My thesis looks at prescriptive beauty messages generated during 1940-1950 by using a case study of Margaret Morrison Carnegie College. I look at formal prescriptive beauty messages (advertisements, beauty manuals) and informal beauty messages (college yearbooks, newspapers, and beauty queen campaigns) to see what types of messages were created and why. I situate changes in these messages in a timeline of national culture, as it existed before, during, and after World War II. I then compare these messages by looking at which prescriptions were adapted by MMCC women as a group. I argue that these young women adopted an adapted version of the two prescriptions by following the advice given on a national level but also shaping their appearances based on what was occurring on campus. I infer that one set of prescriptions cannot exist in a vacuum; there will be a set of overarching goals to strive for, as well as a set based on standards within her immediate environment. The digital component to this project is available at www.consumingbeauty.com. / Master of Arts

Yes / The concept of acculturation has been based on the assumption of an adaptation process, whereby immigrants lose aspects of their heritage cultures in favour of aspects of a host culture (i.e. assimilation). Past research has shown that acculturation preferences result in various possibilities and influence consumption behaviour. However, the impact of social media on consumer acculturation is underexplored, although the social purpose and information sharing online is utilized for a variety of social purposes. Recent studies have shown the transformation from an offline to an online context, in which social networks play an integral part in immigrants’ communications, relationships and connections. This study merges the views from a number of leading contributors to highlight significant opportunities and challenges for future consumer acculturation research influenced by social media. The research provides insights into the impact of social media on consumer acculturation. / We are grateful to Emerging Markets Research Centre (EMaRC), Swansea i-Lab (Innovation Lab), and Department of Business at the School of Management, Swansea University for their financial support and organisation.

Yes / This special issue of the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services aims to bring together a variety of disciplines and a scholarly community for the advancement of knowledge regarding practice and research related to digital and social media marketing. Accordingly, the special issue includes papers using a variety of theories, research methods, contexts, and conceptualizations to enrich our understanding of digital and social media marketing from consumer and practitioner perspectives. The thirteen articles accepted for inclusion in this special issue are summarised in this editorial introduction.

The use of the social media platform Instagram has increased the fastest and has given the opportunity for the phenomenon of influencer marketing to grow in the fashion industry. The increase of influencer marketing has led marketers to understand that a change of focus is needed. Much of the previous research done in the field has focused on what distinguishes or does not distinguish effective use of influencer marketing for a company. Therefore, it is interesting to study the actual role of influencers in a fashion company’s brand communication and this by studying the fashion companies’ choice of influencers and the way consumers perceive the role of influencers in a fashion company. To operationalize the study, a semiotic analysis has been applied where images have been analyzed to answer the purpose of the study from a business perspective. The results from this are the basis for the design of a qualitative method which is then followed up by a quantitative method for answering the purpose from a consumer perspective. The data was collected through the themes formulated with the support of previous research and theories. These were consumption, the consumer’s approach to influencers and belonging to a group and identity. Within the framework of these themes, the study’s findings showed that influencer marketing is beneficial to use for a company in some areas and in others not. The semiotic analysis showed with certain deficits in the match that the companies choose influencers based on the respondents’ preferences and wishes. / Användningen av det sociala mediet Instagram är den plattform som idag ökar snabbast och har gett möjlighet för fenomenet influencer marketing att växa fram främst inom modebranschen. Ökningen av influencer marketing har lett marknadsförare till att förstå att det behövs ett fokusskifte. Mycket av den tidigare forskning som gjorts inom området har fokuserat på vad som utmärker eller inte utmärker effektiv användning av influencer marketing för ett företag. Därför är det intressant att studera den faktiska rollen av influencers i ett modeföretags varumärkeskommunikation och detta genom att studera modeföretags val av influencers och på vilket sätt konsumenter uppfattar rollen av influencers i ett modeföretag. För att operationalisera studien har en semiotisk analys tillämpats där bilder analyserats för att besvara studiens syfte utifrån ett företagsperspektiv. Resultaten från denna ligger som grund för utformningen av en kvalitativ metod som sedan följs upp av en kvantitativ metod för att besvara syftet utifrån ett konsumentperspektiv. Datan samlades in genom de teman som formulerats med stöd av tidigare forskning och teorier. Dessa var konsumtion, konsumentens förhållningssätt till influencers samt grupptillhörighet och identitet. Inom ramen för dessa teman visade studiens resultat att influencer marketing är gynnsamt att använda för ett företag i vissa avseenden och i andra inte. Bildanalysen visade med vissa brister i matchningen att företagen väljer influencers utifrån respondenternas preferenser och önskemål.

