Today I’m at the University of Virginia where I’ve met some terrific grad students involved in evolution and genetics. While wandering around, I also can’t help but also notice so many undergraduate women are wearing colorful rubber boots and it got me thinking about cultural evolution. I’ve yet to notice the trend at Duke, although perhaps it’s already making the commute 200 miles south. All of this makes me wonder about the distribution of popular styles and accessories and how interesting it would be to map the persistence of trends (perhaps using GIS?) over time. That said, I’ve a hunch that a quick scan of the literature would reveal some kind of related social models given we’re modeling everything these days from fisheries population dynamics to gene expression. I’ve no doubt the social scientists are on top of this one.
Still, I wonder how a new trend is born and what determines its boundaries. Surely there are always outliers, but many fads remain relatively localized as we shift latitude and longitude. For example, in Maine I expect to encounter Renys and Carhartts while in DC, long black coats and high heels are the norm. And how do such shifts occur temporally? What led to the end the Parachute pants phenomenon and how did emo get started and then go mainstream?
I’ve no real thesis with this post, nor the time to search the library here at Gilmer Hall on the UVA campus for data on population demographics. Yet it’s interesting to ponder on a rainy afternoon while waiting for a 3:30 lecture on plant genetics…
April 1st, 2009 at 4:23 pm
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Today I’m at the University of Virginia where I’ve met some. . .[...]
April 1st, 2009 at 5:12 pm
“I wonder how a new trend is born and what determines its boundaries”…
Memes?
April 1st, 2009 at 8:42 pm
haha I’ve seen those boots on campus!
April 2nd, 2009 at 9:35 am
They were quite popular at the University of Kentucky too. Make of that what you will…
April 2nd, 2009 at 1:00 pm
I think this particular trend owes something to Target selling more than a hundred different colors and patterns of rain boots for under $20, which is a pretty cheap pair of shoes. It’s raining today. I saw a cute pair just off campus.
April 2nd, 2009 at 3:42 pm
It might just be a factor of when you visited. Check out the Capitol Hill, DC neighborhood on a rainy weekday morning, and there’s tons of young women–me included–wearing those colorful boots. They’re cheap at Target and keep your feet dry. Fun colors sell the practical points.
April 2nd, 2009 at 5:12 pm
I recalled that my old acquaintance Alex Bentley was on this one Unfortunately, the rest of the article is behind a pay wall.
April 2nd, 2009 at 6:54 pm
I’ve seen them since last fall here at the 9-12 high school where I teach. I teach ninth graders in central Arkansas. These boots are worn here rain or shine.
April 2nd, 2009 at 6:56 pm
I wonder the same thing about kids’ culture. My daughters still skip to the same rhyme that I skipped to decades ago in a city hundreds of miles away (and I never taught it to them!). And yet there are other skipping rhymes and clapping games that are new.
April 3rd, 2009 at 9:41 am
[...] I checked email last night after returning from UVA, you can imagine my amusement to see how many folks sent over Andy’s post on sea cucumbers [...]