L'invention de l'imagerie médicéenne a accompagné la campagne politique initiée par Cosimo I, investi duc de Florence en 1537, puis duc de Sienne en 1559, et grand-duc de Toscane en 1570, pour établir une autorité dynastique à la tête d'un principat créé en 1530 par Charles Quint et enraciner un pouvoir autocratique pour ses héritiers. Les arts du textile, de l'ornement et de la joaillerie sont aux fondements de cette image du pouvoir médicéen. Dans un contexte économique et culturel où Florence était considérée, sur la scène internationale, comme un des principaux foyers de l'artisanat du luxe et de la création artistique, les Medici utilisèrent cette renommée à leur avantage. Ils se firent représenter en ambassadeurs de la culture florentine pour faire reconnaître leur identité et promouvoir leur légitimité auprès de la société de cour européenne. Simultanément, ils prirent des mesures financières et législatives en faveur de la modernisation industrielle de leur État, du déploiement européen du marché textile régional et de la fondation d'un centre international de l'artisanat d'exception. Le portrait du costume définit la représentation d'une esthétique originale, en lien avec ce contexte singulier, qui fut instrumentalisée pour afficher une image à la hauteur de telles ambitions. Grâce à cette vitrine du luxe florentin, traduite avec une plasticité minutieuse et une authenticité sidérante, les portraits témoignent d'une stratégie des apparences orchestrée pour répondre à un double objectif : ériger Florence en joyau de l'art de la Renaissance et exalter le prestige royal conquis par les grands-ducs de Toscane. / The creation of the Medicean portraiture has supported the political campaign started by Cosimo I, invested duke of Florence in 1537, then duke of Siena in 1559, and Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1570, to establish a dynastic authority on a princely state created by Charles V and to ensure the continued existence of an autocracy for his heirs. The arts of textile, ornament and jewellery are the pillars of this image of power. In an economic and cultural context where Florence was regarded as one of the major centers of luxury and artistic creation, the Medici used this world-renowned culture to their advantage. They became its ambassadors in order to have their identity recognized and to promote their legitimacy in the eyes of the European courtly society. At the same lime, they took financial and legislative measures to help the industrial modernization of their State, the European expansion of the Tuscan textile market and the foundation of an international and unparalleled center of the arts and crafts. The portrait du costume defines the representation of an original aesthetics, in connection with this singular context, which was mounted to realize such ambitions. With the exhibition of Florentine luxury, depicted with meticulous materiality and stunning authenticity, the portraits bear witness to a strategy of appearances staged to fulfill a double objective: enhance Florence as a jewel of Renaissance art and exalt the royal prestige conquered by the Grand Dukes of Tuscany.

Ma thèse a pour objet l’étude des couleurs du mobilier d’apparat en bronze dans le monde gréco-romain, produit entre le IIe s. av. n. è. et le IIe s. de n. è. en Méditerranée. Elle place au cœur de sa démarche historique la caractérisation des couleurs, leur analyse technique et l’étude de leurs valeurs symboliques, associées à des contextes de production et de réception précis. Redonner en effet aux couleurs toute leur place dans l’ameublement de luxe en bronze, en conduire l’étude typologique, iconographique et technique, les replacer dans leur contexte de réception permet de comprendre non seulement l’impact visuel recherché par le maître de maison, mais aussi et surtout leurs valeurs spécifiques dans l’élaboration du discours des élites à destination de leurs semblables et des autres classes de la société. Pour identifier et comprendre cette polychromie, une démarche interdisciplinaire combinant des méthodologies archéologiques, archéométriques et sociologiques a été appliquée. 538 pièces de mobilier en bronze à décors polychromes sont ainsi recensées et réparties dans diverses catégories. Ces multiples données sont réunies et mises en relation grâce à la création et l’utilisation d’une base de données relationnelle nommée « Iris ». La convergence de ces méthodes et de ces angles d’attaque du matériel étudié vise à un seul but : apprécier la valeur des couleurs et des autres traitements de surface de ces objets de luxe d’inspiration grecque dans le processus général d’acculturation des populations et provinces romaines au modèle gréco-romain, un modèle défini par Paul Veyne comme propre à un Empire où « la culture y était hellénique et le pouvoir était romain ». / My thesis aims to study the colours of bronze ceremonial furniture produced by the Greco-Roman world between the 2nd century BCE and the 2nd century CE in the Mediterranean. The main objective is to characterize of colours, their technical properties, and symbolic values associated with specific production and reception contexts.Consequently, by using archaeological contexts, techno-typological and iconographic studies, the objective of this research is to characterize the specificity and originality of the use and visual impact of bronze in the elaboration of the discourse of the Greco-Roman elite, owner of this ostentatious furniture; this discourse is also aimed at this elite as other classes of Roman society.My thesis explores as much the history of techniques as that of arts and mentalities. It combines archaeological, archaeometric, and sociological methodologies for an interdisciplinary approach. 538 pieces of bronze furniture with polychrome decorations are identified and divided into different categories. Furthermore, these multiple data are also collected and linked through the creation and use of a relational database named “Iris”.The convergence of these methods has a single purpose: to appreciate the significance of colours and to investigate other surface treatments on Greek inspired luxury furnishings. The gradual acculturation of “the Greek world” as a result of Roman expansion is evident in a study of this furniture, its colours, and other treatments using the same historical perspective as defined by Paul Veyne as: an Empire where “la culture y était hellénique et le pouvoir était romain”.