I kontrast till fast fashion, som tampas med snabbt mode och massproduktion med korta ledtider har slow fashion-rörelsen kommit och anammats av flera aktörer på modescenen. Med hjälp av slow fashion vill man således inspirera till en hållbar och tidlös garderob som är genomtänkt och står stark mot modevärldens snabba svängar och därpå, bidra till att konsumtionen inte ökar i kvantitet utan i kvalitet. Problemet i hållbar konsumtion är att konsumenter ofta väljer att inte handla utifrån ett hållbart perspektiv trots att deras intention säger det. Forskning visar att det uppstår ett gap mellan vad konsumenter tänker göra och vad de faktiskt gör, ett attityds-beteende-gap. Studiens syfte är att fastställa egenskaper och undersöka kundbeteenden i samband med att handla slow fashion. Samtida forskning har presenterat gapet och dess existens, i vår studie vill vi bygga vidare på tidigare forskning och ta in teorin till slow fashion och kundbeteendet bakom ett sådant köp. Vad får en konsument att välja slow fashion produkter och vad profilerar en slow fashion konsument? För att förstå och tolka det empiriska materialet utformades en teoretisk referensram kring tre olika teorier, Attityd-beteende-gapet, Consumer culture theory och teorin kring behovsidentifikation. Studiens resultat visar att faktorer såsom identifikation, pris, tidlöshet och hög produktkvalitet påverkar konsumenten till att handla slow fashion-produkter. Vidare presenteras hur dessa faktorer prioriteras och planeras i köpprocessen. Planeringen är genomgående hos studiens alla respondenter och insikten diskuteras djupare. Slow fashion konsumeras således med ett stort engagemang och en hög pris-acceptans. / In contrast to fast fashion, which is tussled with mass production and with short lead times, the slow fashion movement has arrived and been adopted by several actors on the fashion scene. Slow fashion wants to inspire with a sustainable and timeless wardrobe that is well thought out and stands strong against the fashion world's quick turns and then, contribute so the consumption is not increasing in quantity but in quality. The problem in sustainable consumption is that consumers often choose not to act on the basis of a sustainable perspective even though their intention says it. Research show that there is a gap between what consumers intend to do and what they actually do, so called attitude-behavior gap. The aim of this study is to determine characteristics and examine customer behavior in connection with shopping slow fashion. Contemporary research has provided support for the gap and its existence, in our study we want to develop that result into further analysis. We want to investigate the theory about the attitude-behavior gap in contrast to slow fashion and its customer behavior and the reasons behind a purchase.Why does a consumer choose to buy slow fashion products and what is the profile of a slow fashion consumer? To understand and interpret the empirical material from this study, a theoretical framework was designed around three different theories, the Attitude-behavior gap, the Consumer culture theory and the theory of needs identification.The result of this study shows that reasons such as identification, price, timelessness and high product quality affect the consumer to buy slow fashion products. Further, it shows how these reasons will get prioritized and planned in a consumer journey within the buying process. The planning itself is through all stages by every respondent and the insights will be discussed further. Slow fashion are therefore consumed with engagement and a strong price acceptance. The study will continue in Swedish

