The effects of globalization has created a new global consumer segment known as Cosmopolitanism. It is a globally substantial segment that captures “open-minded individuals whose consumption orientation transcends particular cultures, localities or communities and who appreciates diversity including trying products and services from a variety of countries”. In the same sense have global brands grown to take a central place on both developing and developed countries, and their competition with local brands has substantially increased. The Cosmopolitan consumer segment hold major strategic importance for global brands, but the understanding of this new segment has been markedly limited, especially on consumption related behavioral outcomes such as brand loyalty. Taking on a cross-national, comparative approach, the purpose of this study was; to understand the association between Cosmopolitanism and global brand loyalty in developing and developed countries.  Collecting data through online questionnaires in Sweden and Syria, 341 respondents were included within the study, and with regression analyses were three proposed hypotheses tested. The results showed a significant, but arguably weak, association between Cosmopolitanism and global brand loyalty. On the other hand, upon introducing economic development status as a moderating variable, it was seen that the association differed between the sampled countries, with a considerably stronger association in Syria. Managerial implications are presented based on these findings, and the paper is finalized with some essential limitations and avenues for suture research.

This thesis explores the history of European integration in the 1950s and 1960s from a popular cultural perspective anchored to a central figure from the era, Brigitte Bardot, in order to demonstrate that the peoples of Western Europe were engaged in processes of Europeanization that helped legitimize economic and political unions. Yet, official EU policy’s privileging of one (outdated) mode for understanding culture has handicapped alternative interpretations of a common European cultural heritage, failing to embrace a shared popular culture. Bardot is a suitable icon through which to begin an exploration into the diversity and significance of an integrating postwar European popular culture because she was a microcosm of several broad, transnational trends in postwar Europe including the rise of mass mobility, a major shift in European fashions, new gender constructions, and the explicit politicization of popular culture. Her films, career, lifestyle, and representation(s) provide key axes from which one can pivot into interrelated areas of European culture and societies in this era—pop culture; consumer culture; youth culture; mobility culture; media culture; political culture; and gender relations—demonstrating a widely integrating European popular cultural sphere. Within this context, Bardot was representative of broad postwar societal changes, served as a mass diffusion tool in relating these changes to the people of Europe, and functioned as a driving force in creating new transnational popular cultural forms. In addition, Bardot is a figure useful in understanding the relationship between Europe and the United States, while also demonstrating that economics is not separate from culture and popular culture. The Treaty of Rome, ostensibly about economic integration, further enabled the many circulations apparent in Bardot's career—people, goods, information, and ideas—that were already taking place. Furthermore, popular culture was not irrelevant to, or separate from politics and it helps to explain how the escapism and narcissism of European popular consumer culture could generate a rebellious, but sophisticated political consciousness. Western Europe does indeed have a distinct history of shared popular culture, which should be a factor in discussions of ‘Europeanization’ and the legitimacy of the European Union. It is necessary to explore the roots of this shared popular culture so that it does one day form the basis of a longstanding shared popular culture and can become a recognized element supporting the legitimacy of identities in the European Union in more fluid, dynamic ways.

