This thesis is the first to study the history of champagne in nineteenth-century Britain, a period in which the usage and style of champagne changed fundamentally. From a sweet, lightly effervescent wine drunk on its own or with desserts, it became a fully dry and fully sparkling wine drunk throughout the meal. The central questions I address are why these changes occurred and what role the marketing and branding of champagne played in these changes. This analysis integrates production studies (including marketing and branding) and consumption studies by drawing on the rich vein of contemporary consumption data and the evidence of the day-to-day practice of the London agents of the French champagne houses. The thesis demonstrates that champagne was able to develop uniquely powerful brands that were managed in ways that closely prefigure the marketing practice of modern luxury brand owners. Historiography: Whilst there have been many books on the subject of consumption in the last three decades, very few of these have focused on drinkers and drinking. There have also been many different approaches to consumption studies from sociologists, anthropologists, literary scholars and historians and this work draws on all those traditions. My own interest lies in the changing daily habits of consumption and I have therefore drawn extensively not just on the historical scholarship but also on the writings of modern experts on branding and marketing to understand how consumer choice is currently understood and managed. The commercial importance of food and drink means much work has been done in these areas - not excluding wine. The history of drink in the last three centuries, however, has had relatively little interest until recently. Recent works by John Burnett, Charles Ludington and James Simpson illuminate the general history of wine in Britain but, though there are many general books on champagne, there has only been one history, that published by André Simon in 1905. Simon, agent for a champagne producer, was well placed to understand the trade and his work remains an important source. I have endeavoured to review all these works through the lens of the nineteenth-century British press and the archives of selected champagne producers and their British distributors.

No description available.

A pesquisa se propõe a investigar o modo como mulheres acima de 20 anos e de diferentes faixas etárias constroem singularização por meio de consumo de moda. A base teórica foi constituída a partir de autores pós-­‐estruturalistas como Bauman, o qual indica o conceito de individualização. Também compõem a base teórica -­‐ Lipovetsky, Guattari e Rolnik, Maffesoli, Canclini, Svendsen, Miranda e outros que operam com os conceitos de moda e consumo. A perspectiva metodológica adotada foi de entrevistas em profundidade através de roteiro semiestruturado, com seis mulheres com laços de parentesco (três pares de mães e filhas), afim de entender os processos de consumo, apropriações de vestuário e uso de acessórios de moda, bem como a interferência na construção de processos de singularização. Os resultados da pesquisa apontaram para a existência desses processos em todas as mulheres entrevistadas e também para interferências geradas pelos laços de parentesco em cada par. A singularização se dá na composição entre consumo e conservação superdimencionando as possibilidades de uso numa mistura de expressão coletiva com assinatura própria. É um processo que remete à autonomia e que é constituído de avanços e retrocessos, está atrelado à mudanças que estão associadas não só ao amadurecimento, mas especialmente, diferentes formas de interpretação dos fatos nas quais se originam também o comportamento por meio do consumo de moda e suas derivações. / This work aims to investigate how women of different age groups and over 20 years build singularization through fashion consumption. The theoretical basis for the singularization concept was established upon post-­‐structuralist authors like Bauman, while the fashion and consumption concepts came from Lipovetsky, Guattari and Rolnik, Maffesoli, Canclini, Svendsen, Miranda and others authors. The methodological approach adopted in this research was in-­‐depth semi-­‐structured interviews, with six women with family ties (three pairs of mothers and daugthers), in order to understand the consumption processes, clothing appropriation and the use of fashion accessories, as well as the interference in the construction of singularization processes. The survey results point to the existence of these processes in all interviewed women and also to interference generated by parentage in each pair. The singularity occurs in the composition of consumption and conservation overestimating the possibilities of using a mix of collective expression with its own signature. It is a process that leads to autonomy and which consists of advances and setbacks, it's linked to changes that are associated with not only to the mature process, but specially to different interpretations of the events in which had also origin the behavior through fashion consumption and its derivations.

The worldwide gap between rich and poor is widening. Status seeking and status keeping are fueled by the conspicuous consumption of luxury goods. These bright shiny objects are staples in a restricted economy in which only the wealthy participate. The notion of gaining riches for the purpose of helping the poor is fading. Materialism, luxury and riches have been the subject of religious and secular inquiry. In this quest, wealth has been condemned and applauded. Prestige-obsessed consumers are becoming blind to worsening social conditions.

