Concept Series Part 1: The Aesthetic

This post marks the launch of a new series intended to discuss the concepts and practices that will be implemented at the Long Trail Community Market. This forum is designed to generate a process that considers the implementation and evaluation. Please contribute your ideas.

The Aesthetic

The LTCM is largely an aesthetic driven process, in which business is subject. In this context, every function and object of the entity can be judged. By viewing the subject in this way, an alternative perception is intrinsically generated, and an entity designed to generate financial return is now experienced and evaluated through a new set of standards.

What it really boils down to is this-financial return is one potential outcome of business operation, but there are other results and other goals that are of equal value when viewed apart from the financial implications. For example, if I stock a local product, I can say that I support local business. Under an aesthetic process I can now look at this statement and give judgment based on an expanded set of standards. Am I stocking local products because they sell and because they carry a premium? If my sole motivation is to generate revenue, and I view the customer loyalty or sense of affiliation simply as byproduct, what have I lost? That loss, as perceived by each stakeholder becomes one measure through which the business is valued. On the other hand, if I sell a local product because I know the producer or I appreciate the process through which their product was generated, and I can communicate that, the connection generates community capital. The generation of community capital, and how it is affected on the region becomes yet another standard by which the business is evaluated.

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