Religious Belonging: Examples from the Buddhist World

The articles in this special issue illuminate the importance of aesthetics, affect, and emotion in the formation of religious communities through examples from the Buddhist world. This introduction reads across the contributors’ findings from different regions (China, India, Japan, and Tibet) and eras (from the 17th to the 21st centuries) to highlight common themes. It discusses how Buddhist communities can take shape around feelings of togetherness, distance, and absence, how bonds are forged and broken through spectacular and quotidian aesthetic forms, and how aesthetic and emotional practices intersect with doctrinal interpretations, gender, ethnicity, and social distinction to shape the moral politics of religious belonging. We reflect on how this special issue complicates the idea of Buddhist belonging through its focus on oft-overlooked practices and practitioners. We also discuss the insights that our studies of Asian Buddhist communities offer to the broader study of religious belonging.

Old Cups Die Hard: The Appropriation of Athenian Pottery in the Iberian Peninsula

The Iberian archaeological record is particularly rich in asynchronous (i.e. chronologically mixed) assemblages including Athenian pots that predate the other items by a couple of decades or even a few centuries. Recent scholarship on keimëlia, or ‘curated objects’ in modern parlance, has shown the potential of such objects to investigate questions of identity, agency and history-making among the receiving communities, but also to shed light on the role of Athenian pottery among them. This article analyses this phenomenon within the Iberian peninsula, focusing on drinking cups, both black-gloss with inset lip (Cástulo cups) and red-figure type B cups. Using case studies from necropoleis and settlements of the southeast and east of the peninsula, the article explores the reasons and meaning of this consumption practice. It is argued that the occurrence of ‘heirloom’ vases in Iberian tombs and their extraordinary survival in some settlements is the result of a conscious and deliberate choice indicating the existence of mechanisms of social distinction based on a diacritical use of material culture. It is further argued that different motivations might lie behind their delayed deposition: when the chronological gap between production and disposal dates is small, one or two human generations, curated Athenian vases worked similarly to non-curated ones, being emblematic of economic success, social affiliations and political rank. But when the interval is longer, Athenian pots became symbols of ancestry and elite status, possibly acquiring the same legitimizing role earlier bestowed upon Orientalizing artefacts. Supplementary material is available online (https://doi.org/10.1017/S0075426921000094) and comprises a catalogue of case-study objects.

The Inner Louis Vuitton Circle: Arts-Based Research into Russian Luxury

Studying luxury and conspicuous consumption in international settings presents unique challenges. Many aspects of luxury and conspicuous consumption cannot easily be put into words because they involve desires, aesthetics, and emotions, as well as taken-for-granted assumptions about social distinction and inequality. Drawing on Nicolai Eliseev’s artistic inquiry into luxury consumption in Russia, this article proposes arts-based inquiry as a suitable method for examining embodied and aesthetic knowing about luxury and conspicuous consumption, in particular in intercultural settings. The article illustrates these ideas through a series of sketches and a final artwork, by which Eliseev inquired into his experiences and tacit knowledge. The artwork incorporates a cut-up Louis Vuitton bag and references to luxury brands such as Cartier, Vertu, and Dom Perignon. The artistic form expresses the dividing effects and emotions of luxury consumption in Russian social and economic life. The article contributes to an understanding of aesthetic creation as both a method of inquiry and also a practice of resistance and innovation in relation to fashion discourses. Thus, it illustrates the potential of arts-based research methods in intercultural studies of luxury, and the social sciences more broadly.

Karpik in the Bottle: Can Judgment Devices Explain the Demand for Fine Wine?

Processes of valuation and evaluation are especially complex and uncertain in markets for unique products. Consider the purchase of a bottle of fine wine. Each wine was produced in a certain region, on a particular soil, by a famous wine producer, employing methods handed down for centuries. How can consumers compare unique products in order to make a choice? How is a market for singular products possible? According to Lucien Karpik’s economics of singularities, such markets necessarily rely on social actors and artifacts providing knowledge on how to compare unique products, called judgment devices. To systematically assess the explanatory contribution of Karpik’s approach, this paper empirically tests fundamental propositions of the economics of singularities in a quantitative framework, examining the case of the demand for fine wine. The analysis provides ample support for Karpik’s theory. First, wine demand is substantially correlated with the use of judgment devices. Second, the effects of judgment devices on product demand cannot be explained by information deficits, in line with the theoretical arguments. However, the analysis also reveals deviations from the theoretical expectations. Certain judgment devices prove more important for the demand for higher priced wines than predicted, whereas others play a more minor role. Furthermore, the use of judgment devices is substantially linked to social distinction, something Karpik’s theory overlooks.