La consommation collaborative désigne un ensemble de pratiques très variées – parmi lesquelles la location, le prêt, le don, le troc ou le partage entre consommateurs –, qui remettent en question la primauté accordée à la propriété individuelle. Ce phénomène en plein essor fait l’objet de nombreuses recherches tentant de définir, de cartographier ou d’expliquer le phénomène, en identifiant ses déterminants ou en évaluant ses impacts. Peu de travaux se sont penchés sur l’arrière-plan culturel de ce mouvement. C’est l’objet de ce travail, qui étudie la consommation collaborative dans une perspective anthropologique, autour de la question, centrale, du rapport à la propriété. Cette recherche, ancrée dans la Consumer Culture Theory (CCT), adopte une approche phénoménologique centrée sur le sens des expériences vécues par les consommateurs. Elle s’appuie au plan empirique sur une ethnographie menée sur trois terrains reflétant la diversité des pratiques collaboratives – l’habitat participatif, la plaisance collaborative et les bibliothèques de vêtements. Et elle a pour première assise théorique la mobilisation d’un cadre d’analyse original – l’infrastructure cosmologique –, inspiré des travaux de Stoczkowski (2008), qui permet de révéler les traits saillants d’une vision du monde. Les résultats mettent en lumière l’émergence, au sein d’un mouvement qui reste largement consumériste, d’une contre-culture, proche de la simplicité volontaire, caractérisée par un rapport nouveau à la propriété, dans laquelle celle-ci n’est pas simplement remplacée par l’usage mais se charge d’un sens différent. Nous l’avons nommée « cosmologie de l’alter-possession ». Cette recherche permet de mieux comprendre les comportements de consommateurs qui entretiennent un rapport ambivalent aux possessions, entre détachement et recherche de liens durables, et aspirent à des formes de propriété plus ouvertes et plus collectives en réponse aux enjeux sociaux et environnementaux d’un monde aux ressources finies. / Collaborative consumption refers to a highly varied range of practices – including rentals, loans, gifts, bartering and sharing between consumers – that challenge the primacy of individual ownership. This rapidly growing phenomenon has been the subject of many research studies that have attempted to define, map or explain it by identifying its determinants or evaluating its impact. Few researchers have focused on the cultural background to this movement. That is the focus of this study, which studies collaborative consumption from an anthropological perspective, looking at the central question of our relationship with ownership. This research, rooted in Consumer Culture Theory (CCT), adopts a phenomenological approach centred on the meaning of consumer experiences. In empirical terms, it uses an ethnographic study conducted in three different fields that reflect the diversity of collaborative practices: co-housing, collaborative pleasure boating and clothes libraries. Its main theoretical foundation is the use of an original analytical framework – cosmological infrastructure, inspired by the work of Stosczkowski (2008) – which highlights the salient traits of a particular worldview. The results reveal the emergence, within a movement that remains largely consumeristic, of a counterculture that is comparable to voluntary simplicity and characterised by a new relationship with ownership, which, for proponents of this counterculture, is not only replaced by the notion of usage but is also charged with different meaning. We call this the “cosmology of alter-possession”. This research provides a better understanding of the behaviour of consumers who maintain an ambivalent relationship with possessions, somewhere between detachment and the search for lasting links, and aspire to more open and collective forms of ownership in response to the social and environmental challenges in a world with finite resources.

[pt] Dentre as diversas vertentes do turismo, o Dark Tourism (ou turismo sombrio, macabro, ou tanaturismo) é voltado para a visitação a atrações ligadas a tragédias, como antigos campos de batalha, prisões, campos de concentração e cemitérios. Apesar de ser um tema abrangente, os estudos sobre esta área do conhecimento carecem um maior aprofundamento, pois somente o positivismo não seria suficiente para proporcionar resultados satisfatórios, uma vez que a compreensão do significado por trás deste tipo de exploração pode ser mais bem entendido por meio de investigações de cunho interpretativo. Para cumprir este objetivo, a Consumer Culture Theory pode representar uma alternativa válida, pois engloba temas como a compreensão dos estilos de vida, formação de identidade, valores e significados culturais. Assim sendo, o objetivo do presente estudo foi analisar o significado simbólico por trás do consumo de atrações classificadas no espectro do dark tourism. Para isso, foi feito um estudo interpretativista, com coleta de dados a partir de entrevistas em profundidade. / [en] Among the various strands of tourism, Dark Tourism (or macabre, or thanatourism) is aimed at visiting attractions linked to tragedies, such as old battlefields, prisons, concentration camps, and cemeteries. Despite being a comprehensive theme, studies on this area of knowledge need further studies, as positivism alone would not be sufficient to provide satisfactory results, since understanding the meaning behind this type of exploration can be better comprehended through interpretive investigations. To fulfill this goal, Consumer Culture Theory can represent a valid alternative, as it encompasses topics such as the understanding of lifestyles, identity formation, values and cultural meanings. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to analyze the symbolic meaning behind the consumption of attractions classified in the spectrum of dark tourism. For this, an interpretive study was carried out, with data collection from in-depth interviews.

