Many types of product meanings have been investigated in the consumer behavior literature, and these layers of meaning have been shown to influence consumer behavior. However, very little research has attempted to investigate product meanings having to do with provision networks, that is, the people, places, resources and processes involved in creating products and delivering them to the consumer. In addition, researchers in several fields have argued that consumers have lost an awareness of provision networks due to their increasing size and complexity in the modern economy. This research indicates that some consumers are indeed cognizant of the systems of provision for the products they consume. The results of this study indicate that some consumers expend effort to create and ascribe provision meanings for some products, and that these meanings in turn affect the consumer’s consumption decisions and experiences. In spite of the commodifying effects of modern market systems, these consumers exhibit an appreciation for products as the outcome of a complex system of relationships among people, places, resources and processes and have thus become reconnected to the provision of what they consume.

This thesis deals with the welfare state and the realization of this idea in the EU. The EU enlargement to the Central and Eastern Europe has impact on the concept of welfare state. However, the EU support for the new member states will help them to achieve the average of the EU countries living standards in a shorter time and it will contribute to the general welfare of the EU countries.

My research brings together two areas of sociological inquiry. The first area involves the study of the welfare state and the second the determinants of health status. Drawing on Esping-Andersen's work concerning a particular aspect of the welfare state, decommodification, two questions are of interest. First, are individuals in countries with more decommodifying welfare states less likely to report poor self-perceived health than individuals in countries with less decommodifying welfare states? Second, does decommodification affect the health of various population groups in different ways? Gender and income groups are of interest here. Theoretically, I argue that the welfare state impacts the stratification order, that social inequality is tied to social cohesion, and that social cohesion is linked to health. I draw on sources of both country- and individual- level data, including the comparative welfare Entitlements dataset, the World Values Survey, and the European Values Study, to test hypotheses concerning the link between decommodification and self-perceived health. In general, I hypothesize that higher levels of decommodification will contribute to a decreased likelihood that individuals report poor self-perceived health. Given the miltilevel structure of my research questions and hypotheses, I use multilevel binary logistic regression to assess relationships of interest. My findings indicate that, for all groups, decommodification does not have a statistically significant relationship with self-perceived health. In other words, higher levels of welfare support do not decrease the likelihood that individuals report poor health. To elaborate, for all groups, those who are trusting, as compared to those who are not, are less likely to report poor health. Overall, the data do not support my hypotheses, revealing potential flaws in my theory linking the welfare state and health status. My research, then, has both theoretical and empirical implications.

<p>The purpose of this paper is to analyze the ongoing changes in German family policy. It explores the issue of whether the German welfare state, in this policy field, can still be regarded as a conservative welfare model or rather approaches a more liberal or social democratic model. A qualitative method is used to analyze the material, especially from the German government, including press releases, other public documents and also articles from the political weekly magazines Der Spiegel and Die Zeit. The changes analyzed are the new parental benefit, the expansion of child care, the concept of whole-day schools and the system of joint taxation. The point of departure is Gösta Esping-Andersen’s categorization of three types of welfare states: the social democratic, the conservative and the liberal. Esping-Andersen uses two tools, decommodification and social stratification, to determine which welfare model a country is placed in. My analysis of German family policy shows that the German welfare model is going to be more towards a social democratic model than a conservative welfare model.</p>

Burning Man, a weeklong experience in Black Rock Desert, Nevada, has become an oasis for those looking to escape the corporatized grasp of modern culture. Burning Man serves as a reprieve from judgment and allows participants to embrace and perform their inner identities. The intensions of Burning Man have been widely debated, from scholars concentrating on the rejection of consumerism to analyzing sacred space and religious connectivity for festivalgoers. What deserves further analysis, however, is the utopian nature of the event. I will explore previous utopian attempts--literary, political, etc.--and define what characteristics from those societies were present during the inception and following early years of Burning Man. Using the work of Ernst Bloch I will establish Burning Man as a not-yet-conscious utopia, a product of Larry Harvey's vision, and define the increasingly imminent threats to the event's utopianism. The segregation of ideas at Burning Man, between veteran Burners and newcomers, is attributed to the perpetual struggle to balance and create meaning within a society designed to provide autonomy for its citizens. I will look at how changes in popularity and population have transformed the once utopian retreat into an amalgam of conflicting ethos. I argue that this once thriving counterculture is facing an extreme shift away from the original structure of the event in terms of meaning, experience, and understanding.

