New frontiers of cultural intermediation: how social media practitioners (re)intermediate the relationship between production and consumption

In the past two decades, the field of fashion has seen the emergence of social media practitioners, particularly bloggers and influencers, as a distinct professional category (Pedroni, 2023). This profession exemplifies cultural intermediation, bridging the realms of production and consumption from multiple perspectives. This chapter aims to empirically assess the extent to which these professionals embody the traits outlined by Pierre Bourdieu (1984) in his concept of cultural intermediaries. Specifically, the analysis will address two central questions: Firstly, which aspects of influencers’ practices and methods resonate with Bourdieu’s characteristics of cultural intermediaries? Secondly, how relevant is Bourdieu’s depiction of cultural intermediaries, initially framed within the bourgeoisie’s concerns about potential social decline, in understanding these contemporary roles and identifying genuinely innovative aspects? The structure of this chapter is as follows: it commences with a theoretical examination of the concept of cultural intermediaries, highlighting its relevance to specific roles within the field of fashion. Subsequently, it elaborates on the research design underpinning this investigation. After setting out the digital media context for fashion intermediaries, the key findings of the research will be expounded, with a focus on the principal characteristics of influencers as cultural intermediaries. In the conclusion, the results will be summarised, focusing on what is innovative and what adheres to Bourdieu’s concept, framing the subjects of our study as second-generation intermediaries. In particular, we find that fashion influencers have supplanted traditional intermediaries while maintaining their role as tastemakers who leverage their cultural capital. By leveraging social media platforms, they have actively reshaped the boundaries between production and consumption in the digital landscape to innovate new forms of work. Finally, attention will be drawn to future trajectories that warrant analysis.