The Jack Wills brand and the name Jack Wills has become synonymous with an elite group identity in British society, namely the 18-24 demographic of the ‘upper-middle classes’. This group – wealthy, privately educated and attending a Russell Group university – are the subject of this thesis, specifically those involved in the co-ordination and lifestyle events of the Jack Wills brand. This study tracks and distils the identity and sociality of this social group through the prism of the Jack Wills brand’s corporate activity, a role that I outline to be central to the group’s social networking and cohesion through convivial pursuits and lifestyle events. This, I show, creates an elite core group who become the face of the brand; their life being the life-style element that the corporation sells to their consumers. Central to this thesis is the distinction between this elite, core-group of persons that become the basis of Jack Wills advertised lifestyle and those who purchase the product at market. The distinction I make is between a gift and commodity economy where, on the one hand, gifts develop intricate friendships and lasting social ties amongst a small few as an elite segment of the group and commodities, on the other hand, develop a residual role and make those purchasing the clothes an aspirational group. The name of the corporation comes to stand for the name of the group. And this name contains a contradiction; that of the gift and the commodity as the aspired and the aspirational persons, respectively. This contradiction is explored and dubbed ‘the dialectic of gentry’. Tracing this contradiction at the heart of the brand and the gentry group Jack Wills’s target, the thesis traces the value of the brand through ethnographic investigation: What type of economic object is a brand? Arguing it is what anthropologists call ‘inalienable wealth/valuables’, I claim the social group’s elite identity arises through the gifts and patronage the Jack Wills brand supplies them as they withhold these valuables from wider circulation and, therein, the value of the brand is manifested and given its elite stature. Bolstered by ethnographic material I attempt to demonstrate that the Jack Wills brand embodies the aspirational core of elite British identity and aids in the reformation of this elite group in the face of globalising pressures and new forms of sociality mediated by branded goods.

What would happen if, the systems we deal with everyday, and the situations we find ourselves in, could trigger us to give something to someone else? This work started by exploring the theme of  money systems and social structures and the ambition to find alternatives for our current economic system, which has failed in several ways. People all over the world are already coming up with alternatives that can supplement and stabilize our money-monoculture and that give new meaning to currency.This research investigates a particular alternative economic system called the gift economy, which has great potential to build meaningful relations and re-establish a sense of  community. Since the gift economy has been mainly researched by anthropologists and ethnographers in the last century, my focus is on implementing its principles in society today. Through literature review, case studies and a series of  design projects, this thesis articulates possible ways of  triggering a gift economy. With a special coin, a concept for a bar and by linking the local bakery to Konstfack, we may start to understand what giving really means, how it can benefit us, in what way it can build more meaningful relationships and how it can offer an alternative way of  thinking than what currently drives our economic system

