From 2000 to 2010, America's music industry's annual revenue went from $4 billion to $2 billion. Much of this is attributed to the internet's ability to provide consumers with easy access to free music, and hip hop has been especially impacted by this trend. Utilizing document analysis and personal interviews, this study found that the success of independent artists has influenced the business strategies of major record companies. In response to a dramatic decrease in record sales, major labels have made more of an effort to sign their artists to 360 deals, which allow the labels to profit from every aspect of an artist's brand or identity. While some independent artists are the main beneficiary of the profits generated from their music and personal brand, they also reify the commodity-form capitalist system by attempting to turn their music and brand into a fetishized commodity and by turning their audience into a commodity.

By the year 2050, about three quarters of the world’s population will live in cities. Most cities are developed by state or federal governments; however, some cities are developed for the purpose of private interests that plan the city. While the concept of private companies planning and sometimes even owning cities is not a new development, there seems to currently be a rise in this trend, with communication corporations such as IBM, Google, Intel, and Cisco now taking advantage of this growing market. Known as “smart” or “wired” cities, this new privatized way of planning communities allows major communication corporations to play an important role in shaping the future of our communities. Google, IBM, and Intel are all playing a role in planning the future of Portland, Oregon. By analyzing documents such as planning ordinances, financial reports, and government transcripts, as well as conducting interviews with city planners and corporate employees, this study found that many of the “smart” city efforts being undertaken by these communication corporations are intimately tied to their efforts to bring the Internet of Things (IoT) to fruition. Ultimately, the main goal of these efforts is to utilize urban communication technologies (UCTs) to gather data about community members by tracking their activities. In this emerging personal data economy, identities are the main commodity being fetishized.

Orientador: Lia Vera Tomás / Banca: Florivaldo Menezes Filho / Banca: Jorge Mattos Brito de Almeida / Resumo: Este trabalho é uma abordagem analítica do monodrama Erwartung Op. 17 - obra do expressionismo musical composta por Schoenberg a partir do texto de Marie Pappenheim - que parte das reflexões estéticas de Theodor Adorno sobre a obra e sobre o expressionismo em geral, principalmente em sua Filosofia da Nova Música. O primeiro capítulo aborda os dois conceitos de expressão que caracterizam, na ótica de Adorno, a música anterior ao expressionismo: a expressão como simulação de paixões e a expressão como organização total da forma. Cada uma delas resultou, não obstante, em um bloqueio da expressão, decorrente da hipóstase quer seja do princípio formal abstrato, quer seja dos momentos particulares isolados do todo. Este bloqueio expressivo é desenvolvido no segundo capítulo, que aborda a dinâmica através da qual, num contexto de comercialização e fetichização da cultura, a música tende a forjar uma aparente reconciliação entre a parte e o todo, entre o universal e o singular. A música expressionista realiza uma crítica dessa aparência de conciliação e dá lugar ao singular não mediatizado pela forma. Toma, como conteúdo, os gestos orgânicos, os conteúdos anímicos não mediatizados pelo conceito e pela forma e estabelece o registro documental de gestos orgânicos como procedimento formal. Em virtude do seu princípio expressivo, Erwartung se assemelha a um sismograma, que registra os abalos sísmicos. No entanto, o resultado dessa negação dos esquemas formais - tanto temático-motívicos como harmônicos - não é um simples abandono da forma em detrimento do conteúdo, mas um novo tipo de relação entre forma e conteúdo, que é desenvolvido no último capítulo, dedicado à análise musical / Abstract: This research is an analytical approach of the monodrama Erwartung Op. 17 - work from the musical expressionism composed by Schoenberg from Marie Pappenheim's text - which starts from Adorno's aesthetic reflections about the work and the expressionism as a whole, mainly in his Philosophy of New Music. The first chapter approaches the two concepts of expression that characterizes, in Adorno's view, music before the expressionism: the expression as simulation of affections and the expression as total organization of form. However, each one of these ways of expression resulted in a blockade of expression, due to hypostasis either of abstract formal principle, or of individual moments separated from the whole. This expressive blockade is developed in chapter two, which approaches the dynamics whereby, in contexts of commercialization and fetishization of culture, music trends to forge an apparent reconciliation of the part and the whole, of universal and singular. Expressionist music accomplishes a critic of this appearance of reconciliation and conveys the form nonmediated singularity. It takes, as content, organic gestures, spiritual contents non-mediated through concept and form and establishes documentary record of organic gestures as formal procedure. Due to its expressive principle, Erwartung resembles a seismogram, which records the seismic events. However, as a result of this denial of formal schemas - either thematic-motivic or harmonic - we don't see a mere refusal of form over content, but a new kind of relation of form and content, which is developed in last chapter, dedicated to musical analysis / Mestre

