I am really glad that the ISPP section chairs for new theoretical and methodological developments have accepted both of my paper proposals. I am looking forward to it – not only because the conference is held at Paris but also because of the possibility to discuss some of the stuff I think is belonging to my better ones. Short abstracts of both papers will be posted in an instant.
It turned out that the topics – Consumer Culture, Social Milieus and the Governmentality of Lifestyle – are hot. One could have thought that the ideas of a wired mind in its tower of science are a little bit less close to reality. Then I read an advertisment in “Spiegel online” about the 13th German Trend Day.
To my surprise i read about things that sounded familiar to me: The Economy of Attention is dead, so they say. In the eyes of the authors – obviously concerned with market and trend research – the future is social recognition, because we all are social creatures, want to be liked, respected and loved. Therefore, they say, we need the applause of our self chosen relatives to secure our status. This includes the shift from the former main question “Who am I?” to the new one: “Who do I want to be?” in an age of dynamic identity engineering. Very interesting though. First thing I thought was: Ok. Thats not new for me. But then I became aware that I seemed to have detected a real development in real life that shapes the future of our societies. One more reason to discuss this all.
kopfmaennchen 
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