This is the website of “Towards a comparative sociology of beauty: The transnational modelling industry and the social shaping of beauty standards in six European countries”. This research project investigates how beauty standards – perceptions of physical beauty in women and men – are socially shaped. It will focus on the transnational modelling industry, an institution centrally concerned with the production and dissemination of beauty standards.
This research project is carried out the the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research at the University of Amsterdam. It is funded with an ERC starting grant. The principal investigator is Giselinde Kuipers.
This website gives a general introduction to the project and its subprojects, the research team, and the institutional embedding in the Netherlands and in the other five countries which are part of this project. We will also regularly present updates on the progress of the research on the news page. In due course, we also hope to present our first findings and publications in this site.
Contact information can also be found on this site. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.