Performing market categories through visual inscriptions: The case of ethical fashion

Abstract

Whereas categories are important cogs of market dynamics, their construction process has been largely overlooked to date. Drawing on the Actor–Network Theory, the article tackles this issue by redefining categorisation as a translation process transforming multiplicity into unity through inscriptions. This process sheds light on the very practices of categorising, the devices involved and their agency. Combining multiple data sources, it describes how organisers and exhibitors at a trade fair use visual inscriptions like pictures and movies, logos and maps, catalogues and fashion parades to define ethical fashion, make compromises between ethics and aesthetics, and project a fashionable image of the nascent category. This offers new insights into the construction of markets by breaking down the performative process of categorisation and revealing the visual mediations involved.