Social, cultural, economic and political processes influence conditions of children’s development and determine changes in their self-development. Entrenching consumer culture and consumerism, promoted by it, determine the change in the attitude towards the child as a consumer. The dissertation defines constructs of children’s consumer culture and children’s as consumers’ behaviour, highlights sociocultural, educational conditions of their manifestation as well as threats and possibilities of consumer culture and the related phenomenon – TV advertising – for children. Meaningfulness of (self-)development of children’s resistance to consumerism, analysed in the dissertation, is grounded on the idea that children, not being conscious consumers, must learn both to adjust to consumer culture and resist its mass culture, levelling everything. The aim of the research is to study the experience of pre-primary age children’s consumption, the situation of (self-)development of resistance to consumerism in the family and, based on critical attitude to consumer culture and knowledge of the phenomenon of consumerism in children’s culture, to disclose educational conditions for (self-)development of their resistance to consumerism. Conducting the research on (self-)development of pre-primary children’s resistance to consumerism, the mixed method approach was applied, in parallel combining qualitative and quantitative research methods of data collection and analysis. As the result of the... [to full text] / Socialiniai, kultūriniai, ekonominiai, politiniai procesai veikia vaikų vystymosi sąlygas ir lemia ugdymosi pokyčius. Įsigalinti vartotojiška kultūra bei jos skatinamas vartotojiškumas lemia požiūrio į vaiką kaip vartotoją kaitą. Disertacijoje apibrėžti vaikų vartotojiškos kultūros, vaikų kaip vartotojų elgsenos konstruktai, išryškintos jų raiškos sociokultūrinės, edukacinės sąlygos, vartotojiškos kultūros bei su ja susijusio reiškinio – TV reklamos – grėsmės ir galimybės vaikams. Disertaciniame darbe analizuojamo vaikų atsparumo vartotojiškumui ugdymo(si) prasmingumas grindžiamas idėja, jog vaikai nebūdami sąmoningi vartotojai turi išmokti ne tik prie vartotojiškos kultūros prisitaikyti, bet ir atsispirti jos visa niveliuojančiai masinei kultūrai. Tyrimo tikslas – ištirti priešmokyklinio amžiaus vaikų vartojimo patirtį, atsparumo vartotojiškumui ugdymo(si) situaciją šeimoje ir, remiantis kritiniu požiūriu į vartotojišką kultūrą bei žiniomis apie vartotojiškumo reiškinį vaikų kultūroje, atskleisti jų atsparumo vartotojiškumui ugdymo(si) pedagogines sąlygas. Atliekant priešmokyklinio amžiaus vaikų atsparumo vartotojiškumui ugdymo(si) tyrimą taikyta mišrių metodų prieiga, lygiagrečiai derinant kokybinius ir kiekybinius tyrimo duomenų rinkimo ir analizės metodus. Kaip disertacinio tyrimo rezultatas, papildantis ugdymo praktiką, pristatomas tyrimo rezultatais grįstų pedagoginių sąlygų, skirtų vaikų atsparumui vartotojiškumui ugdyti, struktūrinis modelis.

Submitted by Suelen Reis (suziy.ellen@gmail.com) on 2013-04-15T13:41:29Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Wilton Silvaseg.pdf: 1282970 bytes, checksum: d285fb19ca27b487a144a9b63bb34e34 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Rodrigo Meirelles(rodrigomei@ufba.br) on 2013-05-26T11:02:12Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Wilton Silvaseg.pdf: 1282970 bytes, checksum: d285fb19ca27b487a144a9b63bb34e34 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-05-26T11:02:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Wilton Silvaseg.pdf: 1282970 bytes, checksum: d285fb19ca27b487a144a9b63bb34e34 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005 / Este projeto propõe uma leitura configuracional dos estilos de vida de específicos professores universitários: Homo academicus usuários de drogas, recortados numa cultura de consumo onde se busca um maior equilíbrio entre indivíduo e sociedade nas suas operacionalizações da liberdade e da segurança. A análise de suas práticas e representações em meio às comunidades várias do cotidiano - da família à academia, passando pelas redes básicas de sociabilidade – visa capturar como eles lidam com os controles sociais, como ressignificam o estigma de usuários tendo como contraponto o status de professor, e como a partir do papel de professor eles refletem a problemática das drogas para a sociedade. / Salvador