With over 100,000 members in 153 countries, the Slow Food movement emphasizes the ethical and social dimensions of eating habits by creating a new kind of socially and ecologically aware consumerism. However, Slow Food's rhetorical emphasis on the agency of the consumer obscures the parallel role of the food producer, complicating inquiry into the broad claims for social justice presented by the movement. This dissertation examines the tension between the ideologies and practices of Slow Food and the locally-situated goals of small-scale food producers working to create economic, ecologic and cultural sustainability on daily basis. Multi-sited ethnographic research conducted in Italy between 2006-2009 explores 1) international, national, and regional Slow Food events and 2) everyday life and work on a Tuscan agriturismo (farm-based tourism estate). Through an analysis of discursive messages that consumers receive, on the one hand, and the experiences of food producers on the other, I argue that Slow Food's restructuring of the consumer/producer relationship may play out on paper and at conferences--and sometimes even at the table--but it does so less often and less obviously on fields and farms. Current scholarly work on alternative food networks emphasizes the structural and economic processes that connect food producers to politically-conscious consumers. I extend and elaborate this discussion through a critical analysis of Slow Food's rhetorical and discursive strategies, and link these findings to my ethnographic study of small-scale, organic food producers in Italy. An emphasis on the relationships between producers and consumers underscores the changing nature of society's relationship to food production and consumption, highlighting the reflexivity of Slow Food in response to local, national, and global change.

Esta tese busca refletir sobre limites, fronteiras e sobreposições entre design, arte, moda, comunicação, comportamento e consumo. A partir da seleção de imagens e textos disponibilizados em diferentes suportes - livros, objetos, audiovisuais, plataformas digitais, vitrines - analisou-se estratégias de marcas de vestuário em que a interrelação entre artistas, designers e outros agentes de produção cultural contribui para a construção de imagem pública para marcas, atribuindo a elas valor. Obras e objetos fundem-se num processo de sobreposição, que resulta no desenvolvimento de sentido comum. Desta forma, marcas atuantes em mercado global utilizam-se da fusão arte/design para fortalecer, na percepção do consumidor, qualidade e valor de produtos e serviços. / This thesis seeks to reflect on limits, borders and overlaps between design, art, fashion, communication, behavior and consumption. From the selection of images and texts made available in different media - books, objects, audiovisuals, digital platforms, shop windows - strategies were analyzed of clothing brands in which the interrelation between artists, designers and other cultural production agents contribute to the construction of public image for brands, assigning them value. Works and objects merge into an overlapping process, which results in the development of common sense. In this way, brands active in the global market use the fusion art/design to strengthen, in consumer percep-tion, quality and value of products and services.

This thesis examines both contemporary and historical meanings surrounding human body FAT in order to illuminate, chiefly, the forces that have rendered it both an omnipresent and negative entity in Western societies. It explores the apparent contradiction that we must exist amidst hyper-consumptive capitalism yet display no bodily evidence of such consumption. Along with an investigation into alternative bodily conceptions to that of the hegemonic West, a discourse analysis is employed to challenge the key assumptions that underpin the current 'obesity epidemic' and its ensuing 'war on obesity' so that body FAT may be configured differently. It is shown that, because bodily conceptions and ideals are complex cultural constructions, body FAT, as a substance, is not the scourge it is presently portrayed, but rather a substance that signifies most of what consumer society despises and fears. It is argued that the 'war on obesity' has not been successful, and will continue to be ineffective, because the focus should not be on losing body FAT but rather on the conditions of poverty that generate overall ill-health. It is concluded that such a 'war', if sustained in its current fashion, will only serve to further malign the situations of those deemed 'overweight and obese'.