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Submitted by Maria Dulce (mdulce@ndc.uff.br) on 2014-02-12T19:41:29Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Rocha, Luiz-Dissert-2013.pdf: 2479951 bytes, checksum: 8e34133a0eaf1ef42d84ee19fb495740 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-02-12T19:41:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rocha, Luiz-Dissert-2013.pdf: 2479951 bytes, checksum: 8e34133a0eaf1ef42d84ee19fb495740 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / sta dissertação tem um objetivo de natureza modesta: o de iluminar determinadas práticas e certas representações de uma fração do campo esportivo ainda pouco estudada: a dos presidentes de futebol. Tendo em vista o crescimento exponencial da bibliografia sociológica, antropológica e a historiografia na temática futebolística, observou-se que pouco havia sido dito acerca dos presidentes de futebol. Nesse sentido, tomando como pedra angular a metodologia da história oral, realizei um conjunto de doze entrevistas com presidentes do Clube de Regatas do Flamengo e do Fluminense Futebol Clube [entre 1975-1997] para tentar depreender as categorias fundamentais a partir das quais estes elaboravam seus discursos e construíam determinadas ideias sobre o poder e a política. Dialogando com questões nodais da antropologia política e econômica, a hipótese central construída era de que o ideário da honra e da dádiva fornecia sentido e substância às maneiras de narrar sua ascensão ao poder e de gerir os clubes. Sendo assim, esta dissertação foi dividida numa estrutura tripartite: a primeira parte destinada ao estudo das duas agremiações clubísticas aqui em questão numa perspectiva diacrônica e da formação dos grupos dirigentes enquanto entidade à parte do futebol-espetáculo; a segunda parte pretendia mergulhar nas categorias sincrônicas das entrevistas que apareciam nos discursos como constantes, a independer do tempo, do lugar e do clube; a terceira parte indagava, por sua vez, sobre as possíveis diferenças de “estilo de gestão” a partir da análise dos lugares de memória dos clubes estudados e de dois mandatos de dois presidentes-tipo ideais – Francisco Luiz Cavalcanti Horta e Márcio Baroukel de Souza Braga. (1975-1980). / This dissertation hás na objective of modest nature that is to enlighten some practices and certain representations on a fraction still unknown in sports field: the presidents of the soccer clubs. Given the exponential growth of sociological, anthropological and historical bibliography about football, it was noted that very little had been said or written over the presidents of the clubs. In this sense, taking as cornerstone methodology of oral history, conducted a series of twelve interviews with presidents Clube de Regatas Flamengo and Fluminense Futebol Clube (between 1975-1997) to try to infer the fundamental categories from which they drew up his speeches and built some ideas about power and politics. Dialoguing with nodal issues of anthropology and economic politics, the central hypothesis was that built that these key-ideas were erected on honor and gift provide meaning and substance to the ways of narrating his rise to power and manage the clubs. Thus, this dissertation was divided into a tripartite structure: the first part aimed to study the two associations in question here in a diachronic perspective and how an specific groups such as the presidents emerge as an entity side apart from the football spectacle, the second part intended to dive into categories synchronic the interviews and appeared in the speeches as constant, be independent of time, place and the club, the third party inquired in turn about possible differences in “management style” from the analysis of the memory locations of the clubs studied and two terms of two presidents ideals-type – Francisco Luiz Cavalcanti Horta and Márcio Baroukel de Souza Braga (1975-1980).

Thanks to the Internet, the consumers have access to a world of information and can easily compare the goods and services of one supplier to the other, and so be a part of the value creating process. Price is still key, but since producers are already pushing their costs to the limit, what Chris Anderson calls the “race to the bottom” they have to compete in other manners, meaning they have to dive deeper than lowest of prices. However these free goods and services must have a value even though they do not have a price tag attached. The respondents found two types of value, social/collective value and individual/emotional value and this also induces that value is relative. People are making choices to consume a good or service he or she has to prioritize these resources among the available time, money and even space, thus this prioritization is made even when the good is free. The price-quality relationship is prevailing, but not in the fields where distribution and replication is free.

Submitted by Valquíria Barbieri (kikibarbi@hotmail.com) on 2017-11-08T20:56:59Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DISS_2012_Tatiane Hirata.pdf: 4994391 bytes, checksum: e488576c3f57263ac5e4845b7091553c (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Jordan (jordanbiblio@gmail.com) on 2017-12-15T13:44:11Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DISS_2012_Tatiane Hirata.pdf: 4994391 bytes, checksum: e488576c3f57263ac5e4845b7091553c (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-12-15T13:44:11Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DISS_2012_Tatiane Hirata.pdf: 4994391 bytes, checksum: e488576c3f57263ac5e4845b7091553c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-02-29 / CAPES / A união entre o vitalismo do cotidiano e as práticas colaborativas da cibercultura deu origem à prática midiática do scanlation, empreendida pelos fãs de mangás, as histórias em quadrinhos japonesas. O scanlation, junção dos termos em inglês scan e translation, é o processo de digitalizar mangás impressos com o intuito de traduzi-los do japonês para outro idioma, para então distribui-los gratuitamente através da internet, sem a permissão dos detentores de direitos autorais. Dispostos a fugir da subjetividade capitalista, os participantes dessa atividade buscam subverter o modo tradicional do consumo de mangá. Reunidos sob a prática do scanlation os fãs espalhados pelo mundo reinventam os processos de re-produção, circulação e consumo de mangá neste período marcado pelos processos de convergência midiática e demandas por formas sempre renovadas de rituais de sociabilidade no anonimato urbano. / The union between vitalism of daily life and collaborative practices of ciberculture gave rise to the media practice of scanlation, an activity undertaken by fans of manga, the Japanese comics. Scanlation, contraction of words scan and translation, is the process of scanning printed mangas in order to translate them from Japanese into another language, and distributing them free of charge through internet without permission from the copyright holders. Willing to escape from capitalist subjectivity scanlation members try to subvert the traditional way of consuming manga. Gathered under the media practice of scanlation, fans around the world reinvent the process of reproduction, circulation and manga consuming in this period characterized by the process of mediatic convergence and requests for ever renewed form of rituals of sociability in urban anonymity.

