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

The accelerated cycle of production and consumption has had tremendous environmental consequences since the 20th century. Corporate interest needed a society of over-consumption, creating the take-make-waste linear systems as we know it. The rise of leisure culture enabled an escape of society through outdoor recreation, while at the same time creating a new leisure industry, contradictive to the purpose of outdoor recreation. Being in nature is in Sweden called friluftsliv which is a cultural notion built in Swedish identities. This value is embedded in sustainability and nature, which is core in Swedish outdoor brands and its consumers, while at the same time being captured within the system of production and consumption. This conflict will be investigated in this thesis by analysing sustainability communication and marketing in how it constructs the brand values and influence consumer culture, based on ethnography and narrative analyses framed as Sustainability Storytelling. An in-depth case study of two brands by semi-structured interviews provides insight on business operations and mindsets for ambitious action toward a sustainable future. A theoretical framework was built to define how outdoor brands can function for a truly sustainable friluftsliv, framed as Transformational Sustainability, by shifts in business operations and in communications to make sustainable consumption possible and desirable. The results indicate a constructed type of friluftsliv based in consumption, through marketing of nature and sustainability, which is contradictive to the inherent values of the sector. While the core values and proved practical changes simultaneously enables a possibility for a shift toward a truly sustainable friluftsliv.

This thesis is aiming at investigating how macro social media influencers are affecting the consumer’s behavior of an individual within the cosmetic industry, with the outlined question: How do macro social media influencers affect consumers' behavior in the cosmetics industry? This thesis considers notions within community, social media influencers and consumers’ behavior field. An abductive qualitative research approach has been selected for this research, where data was gathered through individual semi-structured interviews, semi-structured focus groups, and semi-structured observations. Moreover, collected data from the individual and focus groups was analyzed based on the thematic coding approach, as well as in accordance with the presented analytical framework. The thesis concludes that macro social media influencers affect consumers’ behavior through their content and formed communities, to consume more and repeatedly, desire to reach a certain experience through consumption or behave in a certain manner individually or collectively.

No description available.

Background: In the digital era, the streetwear fashion industry has undergone significanttransformation due to the rise of social media. Traditional marketing methods have shiftedtowards direct consumer engagement through digital platforms, where brand authenticity andexclusivity are crucial for maintaining perceived value and consumer loyalty. Streetwearfashion, rooted in urban subcultures, relies heavily on these elements to establish and maintainits brand identity.Purpose: This thesis aims to critically examine how streetwear fashion brands utilize socialmedia to manage the authenticity paradox while driving exclusivity. It investigates the impactof these strategies on consumer behavior and brand loyalty within digital spaces.Method: The research employs a qualitative, exploratory design within an interpretivistparadigm. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of12 participants, including influencers, brand managers, and consumers actively engaged withstreetwear brands on social media. Thematic analysis was used to identify key patterns andinsights from the data.Conclusion: The findings reveal that streetwear brands effectively use social media to projectauthenticity through transparent communication and cultural engagement, while strategicexclusivity is maintained through limited releases and exclusive collaborations. Thesestrategies not only enhance perceived brand value but also foster strong community ties andconsumer loyalty. The study highlights the importance of balancing authenticity withexclusivity to navigate the competitive digital landscape and sustain brand appeal

Modern media patterns show feminist narratives being used to market different consumer products in the name of female empowerment and emancipation. Typically, the industries targeted have historically been dominated by male perspectives and aim to perpetuate a capitalist consumer culture. The newly legalized cannabis industry in North America, has seen an increase in female participation both in production and consumption. This thesis takes Broccoli, an all-female produced magazine about cannabis, as a case to textually analyze how feminist narratives are used to appeal to their majority female and non-binary audience to a cannabis consumer lifestyle. In the analysis I have found that the magazine is critical to postfeminist notions of consumer culture, while simultaneously working within them in order to act as pioneers, holding a female-oriented space within the industry.