We touched on how taste is an important part of the reproduction of social structures and hierarchies. It’s a homogenising pointer in the direction of what’s considered to be good and beautiful and therefore something to aspire to.
According to Pierre Bourdieu - taste is not an objective concept, but a social construct. It’s shaped by the people with high levels of cultural capital and, through social structures, the dominant taste gets legitimised into good and refined taste. Taste gets re-produced through Habitus and social fields.
Good taste is tautological in the sense that it becomes self-referential and circular - people with high capital or cultural authority define what is good taste. The idea of good taste re-enforces the social and cultural superiority. Thankfully, it’s possible to break up this circle of self-reference, interrupt the flow and modify it.
Social structures tend to favour status quo and any new ideas will be met with resistance. The notion of neutral, natural, normal and common-sense thinking is part of the mechanism that actively tries to discredit any challenges to the norms, values, beliefs, practices…
As a progressive movement for a better world that looks to fundamentally challenge some of the dominant and common-sense views, 2R should be very much concerned with movement building. The way and the manner in which new ideas get deployed is very important. Taste might be the Trojan Horse that will allow potentially subversive ideas to slide in un-noticed and unchallenged.
If we agree that the dominant class views and associated dominant class tastes and preferences are the overarching ideas of good and beautiful that the entire society aspires to - the new ideas must be injected right there.
Since people outside of the dominant class are not in a position to make much of a difference on a grand scale, we must focus on the ones who are rich in different types of capital and therefore hold high positions within social fields. Those individuals are held in high esteem by the other members of the capital-rich cohort, so their potential for influence is high.
To illustrate what’s possible I’ll use an example of how a sub-culture can introduce an alternative taste in a traditionally conservative field. I believe that this works in line with Bourdieu’s suggestion that a social change is possible when an individual introduces their Habitus formed elsewhere to a new field and causes a tension between the Habitus of the field and the field itself.
Taste as an incidental byproduct of dominant and prominent members of social fields
In some social fields taste is an incidental product of the broader lifestyle choices and positions of dominant and prominent members. In those fields taste doesn’t need to be specifically defined and codified in formal terms because it “naturally” emanates from the education, behaviours, habits, preferences and values of dominant groups.
A good movie to illustrate (in exaggerated way) the taste in a social field is American Psycho.
This film tells a story of a wealthy and successful corporate high-flier in 1980s Manhattan. His life is full of excess - luxury apartments, designer clothes, expensive restaurants and the obsession with status symbols. Patrick Bateman is defined by consumerism, appearance and a desire to penetrate the upper echelons of society.
There are flashes of what is considered to be good taste throughout the film and how the social dynamics within the corporate elite is influenced by being seen to be in the right places, hanging out with the right people and possessing of right material symbols of wealth.
While American Psycho is a satirical and dark comic exploration of the excesses, tastes and attitudes of that particular time, by many it’s not seen only as negatively decadent, but an insight into liberating aspects that wealth and success afford.
The depravity of the main character is skilfully counteracted by some of the personal traits that are desirable in this social field. It’s very likely that a lot of people aspired to be more like Patrick Bateman in some respects.
Original and Modified: Porsche as a Case Study
Legitimacy of Originality
Good taste in social fields tends to be rooted in tradition, convention and the prevailing norms of the time. It becomes an invisible guide to what is acceptable, desirable or elevated within a particular social community. The concept of good taste is often very resistant to change. It’s very hard to disrupt a shared idea of what is classy, refined and valuable because they are tied to the status and prestige and part of the power dynamics of the positional hierarchy.
In the world of classic cars, few things are as revered as originality, historicity, provenance and rarity. A classic Porsche is often seen as a perfect object, a time capsule and a symbol of engineering, style and aspirations. For many , restoring or modifying these vehicles is considered a sacrilege - an affront to the sanctity of the car’s design and implementation.
This, in a way, is not necessarily a reflection of society’s broader understanding of good taste - market for modifications exists in Motorsport and is not frowned upon while cars are contemporary. However, in the social field of collector cars - value is primarily based on originality, condition, rarity and historical significance.
The main institutions through which these values get re-produced and re-enforced are events like:
- Concours d’Elegance where cars are displayed and judged, focusing on originality, condition and restoration quality
- Classic car auctions pay particular attention to the originality by employing field experts and publishing detailed descriptions and condition reports.
- Competitive motorsport events (rallies, circuit races, hillclimbs) for classic cars where the participation criteria or eligibility is based on the originality.
Magnus Walker’s Personal Journey: From Rebel to Icon
I accidentally stumbled upon Magnus Walker’s Ted Talk a few years ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDQrMoksJ4Q
It started as a personal story, a life journey of growing up in England and moving to the USA at the age of 19 to eventually build a successful fashion brand. Then, unexpectedly, it became apparent that the real story is something else!
Magnus Walker had a deep love for cars, particularly early Porsches. He started collecting them in the 2000s, but instead of adhering to traditional or correct principles of classic car collecting - he decided to pursue his own ideas by fulfilling the need for personal expression.
For him, modifying a Porsche wasn’t about defiling its heritage but about enhancing the driving experience and making the car his own. It was a departure from the traditional mindset of the social field that cars should be kept in as close to the original state with every part and detail preserved as it was when it left the factory.
Bringing Modified Porsches to the Forefront
Walker is an unconventional guy - the way he looks, how he behaves, what he represents - all in stark contrast with his success as a businessman and his rise as a figurehead for modified Porsche culture. For some reason his attitude doesn’t offend or threaten, despite the tension that he creates.
This tension manifests itself as a type of confusion that stops people from classifying correctly and that is probably an opportunity that emerges.
Back to the Porsches, one of the reasons that the field insists that no modification can be legitimate is due to few modifications being as successful as the original. Walker’s cars managed to tap into the original spirit of the design, thus recognising and respecting the need of the field to conform to the good taste, but also make slight and tasteful modifications, as a point of differentiation and creativity.
That corresponds well with social field of art and culture - where the taste is seen as being of incrementally developmental nature.
Changing the Narrative: Modified Porsches as Legitimate and Respectable
As Magnus Walker continued to promote his vision of modified Porsches, he effectively used the same mechanism that dominant classes use - normalising certain views and making them “common-sense” for a certain segment of the field. He wasn’t / isn’t alone in this - there are other influencers and collectors who jumped on the boost of the momentum and there seems to be acceptance that modified Porsches can be a legitimate form of automotive artistry.
This story is a good example of how cultural shifts can take place when individuals (gifted with certain capacities) challenge convention and bring their personal stories into the conversation.
It’s important to bear in mind that he came into the social field of collector cars with a Habitus formed somewhere else. He already had certain accumulatoin of capital and he continued earning it both through compliance and controversy.
His personality and disposition are probably what saw him succeeding in his endeavour instead of being marginalised by the power of the dominant views within the social field.