With the rise of Internet, Web and new media technologies come increased opportunities for audience to recreate media content and influence its flow across different media platforms. The fan as a demanding yet enthusiastic consumer has become a centrepiece of media industries' marketing strategies. On the one hand, this qualitative change often described as participatory culture means a giant leap forward for fans, who can now serve new roles within the media industry. On the other, it represents a potential exploitation of media users, as unpaid volunteers do the labour professionals are paid for. This study investigates this tension in a case of videogame fans. On their official websites, videogame developers encourage fans to contribute with their fan art harnessing fan creativity for their advertising purposes. Convergence culture raises conflicts and compromises between creators of fan art (fan artists), and the owners of the copyrighted works they appropriate (game companies). This study addresses three main issues: (1) the way and circumstances under which game companies are displaying fan art on their official websites, (2) how fans understand the tensions between empowerment and exploitation, how do they address the issue of free labour, (3) how fans view issues concerning intellectual property...

Information and communication technologies and their innovative apparatuses have extensive social consequences. The basic interest of this thesis is to argue whether the information technologies and their technological apparatuses have the power to breach in the current capitalist system and therefore to lead us into a transformation towards an alternative world. In fact, this study more specifically attempts to argue and make sense out of this argument on the basis of an analysis of the Free Software Movement (FSM), since it is a product of the information technologies and has some suggestions for such a transformation towards a new society. Simultaneously, the study also argues the novel parts of the FSM as a new social movement and change agent of today&#039 / s contemporary world with reference to the literature on social movements.

The thesis looks at the gift and at what kind of morality allows contemporary gift-giving. It is based on ethnographic research that focuses on a "generous social network" Hearth.net. This network was founded by the entrepreneur, philanthropist and buddhist Libor Malý. His goal is to fulfill the vision of improving interpersonal relationships and creating an economic system that is able to complement the existing market economy in the case of a crisis. This system also requires a change of paradigm into the paradigm of generosity and kindness. Adato Paradigma Group and the Ambassadors, who are the most active users of Hearth, help Libor Malý in fulfilling this goal. Hearth is a space where users can offer and receive gifts without an expectation of a counter-gift. The gift should be the tool that will allow the paradigm shift. The new paradigm of generosity and kindness is seen here as a cosmology based above all on the values of generosity and kindness, which is influenced mainly by the spirituality of Libor Malý. At the same time, this paradigm of generosity and kindness forms the moral basis for gift-giving within the Hearth network. Nevertheless, in the final form, the gift is determined by the moral assemblage of three moral dimensions (Zigon 2010). The thesis therefore is analyzing the...

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Traditional Coptic charity, as I call it, is not just a flawed attempt at humanitarianism, as many believe. It is not just “giving a man a fish” as proponents of “human development” argue. Traditional Coptic charity, as I hope to explain, is an integral part of a larger social system that works together to maintain (and grow slowly) a religious community whose very salvation rests in the practice and transmission of its complex Liturgical body. By merit of its theological peculiarity, and the soteriological significance it gives the practice of sacraments and other religious activities, the Coptic Church effectively hems in the community in perpetuity. This contrasts with the other side of the philanthropic coin—development. Development, which is championed by certain organizations stands as a bulwark of “modernity” in the face of charity’s traditionalism, does not fit into the soteriological orientation of the Church’s Liturgical life. In essence, development’s ultimate goal is to “develop” individuals to the point of “financial independence”—a goal that does not fit into the Church’s communal ethos or exclusively contribute to salvific ends. In recognizing these facts, I began to reevaluate my initial stance on human development as the best way of engaging non-Copts. Overall, this thesis is can be read as a continuation of an ongoing debate between modernity and tradition—and the philanthropic tools they deploy—development and charity.