The Transcultural Travels of Trends. An Introductory Essay
Authors
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Jennifer Elisabeth Altehenger
History Faculty University of Oxford Cluster "Asia and Europe in a Global Context"
History Faculty and Merton College
Deparamental Lecturer
University of Oxford -
Laila Abu-Er-Rub
Cluster "Asia and Europe in a Global Context"
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Sebastian Gehrig
Cluster "Asia and Europe in a Global Context"
Assistant Professor
Department of History
Lifestyle and consumer trends are part of people’s everyday lives everywhere. Trends in media and politics, though perhaps less frequently acknowledged as trends, shape the way societies are perceived and the way humans interact. Moreover, although we may think of trends as a recent phenomenon of post-war globalization, trends have been crucial in societies across the globe for much longer. In short, trends matter. Yet, despite their crucial role worldwide, trends have been subject to fairly little research beyond the quantitative social sciences. This is especially true for transcultural trends. This essay prefaces a series of upcoming articles in this journal all of which discuss case studies of trends that travelled from Europe to Asia or from Asia to Europe since the late 19th century to our current times. Why trends travel, who proliferates or obstructs trends, and how trends become popular are questions that are collectively addressed in all upcoming articles. This introductory essay discusses a series of analytical concepts that are all central to gaining a fuller understanding of the complex processes that underlie the transcultural travels of trends.
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Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