Submitted by Maike Costa (maiksebas@gmail.com) on 2016-02-05T12:58:29Z No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 937391 bytes, checksum: c6dc48114da24d01bd058c7487367370 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-02-05T12:58:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 937391 bytes, checksum: c6dc48114da24d01bd058c7487367370 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-06-05 / This research results from an attempt to deepen a sociological study on the relationship between consumerism and happiness. We sought from a survey of compulsive consumers of the city of João Pessoa /PB and compulsive consumers recovering from Natal /RN try to understand how widely gives the relationship between the practices of compulsive consumption and the idea of happiness. The theme of this dissertation is conceptually located in consumer culture using as reference a culture that, from modernity, reorganizes itself symbolically and materially articulating key issues relating to the form of organization of everyday life. Consumer culture is presented as a key area of contemporary societies and directly affects the formation of identities and subjectivities of individuals, putting into focus the ways in which it articulates the central issues relating to the organizational forms of postmodern society has implications in construction of values and identities that articulate the phenomenon of consumerism. The idea of happiness itself is modified in this social context. Thus, the objective in this dissertation is to understand how the idea of happiness represented among binge practices, and between the behavior of compulsive consumers of the city of João Pessoa /PB and Natal /RN. To arrive at such an understanding, we will on the theme of identity processes, as well as the thematic mechanisms of a capitalist consumer society, such as advertising and other marketing and financial craftsmen in a postmodern society has been busy assigning meanings and values to the goods and the subjective experience of consumption. These mechanisms, as we shall see, are primarily responsible for reprocessing and/or reframe the idea of happiness as the ideal of the current consumer society. There emerges another key point of this dissertation, the pursuit of happiness that becomes compulsive as well as the urgency and the purchase by the consumer. Thus, we analyze how happiness is represented in the practices and behavior of nine women by compulsive consumption activity and the activity of buying, becoming a goal and purpose in life. / Esta pesquisa resulta de uma tentativa de aprofundar um estudo sociológico acerca da relação entre consumismo e felicidade. Procuramos a partir de uma pesquisa feita com consumidoras compulsivas da cidade de João Pessoa/PB e consumidoras compulsivas em recuperação da cidade de Natal/RN tentar compreender como se estabelece a relação entre as práticas de consumo compulsivo e a ideia da felicidade. O tema desta dissertação está conceitualmente situado na cultura de consumo tendo como referencial uma cultura que, a partir da modernidade, reorganiza-se simbólica e materialmente articulando questões centrais relativas à forma de organização da vida cotidiana. A cultura de consumo se apresenta como espaço fundamental das sociedades contemporâneas e afeta diretamente a constituição das identidades e das subjetividades dos indivíduos, colocando em foco as formas como a mesma articula as questões centrais relativas às formas de organização da sociedade contemporânea tendo implicações na construção de valores e identidades que se articulam ao fenômeno do consumismo. A própria ideia de felicidade é modificada neste contexto social. Assim, objetiva-se nesta dissertação, a tentativa de compreender como é representada a ideia de felicidade entre as práticas de consumo compulsivo e entre o comportamento de consumidoras compulsivas da cidade de João Pessoa/PB e Natal/RN. Para chegarmos a tal compreensão, trataremos sobre a temática dos processos identitários, bem como sobre a temática dos mecanismos de uma sociedade capitalista de consumo, como por exemplo, a publicidade e outros artífices mercadológicos e financeiros que em uma sociedade pós-moderna tem se ocupado ao atribuir significados e valores aos bens e à experiência subjetiva do consumo. Esses mecanismos, como veremos, são os principais responsáveis por reprocessar e/ou ressignificar a ideia de felicidade como o ideal da sociedade de consumo atual. A busca da felicidade para o nosso grupo social se torna compulsiva assim como a urgência pelo consumo e pela compra. Desse modo, perceberemos uma felicidade que é representada nas práticas e no comportamento de nove mulheres compulsivas pela atividade do consumo e pela atividade de compra, tornando-se uma meta e objetivo de vida.