Este trabalho consiste em abordar o conceito de fetichismo da mercadoria, de Karl Marx, presente principalmente na obra O Capital. Ao fazer essa abordagem, a pesquisa encontrou aspectos de certa teoria da ação que estariam presentes na problemática do fetichismo. As relações entre a ação e a representação formam o eixo que permeia toda a pesquisa. Está dividida em três capítulos. No primeiro, se apresenta o fetichismo como um problema que relaciona de modo muito particular a ação e a representação. Para refletir sobre estes aspectos buscamos, nos capítulos seguintes, alguns pontos da teoria da ação de Aristóteles como a responsabilidade moral, a diferença entre práxis e poiêsis, a divisão entre o intelecto prático e o teórico e a figura do acrático. Tais conceitos são articulados de modo que o fetichismo pode ser visto como um problema de uma teoria da ação / This work addresses the concept of commodity fetishism, from Karl Marx\'s book The Capital. By doing this approach, this research has found certain aspects of the theory of action that would be present in the problematic of fetishism. The relationship between action and representation form the axis that permeates all research. It is divided into three chapters. At the first, it presents fetishism as a problem that relates most particularly the action and representation. To think about these aspects we look for, in the following chapters, some points of the action theory of Aristotle as a moral responsibility, the difference between praxis and poiesis, the division between the theoretical and the practical intellect and the figure of akratic. Such concepts are so articulated that fetishism can be seen as a problem of a theory of action

Defendemos nesta dissertação que formas radicais de controle de si pela superação do sofrimento físico e das necessidades corporais são respostas subjetivas à configuração do modo de vida social contemporâneo. Modo de vida cujo núcleo está no que autores marxistas chamam de alienação e de fetichismo da mercadoria. Procuraremos examinar o fenômeno que em psiquiatria ganhou o nome de anorexia nervosa ou anorexia mental como uma dessas respostas que, ao mesmo tempo em que renega esse modo de vida, acaba por reafirmar algumas de suas premissas centrais. / We intend to defend that radical forms of self-control by overcoming physical suffering and bodily needs are subjective responses to the contemporary form of life. Form of life which core lies in what Marxist authors call alienation and commodity fetishism. We will seek to examine the phenomena in psychiatry called \"anorexia nervosa\" or \"anorexia mental\" as one of those responses that, at the same time denies this form of life, and, on the other hand, reaffirms some of its central assumptions.

Denna kandidatuppsats i etnologi har till syfte att utifrån ett etnologiskt perspektiv förstå den fysiska relation som kan uppstå mellan kulturhistoriska föremål och människor. Bakgrunden till denna studie är museum och slottsmiljöers behov av ”Var vänligen rör ej”-skyltar. Studien har utgått från Kungliga slottet i Stockholm där etnografiska insamlingsmetoder såsom semistrukturerade intervjuer och observationer har genomförts för att tillhandahålla materialet för undersökningen. Maurice Merleau-Pontys tankar om kroppens fenomenologi, teorier om fetishism samt approriering har används som analysverktyg för att tolka och förstå det insamlade materialet. Studiens resultat visar hur människor ger uttryck för en attraktion gentemot objekten. Detta kommer till uttryck genom att de antigen upplever ett behov av dokumentation alternativt ett specifikt rörelsemönster eller ett närmande. Det kulturhistoriska rummet kan även utgöra en fysisk dragningskraft likväl som specifika lösa föremål. Människor vill närma sig objekten för att komma åt det kollektiva värde som objektet har tillskrivits men agerandet kan även förstås som att det finnas en tidigare omedveten kroppslig erfarenhet gentemot vad man tror är ett liknande föremål. Agerandet gentemot objekten kan även tolkas som ett uttryck för ett behov av appropriation. Studiens resultat bidrar därför med kunskap och insikt om relationen mellan kulturarvsföremål och människor. Hur och varför denna relation kan uttrycka sig i ett fysiskt agerande.

