This study analyzes how the Art-Union, a British journal interested only in the fine arts, approached photography between 1839 and 1854. It is informed by Karl Marx’s materialism-informed commodity fetishism, Gerry Beegan’s conception of knowingness, Benedict Anderson’s imagined community, and an art critical discourse that was defined by Roger de Piles and Joshua Reynolds. The individual chapters are each sites in which to examine these multiple theoretical approaches to the journal’s and photography’s association in separate, yet sometimes overlapping, periods. One particular focus of this study concerns the method through which the journal viewed photography—as an artistic or scientific enterprise. A second important focus of this study is the commodification of both the journal and photography in Britain. Also, it determines how the journal’s critical engagement with photography fits into the structure and development of a nineteenth-century British social collectivity focused on art and the photographic enterprise.

This diploma thesis deals with the fundamental analysis of selected metals as commodities, for use in the production of batteries for electric vehicles, to hedge against changes in the price of physical raw materials. Selected metals are analyzed based on the fundamental parameters, historical price development and the current situation on the commodity market. Based on these fundamental data, a recommendation is formulated for the method of hedging the prices of selected commodities.

The goal of this diploma thesis is the analysis of current situation of communication agency Aetna, s.r.o., and following suggestion of a suitable strategy, which should provide successful development of the company and its implementation in the market of communication agencies. The emphasis was put especially on the analysis of the current situation and on the basis of its evaluation, new vision and new direction for the agency to follow in order to be successful and competitive even in the future.

The Value of Jumps: commodification and sportization of parkour Abstract: The subject of this thesis is a young urban lifestyle discipline called parkour. In the past couple of years parkour gained a lot of popularity in Czech Republic. Connected with that is also the exploration of the ways to get parkour into the state of commodity. At the same time parkour as a sport is finding its place in public discourse. An ethnographic research that is the basis for this thesis is following the flowline of two processes - commodification and sportization. Based on data created using participant observation and semi-structured interviews I describe how these processes are manifested, how they are connected and how they are interpreted by the actors on the Czech parkour scene. I argue that both sportization and commodification influence how traceurs and traceuses make sense of their discipline. Both processes seem to play an important role in the construction of authenticity in parkour. At the end I describe certain trends and changes in parkour that can be considered results of commodification and sportization of this discipline. Key words: parkour, commodity, commodification, sportization, lifestyle sport

In the late 20th century, the global economy experienced a radical shift due to widespread deregulation and, subsequently, rapid financialization. Examining archival and contemporary trade magazines and corporate reports, this project considers the interconnections between television audience constructions/ratings and financial institutions amid these structural changes. In chapter one, this thesis starts by charting the pre-history of media financialization and financial stakeholders’ early influence over the radio industry and its antecedent industries (i.e., the telegraph and telephone) between 1800 and 1943. After charting a historical overview of media industries’ relationships to Wall Street, the second chapter details the financialization of the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) between 1943 and 1970 and considers the correlation between Nielsen ratings and stock prices. In the third chapter, these theories are brought into the 21st century, examining how media companies like Disney “pitch” their audiences to Wall Street and how financial incentives have led streaming platforms to engage in performative social justice in order to cater to upscale white audiences.

Cattle price discovery is a process of determining the price in the market through the interactions of cattle buyers (packers) and sellers (ranchers). Locating the price discovery center or market, and estimating price interactions among the regional fed cattle markets and also among feeder cattle markets can help define a relevant fed cattle procurement market. This research identifies that the U.S. cattle markets is discovered in the futures markets, feeder cattle futures and fed futures.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(経済学) / 甲第19392号 / 経博第527号 / 新制||経||276(附属図書館) / 32417 / 京都大学大学院経済学研究科経済学専攻 / (主査)准教授 敦賀 貴之, 教授 照山 博司, 教授 有賀 健 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Economics / Kyoto University / DGAM

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This paper investigates differences in returns between the ETF price, Net Asset Value, and Benchmark Asset Baskets for five popular futures-backed ETFs. We decompose tracking difference to examine the relative size of tracking differences attributable to managers versus the arbitrage process. Tracking differences attributable to managers is found to be significantly smaller than that attributable to the arbitrage process. We then test for average Tracking Differences using the Mincer-Zarnowitz Equation. We find evidence of bias in returns for multiple ETFs and demonstrate the usefulness of the decomposition. Furthermore, we investigate the dynamics of Tracking Error using a GARCH methodology. We find support that the volatility of the ETF effects Tracking Error but find no evidence that rolling futures contracts influences Tracking Error. / Master of Science / This research focuses on futures-backed commodity ETFs. ETFs are exchange-traded instruments and are a convenient way for investors to gain commodity exposure without having to have access to a margin account, deal with futures contract expiration, or the large size of futures contracts. We investigate the ability of these instruments to achieve their investment goals: namely to perfectly replicate the exposure of a benchmark of futures contracts. We find that differences in the returns of the benchmark and ETF exist on average and that the bulk of these differences are attributable to the Creation and Redemption process rather than the ETF manager. Finally, we find that market volatility effects the volatility of these differences, but roll dates have no effect.

Commodity chains and cognates approaches are widely debated in many social science disciplines to understand and explain the drivers, mechanisms and effects of transnational production processes, including development perspectives and economic inequalities. This article aims to situate the understanding of commodity chains and cognate approaches as historically constituted imaginations of spatial economic relations that contingently travel between scientific disciplines and a wide range of social actors (policy makers, enterprises). The article is based on a spatial heuristic for understanding globalization processes inspired by the Leipzig school of global studies. Discussing commodity chains as spatial formats defined by the interplay of imagination / materialization in the context of particular spatial orders (of a globalized economy), leads to a number of hitherto less explored research questions. Drawing on this school of theorizing, I argue that the multiplicity of approaches should be embraced but simultaneously questioned from the perspective of why, how and for whom differences in imagination and enactment matter. Building upon the centrality of performativity based on the interplay of imagination / materialization, I highlight four areas (divided into chain actors and along imagination and materialization) in which commodity chain related research could benefit from a closer engagement with the Leipzig school heuristic.