Channels of Desire

The concept of channels of desire basically refers to ways in which various social agents mediate communication about what is desirable and what is not. As such, it incorporates all social autocommunication about the goals and purposes of life and the practices and aspirations that constitute it, from schooling and other socialization systems to mass mediatized imagery. Desire is a triadic relation between a desiring subject, a desired object, and another, possibly collective, desiring subject. Desire is mimetic. Hence, in its broadest sense, society at large and its institutional orchestrations of, as well as individual member's communications concerning, what is of value and what is not represent the overarching channel of desire.

For analytical purposes, it is necessary to break down the general concept of channels of desire into some of its more significant constitutive and institutionalized parts. Georg Simmel was one of the pioneers who analyzed the functioning of fashion and proposed a trickle-down theory, according to which desire is channeled from the higher social classes to the lower classes through processes of emulation, and conversely, the higher social classes are obliged to engage in stylistic renovation to maintain class distinctions of taste. The predominant source for channeling this process has historically been the advertising industry. Consequently, advertising and its role in the historical development of contemporary forms of social communication are leading aspects of channels of desire.

The manipulative ways in which advertising is seen as shaping social and personal worldviews have generated a plethora of critical analyses. The notion of channels of desire in a consumer culture context is therefore often associated with the work of a certain branch of critical sociology that is concerned about the spread of consumerism and materialism, in particular through the manipulative power of contemporary mass media. From this perspective, the rise of consumer culture, with its processes of industrialization, commodification, and mass-mediated commercial communication is the background on which one must understand the workings of channels of desire. The eponymous work of Stuart and Elisabeth Ewen stands as prototypical of this school of thought, with its critical analysis of the social history of the proliferation of “a wide, repeatable vernacular of commercial images and ideas” (Ewen and Ewen 1982, 9). Primary sources of these commercial images and ideas are the industries of advertising, movies, and fashion.

To some extent, behind this critique there is a tacit moralism, an understanding that desire is somehow dubious and less acceptable as a social principle of organization compared to the more acceptable fulfillment of personal and social needs. But as has been argued elsewhere, desire represents a way of understanding human social motivation that fundamentally challenges the idea that it is possible and useful for social scientists to isolate more basic, presocial sets of utilities and privilege them with the denomination “need.”

As a consequence, desire, here, is understood not so much as addressing the cornucopia of things, services, and experiences that contemporary consumers can long for beyond the satisfaction of their basic needs, but more generally as the way in which the social environment influences our aspirations in life. This is why the question of channels of desire opens up and becomes much more inclusive of various social forms of communication. From the basic socialization patterns to the plethora of social contacts and massmediated imagery that constitute modern lives, all of these teach us something about what is desirable in life, not just in positive but also in negative terms—channels of desire teach us goals and aspirations in life, but likewise we are taught what not to desire, depending on various social taste patterns.

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