Lin, Kwan Ting Maggie. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 190-195). / Abstract also in Chinese. / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction / Literature Review --- p.17 / "Theories of the Body, Class and Social Status" --- p.21 / Theories of Globalization --- p.28 / Why Yoga in Hong Kong --- p.32 / Defining Social Class in Hong Kong --- p.32 / Methodology --- p.39 / Personal Statement --- p.42 / Structure of the Thesis --- p.44 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Yoga in Hong Kong and its Historical Development / The 1950s Indian Wave --- p.48 / The 1980s-90s Western Wave --- p.52 / The Commercial Yoga Boom --- p.54 / Characteristics of Yoga in Hong Kong --- p.58 / My Fieldsites --- p.61 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- Yoga Studios: The Construction of Difference and Distinction / Features of Yoga Studios in Hong Kong --- p.65 / Studio Space for Leisure --- p.68 / Liminality and Yogic Ambience --- p.70 / "“Playing Yoga""" --- p.74 / Conspicuous Leisure --- p.75 / Discipline vs. Leisure --- p.81 / Membership as a Status Symbol --- p.87 / Conclusion --- p.90 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Practitioners and Teachers: Ethnicity and Respect / Verbs for Describing Degree of Engagement in Yoga --- p.92 / “Doing Yoga´ح --- p.93 / “Practicing Yoga´ح --- p.93 / "Ethnicity, Respect, and Relationships" --- p.95 / "Yoga, Ethnicity，and Status" --- p.103 / Ethnicity and Social Class --- p.112 / Beyond Ethnicity? Internationalism --- p.117 / Conclusion --- p.118 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Yoga and the Fetishism of the Body / Marketing and Advertising of Yoga and the Ideal Female Body --- p.122 / Yoga and the Slim Body Ideal in Hong Kong --- p.124 / Different Slimming Rhetorics --- p.125 / Mirrors and Discipline --- p.127 / Studios as Panopticon --- p.129 / The Slimming Myth --- p.131 / Yoga and the Fetishism of the Body in Hong Kong --- p.133 / Body as Capital --- p.134 / Body as Class Signifier --- p.135 / Conclusion --- p.139 / Chapter Chapter 6 --- Beyond the Body? Spirituality and Distinction / Yoga and Spirituality --- p.143 / Yoga and Mysticism --- p.147 / Beyond the Body? --- p.150 / "Yoga, Spirituality and Progression" --- p.154 / Body vs. Spirituality --- p.156 / Disciplining the Body --- p.162 / Distinction and Class Analysis --- p.172 / Conclusion --- p.175 / Chapter Chapter 7 --- Conclusion: The Significance of Yoga as Distinction in Hong Kong Limitation --- p.178 / Summary of Chapters --- p.179 / Leisure and Discipline in Hong Kong --- p.181 / Globalization and Yoga in Hong Kong --- p.182 / Capital Transference in the Capitalist Society --- p.183 / "Yoga, Class，and Status Evolution" --- p.184 / Reflections from the Failure of the Hong Kong Yoga Journal --- p.186 / "A New ""Yogic"" Hong Kong?" --- p.187 / Bibliographies --- p.191 / Appendix --- p.198

This thesis aims to explore lesbian desire and sexual identity in Lydia Kwa¡¦s This Place Called Absence, beginning with the textual subversion of heterosexual norm, evolving through the author¡¦s mapping of butch/femme desire and concluding with the protagonist¡¦s formation of self-identity. Chapter One discusses how the text subverts the heterosexual norm through the erotic chaos created by queer characters. I will apply Judith Butler¡¦s notions of heterosexual matrix and gender performativity to look into the textual strategies of subversion. The appropriation of gender is not only a strategy of queer politics, but also the primary means by which lesbians articulate desire. To illuminate Kwa¡¦s mapping of lesbian desire, I apply Teresa de Lauretis¡¦s theory of lesbian fetishism in Chapter Two to examine how butches and femmes in the novel express their desire through manipulating gender signs. The masculinity fetishes are prone to social misunderstanding as penis envy and thereby arouse male hostility. The anxiety of lesbian characters with the paternal phallus will be the focus of the second part of the chapter. Chapter Three looks into how the protagonist establishes positive self-identity through reversing social stigma to empowering self-image in queer coalition. The queer coalition comprising gays and lesbians, nevertheless, cedes its place to equalitarian women¡¦s community at the end of the novel. The problems of the concept of universal women for lesbians will be discussed in the latter part of the chapter from the perspectives of Butler and de Lauretis. After probing into textual details, I will argue that the protagonist, in spite of her desire for female solidarity, ultimately identifies with queer coalition. In conclusion, I will regard the novel as a lesbian counter-discourse by summarizing its strategies of displacement, resignification and reversal of the heterosexual symbolic and foreground the multiplicity of desire and differences among lesbians against the reification of heterosexual symbolic.