Submitted by Maria Suzana Diniz (msuzanad@hotmail.com) on 2015-05-19T12:06:39Z No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 3135057 bytes, checksum: bc42a334d2220ffc9a6c951648de7843 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-19T12:06:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 3135057 bytes, checksum: bc42a334d2220ffc9a6c951648de7843 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-08-14 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Technological and industrial changes in recent times historically defined the transformations of capitalist societies. The development experienced by modernity brings along with itself the means of production, which increased in quantity, speed and diversity. Thus, the relationship between production and consumption has intensified and the market grew, increasing the number of goods available to the population. In this consumer and mass society, the body is gaining more prominence. The appreciation of the body physical appearance is the result of this overexposure in the public space, where the stereotype of a beautiful body, healthy body, shapely body is dictated by the fashion and beauty industry transforming it into an object of consumption. Although, this study aims to analyze the beauty category in its evolution, it changes the perspective on the body and consumer culture in contemporary society, with reference to the physical education professionals working in gyms in João Pessoa city. Regarding to the methodology, research approach is a dialectical-criticism, theoreticalpractical, with a predominantly qualitative analysis perspective. The research involved 14 physical education professionals, working in gyms in João Pessoa city. One semi-structured interview, recorded by the researcher and the instrument used for analysis was the content analysis which was performed. We conclude that behind a discourse of welfare and health, there is a whole ideology that appeals to an ideal of unattainable beauty, characteristic of contemporary society that survives of a overconsumption culture, leading individuals to a constant dissatisfaction. It means that body beauty today, this consumer society, keep the dominant Platonic ideals of order, symmetry, a beauty that is in the object, in appearance. Despite talking about health, quality of life, all this only justifies the way the gyms, surgeries, medications, disorderly quest to maintain an optimal pattern imposed by consumer society, where the physical education professional mostly continues playing the idea of beauty reduced to physical standards; and reduced health to the quest for the perfect body models reported in the media. / As mudanças tecnológicas e industriais ocorridas nos últimos tempos definiram historicamente as transformações das sociedades capitalistas. O desenvolvimento experimentado pela modernidade traz junto a si, o excesso dos meios de produção, que aumentaram em quantidade, velocidade e diversidade. Com isso, as relações entre produção e consumo se intensificaram e o mercado cresceu, aumentando a lista de mercadorias disponibilizadas à população. Nessa sociedade de consumo e massificação, o corpo vem ganhando cada vez mais destaque. A valorização da aparência física do corpo é fruto de sua excessiva exposição no espaço público, onde o estereótipo do corpo belo, do corpo saudável, do corpo escultural é ditado pela indústria da moda e da beleza transformando-a em um objeto de consumo. Desta forma, o presente estudo tem como objetivo analisar a categoria beleza em seu percurso histórico, as transformações da perspectiva sobre o corpo e a cultura do consumo na sociedade contemporânea, tomando como referência os profissionais de Educação Física que atuam em academias de ginástica na cidade de João Pessoal. Quanto à metodologia, é uma pesquisa de abordagem dialético-critica, de cunho teórico-prático, com uma perspectiva predominantemente qualitativa de análise. Participaram da pesquisa, 14 profissionais de Educação Física, atuantes em academias de ginástica na cidade de João Pessoa. Foi realizada uma entrevista semiestruturada, gravada pela própria pesquisadora e o instrumento utilizado para análise foi à análise de conteúdo. Concluímos que por trás de um discurso de bem-estar e saúde, existe toda uma ideologia que apela para um ideal de beleza inatingível, característica da sociedade contemporânea que sobrevive de uma cultura do consumo exagerado, levando os indivíduos a uma insatisfação constante. Ou seja, hoje a beleza corporal, nessa sociedade de consumo, predomina os ideais platônicos, da ordem, da simetria, de uma beleza que está no objeto, na aparência. Apesar de se falar em saúde, qualidade de vida, tudo isso apenas justifica a ida a academia, as cirurgias, os medicamentos, a busca desordenada para manter um padrão ideal imposto pela sociedade de consumo, onde o profissional de Educação Física, em sua maioria, continua reproduzindo a ideia de beleza reduzida a padrões corporais; e de saúde reduzida à busca pelos modelos de corpo perfeito divulgados na mídia.

