IDENTIFYING
PARTS OF A
WHOLE AND
EMERGING
PATTERNS IN
OBJECTIVES
Identify parts of a whole
Identify and explain an emerging pattern and
Identify causes and consequences
What I Know
Directions: The following are statements about TREND. Write
TRUE if the sentence is correct, write FAL SE otherwise. Write your answers
on a separate sheet of paper.
1. Trends are formed from the combination of things.
2. M u s i c videos, i m a g e -sharing mobile apps, a n d emojis are
s o m e of the m o r e physical manifestations of people
captivated by the visual culture.
3. A larger thing (the whole) does not consist of smaller things
or parts.
4. M egatrend includes urbanization, automation and changing
demographics.
5. Microtrend s h o w s the tendency in the direction o f s o m e p h e n o m e n o n
that is fairly pervasive within a given sphere of influence and lasts for
6. Macrotrends c an endure for surprisingly a long time a n d
affect m o s t of the society.
7. Notebook and pen are basic in documentation.
8. Interview s and friendly-group discussions (FGD) are ways to
catch emerging patterns.
9. Identifying emerging patterns can be used to
introduce individuals, organizations and communities change,
improvement, transformation, and new opportunities.
10. Documentation is the stage where examination and combination
happen.
11. T h e important thing in documentation is the ability to
physically k e e p information and data wherever and
whenever you may be.
12. N e w trends are labeled with n e w names or terms in the hope of
popularizing a phenomenon.
13. The tools that a trend spotter should find handy to use are
categorized into four activities such as d ocumentation, a rchive
o r m e m o r y , analysis and representation.
14. Tagging and cross-indexing are helpful in labeling files.
15. O n c e patterns are identified, trends are given irrational
explanations for their emergence or existence a n d are provided
with a better understanding of their cultural origins.
Identifying Parts of a W h o l e
and Emerging
Patterns in Trends
It was the great Aristotle w h o first claimed that the whole is not equal
to the sum of the parts, and conversely, the sum of the parts is not equal to
the whole. But the proponent of the idea of atom, w h o is Democritus,
s o m e h o w believed that the parts are of great significance in understanding
the essence of the whole. A s a trend w a s b o r n because of a n idea of a n
individual or groups of individuals, a n d these become prevalent, growing
and evolving in the course of time, it is but crucial for us to trace the
movement of these growth, expansions and evolutions of trends.
What’s In
Wh a t comes to your mind whe n you hear the words “emerging trends”?
Organize your thoughts using the concept m a p below. Write your answers o n a separate
sheet of paper.
Emerging
Trends
What’s N e w
Explain the following key terms and ideas using your own words.
Write your answers on a separate sheet of paper.
1. mobile age
____________________________________________________________________
2. crisis in water and food
____________________________________________________________________
3. technology race
____________________________________________________________________
4. competing BRIC and beyond (BRIC is a group acronym for Brazil, Russia,
India and China)
____________________________________________________________________
5. influence of me and we
____________________________________________________________________
6. rise of new power brokers
__________________________________________________________________
7. interdependence and competition across industries
_________________________________________________________________
8. o w n the n e w consumers
__________________________________________________________________
9. generation gap
__________________________________________________________________
10. tension of globalization a n d destruction
__________________________________________________________________
Identifying Parts of a Whole
Trends as they grow and evolve tend to influence or give birth to
other trends a n d b e c o m e interconnected a n d interrelated. It w a s
m e n t i o n e d in the previous modules that trends are formed from the
combination of things. Thus, a trend has constituent parts o f portions
that are interrelated. Their influence, as well as h o w the p e o p l e a d o p t
t h e m , m a k e s th e trend viable, especially the m e g a t r e n d s a n d
gigatrends.
Take as example the Japanese animation (animé) trend that is
associated with several generations s p anning decades. In retrospect,
Urgel (2017) illustrated the popularity of anime which was brought
about by a number of developments such as the ones shown below.
V isual culture is another example that w e experience today. It was
developed from various trends─ digital camera, smartphone, internet, Wi -Fi
technology, social media, mobile apps, computer, fashion, art, photography,
to n a m e a few. Internet memes, infographics, and sharable videos seemed to
be a microtrend only, but they eventually became a mainstay in
disseminating information. Even large news organizations a n d
government w ebsites use them. This visual culture trend which can be
considered a megatrend, has evolved further with the advent of the internet.
The smartphone and Wi-Fi access greatly helped the new form of visual culture
which is subscribed to by many social media users, if not all.