Orientador: Fátima Cabral / Banca: Célia Aparecida Ferreira Tolentino / Banca: Alexandre Fernandez Vaz / Resumo: Presenciamos diariamente no contexto das sociedades ocidentais industrializadas a frenética e obsessiva importância dada ao corpo e à moda, ambos se entrelaçam aos padrões de beleza disseminados pela indústria cultural, o que propicia uma crescente corrida ao consumo de novidades estéticas. Diante disso, objetiva-se compreender, por meio de uma análise histórico-social, o desenvolvimento do fenômeno do culto ao corpo e à aparência, tendo em vista as práticas cotidianas da cultura do consumo aprofundadas no capitalismo avançado. Considerando que há uma correspondência entre a produção cultural e as experiências e modos de subjetividade nas sociedades capitalistas contemporâneas e à luz de uma perspectiva materialista - embora dialogando com autores de diferentes abordagens epistemológicas - procuramos identificar como a lógica da mercadoria e da racionalidade instrumental se manifestam tanto na moda quanto na busca de um corpo ideal. / Abstract: We witness every day, in the context of the industrialized western societies, the frenzied and obsessive importance given to body and fashion both intertwined with the beauty patterns disseminated by the cultural industry, what propitiates a growing run to the consumption of aesthetic innovations. In that sense, the goal is to understand, using a historical-social analysis, the development of the phenomenon of the cult of physical fitness and appearance, considering the daily practices of the culture of consumption deepened involved with the advanced capitalism. Considering that there is an equivalence between cultural production and experiences and subjectivity manners in the contemporary capitalist societies and through a materialistic perspective - although dialoguing with authors from different epistemology approaches - we tried to identify how the logic of merchandise and instrumental rationality appear as much in fashion as in the search of an ideal body. / Mestre

The relatively new field of Queer Theory creates ways of thinking about people living without binary gender, but does not provide for a research model with which to give context to the material struggles of such people. Through the use of Internet discussion groups, the current research project attempts to examine the challenges that people who identify with the concept "genderqueer" describe facing as they fashion selves in social interactions; a process which inevitably requires consumer goods that typically only allow for heteronormative binary gender. Findings suggest that there are similarities in how respondents came to identify with "genderqueer," but such similarities are less present in how they understand and apply the concept to themselves. This study shows a potential conflict arising between academic Queer Theory, which seeks to deconstruct identity categories, and a more popular use of "genderqueer" claimed as an identity by some respondents. In conclusion this thesis examines possibilities for activism and marketing that may come out of "genderqueer" as a widely recognizable identity category.

<p>This thesis deals with model readers in contemporary Swedish magazine advertising texts aimed at different target groups: children (aged 7–12), teenagers (13–19), and adults (20–29) of both genders. The model reader is the presupposed reader of the text, realised in the text itself and not identical with the empirical reader, who is anyone reading the text.</p><p>The study takes the consumer culture of late modernity and the gender system as its point of departure. The model readers are regarded as socially motivated mass mediated identities that are offered to the empirical readers of the advertisements. Through the theoretical assumptions of social semiotics and critical discourse analysis, the model readers are, on the one hand, treated as textual realisations of the consumer culture and the gender system and, on the other, as varying with respect to target group.</p><p>A total of 14 advertisements, selected according to the age and gender of the target groups, are analysed. The texts are multimodal; the copy combines with the images, graphics, colours etc. to create meaning. A qualitative model for analysis was developed and applied both to the copy and to other visual representations in the texts. This model allows an analysis of the construction of the model reader at different levels in the text. The textual composition of the ads as well as ideational and interpersonal meanings are analysed along with intertextual and extratextual presuppositions.</p><p>One of the main findings of the study is that the model readers in the ads with male target groups tend to relate to a reproductive type of consumption, where an already successful model reader reproduces success, activity and leadership through consumption of the advertised products. The model readers in ads with female target groups tend to be more concerned with looks and the female body, and are not as successful or leadership-oriented. They also relate to a pretentious type of consumption, where the product is needed to adjust or improve the identity of the model reader. A gender system in which masculinity is superior and femininity inferior can thus be traced in the advertisements analysed. Another result is that more traditional, often more person and product-oriented, advertising formats are found in the ads with older target groups whereas more collage-oriented, or intertextual, formats are found in the ads with younger target groups.</p>