The notion of deterritorialization occupies a central role in contemporary interpretations of immigrants’ home-related consumption engagements. Through their work on home maintenance, consumer researchers have unveiled a remarkable set of insights related to consumption patterns immigrants develop with the purpose of maintaining previous home-ties. Consumer researchers have for instance demonstrated how immigrants transform and get transformed by the home-related consumption goods available in host countries. The notion of home maintenance has been largely applied with the meaning of immigrants “keeping up” with a past life context they can no longer enjoy in contemporary home places. Yet, less attention has been devoted to migrants’ willingness to preserve existential connections with places of origin and/or childhood. <p>Drawing on the stories of 14 Latin American migrants living in Belgium, this doctoral research relativizes this deterritorialized perspective through the means of the philosophical notion of narrative identity. This philosophical point of view puts forward the open link that exists between current life stories and past experiences. Individuals reconfigure their own personal narratives by integrating both past and present experiences. Accordingly, there is a continuity of narrative that contrasts with frequent disruptions in life, implying a perpetual interpretation <p>and re-interpretation of one’s life. This exercise is not a self-reflecting process of an individual that is distinct from his or her cultural references. The construction of a personal narrative identity is also a dialogue with many others and their past and future stories. In the case of migrants, even many years after “successful” experiences of migration, they can experience recurring tendencies to return, homecoming tendencies. These tendencies, which are not necessarily aimed at a final and long term return, reflect the notion that preserving affiliations to one’s place of origin or childhood is not only a matter of consuming resources available in receiving contexts, but also of consuming and sharing with many others in places of origin. While Home maintenance relies heavily on migrant’s willingness and or capacity to remember home places as they were before they migrated. The homecoming tendencies notion, here proposed, is oriented towards migrants’ eagerness to constantly re-discover home places in their contemporary situations and towards their active goal for avoiding disappearing from view back home. <p> / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This thesis explores the history of European integration in the 1950s and 1960s from a popular cultural perspective anchored to a central figure from the era, Brigitte Bardot, in order to demonstrate that the peoples of Western Europe were engaged in processes of Europeanization that helped legitimize economic and political unions. Yet, official EU policy’s privileging of one (outdated) mode for understanding culture has handicapped alternative interpretations of a common European cultural heritage, failing to embrace a shared popular culture. Bardot is a suitable icon through which to begin an exploration into the diversity and significance of an integrating postwar European popular culture because she was a microcosm of several broad, transnational trends in postwar Europe including the rise of mass mobility, a major shift in European fashions, new gender constructions, and the explicit politicization of popular culture. Her films, career, lifestyle, and representation(s) provide key axes from which one can pivot into interrelated areas of European culture and societies in this era—pop culture; consumer culture; youth culture; mobility culture; media culture; political culture; and gender relations—demonstrating a widely integrating European popular cultural sphere. Within this context, Bardot was representative of broad postwar societal changes, served as a mass diffusion tool in relating these changes to the people of Europe, and functioned as a driving force in creating new transnational popular cultural forms. In addition, Bardot is a figure useful in understanding the relationship between Europe and the United States, while also demonstrating that economics is not separate from culture and popular culture. The Treaty of Rome, ostensibly about economic integration, further enabled the many circulations apparent in Bardot's career—people, goods, information, and ideas—that were already taking place. Furthermore, popular culture was not irrelevant to, or separate from politics and it helps to explain how the escapism and narcissism of European popular consumer culture could generate a rebellious, but sophisticated political consciousness. Western Europe does indeed have a distinct history of shared popular culture, which should be a factor in discussions of ‘Europeanization’ and the legitimacy of the European Union. It is necessary to explore the roots of this shared popular culture so that it does one day form the basis of a longstanding shared popular culture and can become a recognized element supporting the legitimacy of identities in the European Union in more fluid, dynamic ways.

This thesis seeks to analyze how social position is negotiated by particular consumption practices. Thesis is theoretically based upon social-constructivist claims that reality is a social construct that comprises of continuously negotiated meanings. That implies that observed phenomena, such as among others consumption and social position, are seen as constituted by the cultural and symbolic dimensions of society. Methodological basis of the thesis is qualitative research. In the context of consumer behavior research I follow the research stream of consumer culture theory. Key findings of the study are that discourses on consumption are partially determined by social position while higher classes are comparatively more reflexive in their interpretations of consumption. However, social boundaries are not strictly given which creates a space for negotiating one`s social position. That might be accomplished by reinterpretation of social position. Prominent strategies of such reinterpretations were defined by discourses of neoliberalism and egalitarism. Another option consists of transgressing the economic boundaries by utilizing cultural capital. However, in the Czech society there has not yet been developed a clear consensus on what cultural capital consists of - that creates even more potential for negotiating one`s own social position.