Remember that microtrends can become macrotrends if they affect more
lives and societies. T h e n , macrotrends c a n b e c o m e a megatrend if it can
affect a m u c h larger group for a longer period like a decade. Megatrends can
become gigatrends if they have everlasting effects and influences. Therefore,
it is evident that the whole w h i c h c o m p r i s e s t h e large part is m a d e u p o f
s m a ll things o r parts. T h i s c a n b e visualized below:
Identifying Emerging Patterns
By simply looking at the previous diagram, you will somehow
have an idea on identifying emerging patterns of a trend. Urgel (2017)
defined pattern as a design, shape, form or configuration that
emerges from repetitious appearance of lines, curves, and behavior.
According to him, in the study of trends, repetitive behavior that
gives rise to an emerging pattern is the main interest.
In order to follow and observe if a pattern emerges out of various
events and phenomena, one should have the tools necessary to detect
it. According to Rehn and Lindkvist (2013), the tools that a trend
spotter should find handy to use are categorized into four activities
which are as follows:
1. Documentation means being able to record your observations which you
consider related to a n y trend. T h e p r i m a r y tools for documentation, h o w e v e r
simple, are notebook and pen. S o m e opt to use note-taking features or apps on a
smartphone or tablet. T h e camera has also b e c o m e necessary in providing
visuals. Others bring a voice recorder which is best for saving audio. Whatever
tool one uses, the important thing in documentation is the ability to
physically keep information and data wherever and whenever you may be.
N o t e b o o k a n d p e n are basic in d o c u m e n t a t i o n .
2. Archive or Memory is used to easily retrieve any documentation
you have kept. Notes can be scanned or converted to a portable
document format (PDF) while digital pictures can be easily saved.
Physical archiving can, of course, still be used. There are various
digital archiving systems that are available, too. Tagging and cross-
indexing are helpful in labeling files.
3. Analysis is the stage where examination and combination happen.
Looking for patterns on prospective trends can be achieved
through these methods: brainstorming, grouping, and crafting
combinations. In brainstorming, you decide w h i c h f r o m y o u r data is
important a n d w h i c h c a n b e discarded. Here , y o u c a n confirm
emerging patterns like events becoming more frequent and things
following a cycle.
In grouping, you create headings where observations and data can fall
under several categories. In crafting combinations, you begin to link one
thing to another and think what could happen if these are taken step
further, more like imagining or generating n e w ideas. T h e above
diagra m presenting the evolutionary aspect of a trend is an example for
this analysis.
4. Presentation is representing your findings for easy understanding
as a wa y of analysis. You can represent your findings through, among
others, a mood board and a storyboard. A mood board is a collage of
images, text, and object samples. This is used to capture your
intuition and stimulate creative discussions about trends. A
storyboard presents a narrative of possible scenarios. It functions to
connect trends to a timeline and to different contexts, something that
can enable you and others to see interesting n e w things.
A slideshow is also another option. Sometimes, n e w trends are
labeled with n e w names or terms in the hope of popularizing
a phenomenon. Again, the sample diagram presented a b ov e is an
example of this consisting of the linkages of the influences of the
root trend to the development of new trends within the link plus the
explanatory analysis.
Identifying emerging patterns can be used to introduce to
individuals, organizations, and communities change, improvement,
transformation and new opportunities.
Once patterns are identified, trends are given rational
explanations for their emergence or existence and are provided with a
better understanding of their cultural origins.
Differentiating Relationships between Causes and Consequences
A c a use refers to a n agent that brings a b o u t a result or a
c onse que n c e . A consequence is always traceable to a cause which can be
a person, thing, principle, motive, act, or event. There is no cause without a
consequence and vice versa. (Urgel, 2017)
Let us try to look at some of the popular fashion trends among the
teenagers these days ranging fro m hairstyles, c lothing, and music
preferences to mention a few. Clearly a n u m b e r of t h e m , if o n e will try
to observe, w e r e patterned f r o m a dominant and prevailing trend. To
date, Korean fashion trends is quite widespread in the country. In fact,
you can watch from the news almost every beginning of the year in a
certain portion of those news about the fashion trend for the year. In other
words, these news in the media somehow sets these so – called fashion
trends which will then be the baseline of fashion sales of the business
sectors in the market.
People then especially the young and those who wanted to “fit in” to
these popularized trends would eventually patronize them. For almost
a number of years already, Korean culture became popular in the
country especially among the young. With this, if we will look around
us, it resulted to the establishments of Korean restaurants, Korean mini
m arts which boosted the small – scale entrepreneurship business. In
terms of travel, Korea became one of the popular lists for Filipino
tourists.
Th i s c a u s e a n d c onsequential aspect o f a trend d o e s n o t o n l y
c o v e r the example mentioned above, in fact, it covers all types of
trends in all categories such as in ideologies, politics, beliefs, lifestyle,
social life and many others. One simply need to identify the emerging
patterns a n d look at the causal a n d consequential relations of these
patterns in order to understand these trends.
