$$™ - Abstract

My goal in this study is to analyze global society by looking at the

representation of its symbols; I examine the role of mass-produced
items in a globalized world, and their subjective position in the
reality of the actors.

I use an approach by Clifford Geertz, who describes subjective

differentiation in terms of the cultural practice of everyday life:
according to him, subjective positions within a community are
established through the use of symbols. I also adapt Stuart Hall's
three major reading strategies as laid out in his encoding/decoding
model. And I refer to Bourdieu's general codification of individuality
(habitus), Byung-Chul Han's concept of hyperculturality, and the
resulting classification into a system as defined by
Parsons/Luhmann.

Stuart Hall:
1. dominant/hegemonic
2. negotiated
3. oppositional

This is developed into an extended form of semiotics; a system of

society and communication that points at a temporary, fluid
collectivization as mentioned in Arjun Appadurai's theory of scapes:
landscapes of group identities and imagined communities, based on
Benedict/Anderson (Invention of a Nation).

The point of this is to examine the way a trademark like Coca-Cola

creates identity and enables different, subjective references
(concepts of life), as well as to facilitate an analysis of global society
beyond the description of elites (as done by the models of class,
gender, race or concepts like brand communities).

To this end, I use visual sociography in the form of photographs I

took in the field studies, which are used in the empirical part, and
enable me to examine this process with the help of images, using
as an example one of the best-known global trademarks, Coca-
Cola.

Creation of a sense of identity happens on a subjective level; Coca-

Cola is more than a product. It is loaded with generated
connotations, and thus creates an interrelational discourse of
communication on a subjective meta-level, depending on individual
point of view.

The fetish of consumerism charges objects with emotional

messages and leads to a manifestation of the boundaries between
internal subjectivity (self-concept) and external subjectivity
(attributions by others) within globalized societies. Since
transnational hypercultural communities never have identical
conditions, but are selected idiosyncratically on a subjective level
from a range of possibilities, trademarks are often the only thing
that remains as a reference across time zones and continents.

To see the interrelations of the cooperation, which consists in the

collective adaptation of systems, in form of a projection on the
implemented symbol, and as an attempt to describe forms of global
communities that result from it. The use of the symbol is not
analyzed on a system level (there are many factors, such as
writing, iconography, economics, sociology etc.), but from the
subjective perspective of the individual actors, who fill their
biographies with consumption, as a meta-level of communication,
where the logo does not only serve as an iconographic influence to
make the trademark better known.

The components of this influence are located in various fields and

can then be read as inspiration for individual articulation
(oppositional), as adaptation of existing ways of life (negotiated) or
as a direct connection to the system (dominant-hegemonic). The
image becomes less important; font, color and components are
variable, but the logo is still recognized and connotated and thus
serves as a central theme for the explanation of the phenomena
related to the concept of globalization, and as a basis and indication
of the empirical use of the theoretical tool created by this study.

It also serves to explain individual interpretation of images and

subjective contextualization into an individual rendition of the visual
facticity from the repertoire of global channels.

From that emerges a community that is global, temporary and fluid,

and through common practice of a system it becomes a community
that creates its body of companions (the Soziosom), which in turn
allows us to use this model in the same way for other groups with
their distinctive relationships.