Satisfaction is a central concept in marketing. However in recent years, satisfaction has come under increasing criticism. Its ability to predict post-purchase behaviour has not been established and the importance of the word satisfaction to consumers has been questioned. Current satisfaction measures are inadequate, as they fail to discriminate between respondents, with the majority of respondents regularly endorsing the most positive answer category available. The limited discrimination of existing scales suggests that only a small part of the unfavourable/favourable evaluation, rather than the entire dimension is being measured. The overwhelming use of the most positive answer category, in traditional scales, illustrates that they fail to capture highly positive evaluations. Affective Response to Consumption (ARC) is conceptualised as an extension to satisfaction. The conceptualisation shifts the emphasis from a scale relying on one, rather weak, emotional feeling -- satisfaction -- to a multitude of emotional feelings, including highly positive terms. A scale measuring ARC is developed in an alternative measurement paradigm -- Rasch Modelling -- to the dominant paradigm for scale development in marketing -- Classical Test Theory. The characteristics of Rasch Modelling are particularly useful, when measuring a concept like ARC, that captures the entire dimension of unfavourable/favourable evaluations and includes terms of markedly different intensity.

This thesis addresses both theories and practices of subjectivity in Anglo-American societies into the twenty-first century. The central argument is that one dominant subjectivity that has emerged in these societies centres on a deep-seated, almost irreconcilable tension. On the one hand, persons experience relatively heightened desires for unbounded lifestyles amidst relatively high levels of affluence and consumption. Meanwhile, on the other hand, the education, skills, and dispositions that persons assume in social worlds make desiring problematic. For example, high-level consumption or workplace flexibility are not necessarily seen as desirable things, yet appear to envelop contemporary lifestyles. Individuated desires form key aspects of an Anglo-American 'way-of-life', but a liberal individualism that emphasizes personal capacities and responsibilities, 'self-improvement' and 'well-being' has arisen, and this makes resolving ethical and existential dilemmas difficult. That is, many worldly dilemmas - concerns with material security, social justice, the environment, or nutrition, for example - seem irreconcilable to the liberal individualism that is 'lived' as subjectivity 'on the ground'. The thesis synthesizes social anthropology and social theory to ground its claims about the empirical world that sees subjectivity as 'being' human for particular social worlds. The approach is designed to look at situations that call upon self-orienting individuals, in order to explain how these represent the form of life that an 'immediate' self-projecting and orienting, self-asserting and 'creative' dominant subjectivity takes in Anglo-American societies. The argument develops a number of examples in the context of a theory-based approach in two registers: normative and ontological. Inquiry over an ontological register discusses the social formation of subjectivity in relation to the 'categories' of spatiality, temporality, embodiment, and institutionality, and the social constitution of subjectivity over coeval somatic, practical-ethological, and reflexive 'layers of affect'. Inquiry over a normative register discusses practical and discursive conditions, and relates the overall argument to a critique of normativity based in the claim that 'being' requires that norm-based and relational contexts can affectively 'legitimate' ongoing sociality. In summary, the thesis has two dimensions. It argues that this dominant subjectivity moves between sovereign desires for satisfactions and their atomized dissatisfactions, and turns on a sustained deferral of worldly dilemmas irreconcilable to the liberal individualism that is seen to both anchor and impel ongoing sociality. Secondly, it suggests that we need to rethink theories of subjectivity in order to understand better this new dominant form of life.

Water is a limited and essential resource for living and its importance is understood by all. Water is a scarce resource in Australia. Many of the river basins in Australia cover only a small area and the rivers that drain them are seasonal in flow. Climate change coupled with increasing population and a growing economy has put stress on the existing water resources. In the period of drought between 2003 and 2005 the careful consumption of water was of high importance and there is a consequent need to develop new methods to use water wisely. The state and federal governments have initiated many campaigns over the past decade to reduce water consumption and conserve water. This thesis aims to identify the relationship between socio-demographic factors and water consumption using multivariate analysis techniques and geographic information systems (GIS). This thesis has examined the water consumption patterns of Metropolitan Melbourne on a postcode level during the period 2000-2005. It has investigated how these patterns have altered with time and examined whether or not these changes are geographically linked. The effectiveness of the advertising campaigns and educational programs undertaken during the study period by The Victorian Government and its impact on Melbourne's water usage has been evaluated. Moran's I statistic was performed using water consumption to find spatial autocorrelation among postcodes. Multivariate techniques of factor and regression analysis were used to develop a model based on socio-demographic predictors to estimate water consumption. The relationship between separate dwellings, business counts, distance from GPO, semi detached dwellings and academically less qualified residents has been identified in this study. The numbers of separate dwellings and businesses have a significant influence on water consumption. Water use and soci o-demographic data are visualised by the creation of thematic maps using GIS.