Dr Simon Stewart of University of Portsmouth presents on ethics and aesthetics in the field of fashion as part of the event 'Human Rights in the Fashion and Textiles Industry' which took place on 30th April 2019 at the University of Portsmouth in support of the Fashion Revolution campaign.

1. A SOCIOLOGY OF EVALUATIVE
JUDGEMENTS: ETHICS AND
AESTHETICS IN THE FIELD OF
FASHION
Dr Simon Stewart, University of Portsmouth, UK
simon.stewart@port.ac.uk

2. What I do (i)
Research on sociology of taste and aesthetic value
Theoretical and empirical work (e.g. on publishers, on critics) on
evaluative judgements, focusing on the aesthetic, ethical and temporal
dimensions of evaluative judgements
‘the prickly matter of value-judgement is an everyday practice, an active
practice, dependent on a number of dynamic contextual factors. It is
important to find ways of theorizing our day-to-day interactions with
cultural objects through which our judgements – individual and
collective – are formulated, and through which we decide what is to be
prized’ (Stewart, 2013, p. 106)

3. What I do (ii)
Aesthetic judgements:
Why do we like what we like? Exploring the various dynamics of the
moment impacting on how (and on what basis) we engage with cultural
objects.
Ethical judgements:
 Weber (1968[1913], p. 25) on value-rational social action, as an ideal
type, ‘determined by a conscious belief in the value for its own sake of
some ethical, aesthetic, religious, or other form of behaviour,
independently of its prospects of success’.
 Boltanski and Thévenot, 1999, p. 371): civic order of worth, where
individuals ‘give up their particular interests and direct themselves
towards the common good’.

4. Theorizing the field of fashion
 Field as ‘a structured space, a field of forces, a force field’ (Bourdieu,
1998, 40).
 Field of fashion – intermediate position between artistic and
economic field (Bourdieu, 1993)
 The materialization of the field at LFW (Entwistle and Rocamora,
2006). Two tents:
1) Exhibition hall – the business of fashion; (designers’ stalls; trade
show)
2) Catwalk theatre – the art of fashion
4

5. Researching the field in a global context
 How do ethical judgements intersect with aesthetic and economic judgements (esp.
as the fashion industry is worth £32 billion in the UK)? What are the structural
constraints blocking meaningful change? (growth targets, surplus value, built-in
obsolescence; 90% of workers in global garment industry lack access to
union/negotiation of wages/conditions).
 How can we conceptualise the field of fashion on a global scale, bearing in mind the
complex and disjunctive flows of global capitalism? (e.g. Appadurai, 1990)
‘Our consumption creates jobs and growth in developing nations. It also leaves them
with the bulk of the environmental and social costs’ (FF Report, 2019, p. 9).

6. Studying cultural intermediaries
CI as ‘the taste makers defining what counts as good taste and cool
culture in today’s marketplace. Working at the intersection of culture
and economy, they perform critical operations in the production and
promotion of consumption, constructing legitimacy and adding value
through the qualification of goods’ (Smith Maguire and Matthews, 2014:
1).
 How can we probe the ethical and aesthetic dimensions of their
decision making? Difficulties of access, plus ‘there may be a
particularly “evangelical” or “promotional” tone to people’s accounts
of their work’ (Moor, 2014, p. 86).
 How can our research influence their practices?