For the readers of White Noise, the first issue he or she has to deal with is the relationship between the society and the individual. But DeLillo was never straightforward in Jack¡¦s narrative. From time to time, the reader is asked to judge by themselves about the authorial intention and the narrator¡¦s attitude toward the characters¡¦ suffering. As both the narrator and a character, Jack Gladney typifies the tension of locating the hope of resistance in a seemingly hopeless situation. As the narrator, Jack¡¦s attitude toward the corrupting force of the society would seem to vacillate among indifference and affirmation. Yet, his indifference would appear to be sarcastic or even accusatory if one remembers that he or she is reading one of DeLillo¡¦s novels. The interpretive deadlock, then, can be summarized into the following question: if DeLillo intended to posit the possibility of resistance through the process of writing and reading, how can it be realized in the protagonist with whom the reader is invited to identify? Numerous approaches are adopted by the critics, and yet the enigmatic ending of the novel continues to challenge the results of their efforts. With ease, Jack Gladney returns to his normal routine after he nearly kills a man, but it is indicated that he is never the same person as exhibited in the previous chapters. To determine the nature of transformation and its implication for the existence of hope, this thesis sets out to dissect the important elements in the last chapter. As the novel ends in Jack¡¦s shopping, the chapter two of this thesis traces the influence of capitalism on the characters. It is found that the characters¡¦ enjoyment of the consumerism is correlative with a fundamental imperfection in their sense of self. In narrating the stories about him, Jack Gladney cannot hide his anxiety for failing to be a good professor, husband and father. From a Lacanian perspective, the disjointedness reveals the failure of the system to provide all his needs. Still, Jack and others are spurred to immerse harder in the ever-revolutionizing mode of enjoyment, endlessly deferring from confronting the void inherent in all their pursuits. Before Jack returns to shop for the last time in the novel, however, he is infected by toxic substance that causes him to eye the capitalist system with suspicion. During the outbreak of the disaster, the New Age belief system, painful enjoyment and environmental crisis are associated with the oppressive force of capitalist development. They all reappear in the end of the novel, yet they are no longer threats for Jack; instead, he finds them enjoyable. In the chapter three of this thesis, my analysis recounts how the characters¡¦ reluctance to depart from their routine of enjoyment contributes to their intentional disavowals of the injuries the system brings to them. In Jack¡¦s case, the biopolitical control that results in the elevation of the status of medical science and enjoyment causes him to resubmit himself more violently to the system. He becomes a killer and enjoys seeing himself as such who seems to contribute to all the subjects in the capitalist society. It is after such sad transformation that the final chapter begins, suddenly deflating the emotional turbulences accumulated throughout the previous chapters. The enigmatic vacuum is still accompanied by signs of Jack¡¦s transformation. However, the omnipresence of death in the chapter seems to weaken the certainty for a pessimistic future of suffering in the capitalist system. Waiting before the checking out point, Jack is in fact facing to the end of vicious circle symbolically. The unfathomable death corresponds with the impossibility the reader encounters when interpreting the text. As the readers cannot determine what will happen after the terminal, they are actually freed from chopping the text for constructing hopes that will be contradicted by the remaining paragraphs at one point or another, while they have to put down the novel and go on living with the similar situations the novel portrays. Herein resides the hope: externalizing the deadlock of life for the reader, the end of White Noise testifies the ongoing procession of human history that cannot be anticipated beforehand.

This thesis explores the experience – experience itself – of the economic crisis in Iceland 2008. This exploration takes its starting point in personal stories that together form a mythic narrative about the crisis in which the causes of the crisis are retroactively invented through the construction of a phantasmagoria. Since the reason for the stories peculiar form – their retroactive invention of the crisis’ causes – cannot be accounted for by the stories themselves, the stories are approached a symptoms of an experience that for some reason is articulated through a myth, rather than with the language of political economy, and this despite the fact that their narrators have experienced the consequences of a collapsed economic system. This thesis attempt to trace and formulate the experience that has given the personal stories illustrated in this thesis their mythic form.