AFRIKAANS : Heelwat artikels in dagblaaie, kerkkoerante en ander publikasies in verband met die NG Kerk skep die indruk dat die NG Kerk ‘n krisistyd beleef. Die krisisse wat aan die orde gestel word, hou onder andere verband met die volgende:<ul> <li>‘n identiteitskrisis omtrent spiritualiteit;</li> <li>onduidelikheid oor etiese kwessies;</li> <li>spanning ten opsigte van die kultuur-politieke rol van die NG Kerk en gepaardgaande konflik oor kerkhereniging; </li> <li>die neo-liberale verbruikerskultuur se uitdagings aan die NG Kerk waarop dit nie noodwendig voorbereid is nie. </li></ul> Dit is egter opmerklik dat die NG Kerk tog ook die nuwe millennium met nuwe visie en ywer benader in ‘n soeke na kontekstuele en religieuse relevansie. Daar is min twyfel dat die resente stand van die NG Kerk kompleks is. Dit kan moontlik toegeskryf word aan ‘n verskeidenheid historiese vormingsagente wat die veelvuldige en uiteenlopende kerklike fenomene ten grondslag lê. Deur die geskiedenis van die NG Kerk binne die groter konteks van die Suid-Afrikaanse geskiedenis te bestudeer, is dit moontlik om die oorsaaklike verbande en die samehang van gebeure en verskynsels te bepaal. Op hierdie wyse kan daar aan die resente situasie en konteks van die NG Kerk betekenis verleen word. Die polities-kulturele situasie in Suid-Afrika het sedert 1990 radikaal verander. Hierdie verandering het ook verskillende reaksies tot gevolg gehad. Vir sommiges is die verandering die langverwagte uitkoms van jare se politieke stryd. Vir ander het dit ‘n belewenis van onsekerheid en wanhoop gebring. Die polities-kulturele situasie is egter nie al wat verander het nie. Die verandering in Suid-Afrika word ook omvat deur veranderende sosiale denke en -gedrag. Hierdie nuwe manier van dink en doen verteenwoordig die postmoderne paradigma. Toenemende sekularisasie is ook waarneembaar. Die NG Kerk staan binne die invloedsfeer van hierdie gebeure. Die nuwe politieke en kulturele situasie het implikasies vir die identiteit van die NG Kerk. Die verandering van wêreldbeskouings bring ook uitdagings wat vormend inwerk op die selfverstaan van die NG Kerk. Die begrip wat die kerk vir die betekenis van hierdie gebeure toon, sal bepaal waartoe die NG Kerk in toekoms verander. / ENGLISH : Many newspapers, church newspapers and other publications report that a crisis is immanent in the Dutch Reformed Church today. The crisis is seen in the incidence of the following: <ul> <li>an identity crisis concerning spirituality; </li> <li>ambiguity about ethical matters;</li> <li>tension over the DR Church’s cultural and political role in South Africa as well as conflict over church unity with the members of the DRC family;</li> <li>the fact that the DR Church is caught offhanded by the challenges of the neo-liberal consumer culture. </li></ul> It must be said that despite this crisis, there are signs of the DR Church seeking contextual and religious relevance in the new millennium. There is little doubt that the recent state of affairs in the DR Church is complicated. The reason can be ascribed to a variety of historical incidents that underlie the numerous and diverse phenomena in the church. Against the background of the South African history, the history of the DR Church should be studied. This way it is possible to identify the causality and cohesion of historical events and phenomena. This process could help to give meaning to the recent situation and context of the DR Church. Since 1990 the political and cultural situation in South Africa has changed radically. People reacted differently to this change. For some it was the long-anticipated outcome of years of political struggle. For others it has brought uncertainty and despair. But this was not the only change since 1990. The change in South Africa is encompassed by a new way of social thinking and behaviour, which represents what is known as the postmodern paradigm. Secularisation of everyday life and institutions is also escalating. The DR Church stands within the sphere of influence of these phenomena. The new political and cultural situation has implications for the identity of the DR Church. The postmodern paradigm brings challenges for the way in which the DR Church understands itself as a church and its mission within the South African context. What the church in future will become, depends on the church’s comprehension of the meaning of these phenomena. / Dissertation (MA(Theology))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Church History and Church Policy / unrestricted