The string of events characterizing a trend can
exemplify the cause- consequence relationship where
one event may lead to another and so on. A cause
brings about one or more consequences which may be
either positive or negative. Whatever the results of a
cause, the events that are noted in each result will help
produce a picture of a trend which is studied to be
adopted in many life applications. The relationship
between cause and consequence is salient to strategic
thinking and analysis.
What I Have Learned
A . Direction s : A p p l y w h a t y o u h a v e l e arne d f r o m this m o d u l e .
D r. L o r e n z o is a Sociologist wh o is invited to deliver a short message about the
emerging patterns of trends to the Senior High School H U M S S students of
Luakan National High School. H e asked you to be his lecture assistant for the
talk. O n your w a y to the event, Dr. Lorenzo informed you that he forgot to bring
his notes. While he was delivering his lecture, h e asked y o u to give h i m cues for
the sequence of the topics. Hel p Doctor Lorenzo by filling in the missing words
to complete his lecture. Choose your answers from the words in the box below.
analysis memory
archive pattern
Aristotle presentation
documentation similar
fads trends
Good morning H U M S S students, teachers and visitors, as
the great (1) ___________ once said, “the whole is not equal to the
sum of the part,” we are all but part of an enormous whole. However,
even if we cannot comprehensively understand the whole as a whole,
we can still somehow have grasp of it through its parts. Just like the
h u m a n sciences where s o m e d a y y o u will all venture in your
college – Psychology who ventures into understanding the
human behavior and mental process, Sociology who studies the
human person as how he relates to others in his society, Political
science which look at us, humans as persons w h o are capable of
transforming societies into something bigger a n d better through
leadership a n d sustenance in upholding the greater good.
All these are already considered as (2) _____________ since they
have already been part of our existence which are unlike (3)
_____________ which are only short – lived and don’t really lasts
unless their impact become larger and extensive like a dot which
eventually becomes a line and tend to be so influential.
You are H U M S S students, and with that I a m confident that one
day, those simple (4) ___________ you do whenever you start a
project based on your unique ideas and concepts will someday become
an (5) ____________ which will be looked into and searched by your
constituents, wh o knows, 10 years or 20 years from now, and that
simple things you started will eventually become a gigatrend in
decades to come. See what happened to Facebook? It was just a
simple programming project back in 2004, but look at it now? I
would guess that more than 90 percent of you, if not all, do have
Facebook accounts.
W h e n y o u start to l o o k b a c k at h o w it all b e g a n , y o u w o u l d
realize t h e significance of that (6) ____________ in all forms as long
they are recorded. One should just need to carefully see the (7)
_____________ by looking at the repetitious appearances and
linkages that these trends developed and evolved into.
And guess what, what I a m actually delivering to you right n o w
at this very moment is very necessary. A good trendspotter requires the
talent of (8) ____________
which is needed to come up with holistic perspective in
spotting the emergence of trends. Finally, (9) ____________ should
also be done which, of course, is an important m e a n s to capture your
intuition a n d stimulate creative discussions about trends which
can be done using slide decks, diagrams, flow charts or
other (10)____________means.
Assessment
A. D irections: Supply the missing letters to complete each word .
1. _ O _ U M _ N _ A _ _ O - being able to record observations which one
_ can consider to any trend
2. M___RY - being able to easily retrieve any documentation
one has kept
3. A__L_S_S - stage where examination and combination happen
4. _AT__R_ - a design, shape, form or configuration that emerges from
repetitious appearance of line, curves, and behavior.
5. PR_S___A_I_N - representing findings for easy understandingas a way of analysis
6. _OO_ B_A_D - used to capture intuition and stimulate creative discussions
about trends
7. S _ O _ Y B _ A _ D - presents a narrative of possible scenarios
8. M E _ _ T R _ N d - can affect a much larger group for a longer period like a decade
9. G _ _ A T R E _ _ - have ever-lasting effects and influences
10. M A _ R _ T _ E N D - affect more lives and societies
B. Directions: T h e following are statements about identifying parts of a
whole and emerging patterns in trends. Write T R U E if the sentence is
correct, write FA L S E otherwise.
11. Interviews and friendly-group discussions (FGD) are ways to catch
emerging patterns.
12. Identifying e m e rg i n g patterns c a n b e u s e d to introduce
individuals, organizations and communities change, improvement,
transformation, and new opportunities.
13. N e w trends are labeled with new names or terms in the hope of
popularizing a phenomenon.
14. T h e tools that a trendspotter should find h a n d y to use are
categorized into four activities s u c h a s d o c u m e n t a t i o n , a r c h i v e o r
m e m o r y, analysis a n d representation.
15. Tagging and cross-indexing are helpful in labeling files.