The author studied the welfare state typology in China from a health care perspective. This study aims to figure out what type of welfare typology works in Chinese health care system through comparative welfare state typology, specifically the decommodification principle proposed by Esping-Andersen (2019) and health care decommodification index put forward by Bambra (2006). Studying the classification of Chinese welfare state typology by analysing the Chinese health care system and comparing it with other countries in the world within the scope of welfare state typology, helps China enhancing the public administration. The author found that China belongs to medium decommodification group which means it is the same decommodification level as Conservative-Corporatist regimes, but also indicates there's a huge improvement potential to high decommodification group in the future. Keywords Welfare State Typology; China; Chinese Health Care System; Health Decommodification Index Range of the Thesis: 66 pages

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro / A ciência política geralmente interpreta a social-democracia como moderação, adesão ao capitalismo e diferenças apenas residuais em relação ao liberalismo de mercado. Esta tese desenvolve outra definição, baseada nas ideias de Kautsky e Bernstein, com dois elementoschave: a importância central da democracia representativa parlamentar e o reconhecimento de que há limites para avançar na transformação social. O reformismo gradual que daí decorre é o meio pelo qual os partidos social-democratas buscam avançar no socialismo, promovendo a desmercantilização e fortalecendo os trabalhadores em relação ao capital. Há nos partidos social-democratas uma tensão entre o pragmatismo bernsteiniano e o purismo kautskiano, que evita que a social-democracia se mova para um dos extremos e, com isso, se descaracterize, preocupando-se apenas com as vitórias eleitorais ou tornando-se um partido de gueto. A atuação no limite das possibilidades e a luta para modificar tais limites requerem a confrontação da hegemonia mercantilizadora, não sendo suficiente migrar para o centro e vencer eleições. O conceito é, então, aplicado a seis partidos competitivos e seus governos, sendo três deles sul-americanos e os demais, europeus, com o intuito de averiguar o quanto atuaram no limite das possibilidades e tentaram alterar tais limitações, bem como o efeito da dinâmica intrapartidária sobre as decisões tomadas. Há uma análise de como os diferentes limites incidem sobre a atuação dos partidos. Os seis casos pesquisados são o Partido Socialdemocrata Trabalhista (SAP) sueco, o Partido Trabalhista Norueguês (DNA), o Movimento para o Socialismo (MAS) boliviano, o Partido Socialista Operário Espanhol (PSOE), o Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) brasileiro e a Frente Ampla (FA) uruguaia. O MAS aparece como o caso mais claro de social-democracia, contrariando as visões estereotipadas sobre o partido. O PSOE é o exemplo de agremiação que não avançou no limite das possibilidades. O viés neoliberal da União Europeia surge como limite para o avanço socialista nos países do continente, enquanto que as inovações empreendidas pelos partidos sul-americanos aponta para a sobrevivência da social-democracia nesta era de mercados integrados.

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro / A ciência política geralmente interpreta a social-democracia como moderação, adesão ao capitalismo e diferenças apenas residuais em relação ao liberalismo de mercado. Esta tese desenvolve outra definição, baseada nas ideias de Kautsky e Bernstein, com dois elementoschave: a importância central da democracia representativa parlamentar e o reconhecimento de que há limites para avançar na transformação social. O reformismo gradual que daí decorre é o meio pelo qual os partidos social-democratas buscam avançar no socialismo, promovendo a desmercantilização e fortalecendo os trabalhadores em relação ao capital. Há nos partidos social-democratas uma tensão entre o pragmatismo bernsteiniano e o purismo kautskiano, que evita que a social-democracia se mova para um dos extremos e, com isso, se descaracterize, preocupando-se apenas com as vitórias eleitorais ou tornando-se um partido de gueto. A atuação no limite das possibilidades e a luta para modificar tais limites requerem a confrontação da hegemonia mercantilizadora, não sendo suficiente migrar para o centro e vencer eleições. O conceito é, então, aplicado a seis partidos competitivos e seus governos, sendo três deles sul-americanos e os demais, europeus, com o intuito de averiguar o quanto atuaram no limite das possibilidades e tentaram alterar tais limitações, bem como o efeito da dinâmica intrapartidária sobre as decisões tomadas. Há uma análise de como os diferentes limites incidem sobre a atuação dos partidos. Os seis casos pesquisados são o Partido Socialdemocrata Trabalhista (SAP) sueco, o Partido Trabalhista Norueguês (DNA), o Movimento para o Socialismo (MAS) boliviano, o Partido Socialista Operário Espanhol (PSOE), o Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) brasileiro e a Frente Ampla (FA) uruguaia. O MAS aparece como o caso mais claro de social-democracia, contrariando as visões estereotipadas sobre o partido. O PSOE é o exemplo de agremiação que não avançou no limite das possibilidades. O viés neoliberal da União Europeia surge como limite para o avanço socialista nos países do continente, enquanto que as inovações empreendidas pelos partidos sul-americanos aponta para a sobrevivência da social-democracia nesta era de mercados integrados.

After the 2008 Global Financial Crash, Ireland’s neoliberal housing policy turned again to housing financialisation as focus lay upon the attraction of corporate investors in order to revive the housing market. The result was a swift return to housing price rises but this came with ever growing homelessness and housing precarity as REITs and other corporate investors' influence on the housing market grew. Affordability has become a common framing as one of the key issues which Ireland’s housing system is currently facing, by the state and researchers alike. However, much of this research frames housing issues and policies as being objectively defined. Social constructionism holds that housing issues and policy are heavily subjective, where material conditions are subjectively negotiated among competing narratives steeped in ideology and vested interests in an attempt to create a dominant narrative. This research, building upon a social constructionism approach, has analysed the negotiated process within the affordability discourse of Ireland. The key findings are that the state’s affordability narrative remains heavily linked to a commodified, private sector led housing provision which holds to its traditional liberal welfare regime. This narrative is reflected in the private sector’s narrative, which frames the state as a facilitator of the efficient private sector, which within a housing system free of state barriers, can create affordability. However, as more and more face into greater housing precarity as unaffordability grows, a counter narrative framing state built public housing, supported by the non-profit sector as key to reducing the reliance on a greedy private sector and in so doing, achieving affordability. As this movement grows, spearheaded by the increasing threat of Sinn Féin to parliamentary power and the growth of the trade union led Raise the Roof campaign movement, this counter narrative has grown in power. Although limited, there has been a shift in the state’s narrative which reflects that of the counter narrative where the state frames the need for a greater direct state role in affordable housing provision and state intervention as a control mechanism on the negative effects of the profit motive of the private sector. Although this can not be said to be a shift in welfare regime, it highlights the negotiated process of narratives within affordability discourse.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the ongoing changes in German family policy. It explores the issue of whether the German welfare state, in this policy field, can still be regarded as a conservative welfare model or rather approaches a more liberal or social democratic model. A qualitative method is used to analyze the material, especially from the German government, including press releases, other public documents and also articles from the political weekly magazines Der Spiegel and Die Zeit. The changes analyzed are the new parental benefit, the expansion of child care, the concept of whole-day schools and the system of joint taxation. The point of departure is Gösta Esping-Andersen’s categorization of three types of welfare states: the social democratic, the conservative and the liberal. Esping-Andersen uses two tools, decommodification and social stratification, to determine which welfare model a country is placed in. My analysis of German family policy shows that the German welfare model is going to be more towards a social democratic model than a conservative welfare model.