The goal of this thesis will be to formulate an economic model that exposes the relationship between consumption of luxury goods and selected factors which includes advertising, disposable income, interest rate, price index and stock premium. By building the Multiple Linear Regressions model to formulate the consumption function and using the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) as the method, it becomes apparent that advertising, disposable income and the previous quarter´s disposable income are the major variables to affect luxury good consumption, of all the factors. Furthermore, the previous quarter´s disposable income has a slightly higher effect than the current one on luxury consumption. Similar studies, which focus on luxury items, have proposed models that test a single or a few variables at a time, and others that concentrate on durable goods have a wide range of variables to examine. I attempt to combine both in my model to test luxury consumption with a wide range of variables. / 1.Abstrsact: short (1/2 page)The very specific purpose of your studyThe finding ( results) The method: statistical method, the data , the theoretical data,Compare your results with the results from similar studies.2.Introduction (1 and half page)A general idea ( 4-6 lines)Make references to theoretical and empirical research paper.Names, dates, and contribution.The purpose of your studyMethodLimitationOutline of the paper3.Conclusion (1 page)The purpose of the studyThe resultsThe methodComparison with the results from similar studiesCritical discussion of your own studiesFurther studies4. consider opponents points too

The dissertation deals with rivalling discourses on dynamics of consumption in early postwar Japan, led by the theses of Bourdieu on social distinction, Lefebvre\\\'s analysis of spaces, the politics of noise and a discourse analysis after Laclau/Mouffe. While consumerism began to develop into a great energetic ideology of a middle class in Japan in the 1960s, the early postwar renegotiation of social spaces produced a form of social noise and highly moving social environment and spaces: alternative discourses and debates on what poverty, luxury or even consumerism itself were, emerged from within these spaces of noise. Between luxury and poverty, the black market was one of the central places of consumption, but also developed into the central social space which defined both poverty and luxury from within and beyond the blurred social boundaries. In the end, social discourses of distinction against poverty and black market consumers also encouraged social mobility and shaped an exotic ideal of \\\"European\\\" luxury.

Today, it is important for companies to deliver superior customer value in order to be successful on the market. There are two different ways of achieving this advantage; a company can either follow a market driven approach or a market driving approach. The difference between these two approaches is that a market driven company listens to the customers’ demand and create superior customer value of their needs. On the contrary, a market driving company reshapes the market and offer new superior needs to customers that will be seen as a need by them. Furthermore, there is a gap of the influence the internal factors have on the market driven and the market driving approach. Therefore, the aim of this study is to provide an insight of how the three internal factors, structure, financial resources and organization culture, influence the two approaches in the luxury industry. A survey was conducted in order to gather data from different companies worldwide. Both explanatory and exploratory research strategies were used when the collected data was analyzed. Explanatory research was used to test the hypothesis and explain the research question. Exploratory research was used to further understand how the internal factors influence a company’s marketing strategy.  The result of this dissertation indicates that the three internal factors were not significantly connected with market driven or market driving approach. However, it can still be argued that the internal factor structure somehow is correlated with the market driven approach. Furthermore, the findings of this dissertation can be interesting for people who seek to investigate in both the concept of market orientation and how the internal factors influence it.

Indulgent and desirable, luxury both boasts and seduces. Luxury is an elaboration on the essential, manifest in forms of etiquette and exclusion. Films index both reality and fantasy. They reflect, denounce, and exaggerate, making them invaluable cultural documents. Post-World War Two, the ease of air travel, mass production of goods, and foreign influence changed the face of luxury. By examining the films To Catch a Thief (1955), La Dolce Vita (1960), and Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) – all three from the era of this shift in luxury – this essay excavates this change, by examining the narrative, objects, and architecture of selected scenes.

<p>The goal of this thesis will be to formulate an economic model that exposes the relationship between consumption of luxury goods and selected factors which includes advertising, disposable income, interest rate, price index and stock premium.</p><p>By building the Multiple Linear Regressions model to formulate the consumption function and using the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) as the method, it becomes apparent that advertising, disposable income and the previous quarter´s disposable income are the major variables to affect luxury good consumption, of all the factors. Furthermore, the previous quarter´s disposable income has a slightly higher effect than the current one on luxury consumption. Similar studies, which focus on luxury items, have proposed models that test a single or a few variables at a time, and others that concentrate on durable goods have a wide range of variables to examine. I attempt to combine both in my model to test luxury consumption with a wide range of variables.</p> / 1.Abstrsact: short (1/2 page)The very specific purpose of your studyThe finding ( results) The method: statistical method, the data , the theoretical data,Compare your results with the results from similar studies.2.Introduction (1 and half page)A general idea ( 4-6 lines)Make references to theoretical and empirical research paper.Names, dates, and contribution.The purpose of your studyMethodLimitationOutline of the paper3.Conclusion (1 page)The purpose of the studyThe resultsThe methodComparison with the results from similar studiesCritical discussion of your own studiesFurther studies4. consider opponents points too

The objects discovered in Tomb 79 at the necropolis of Salamis, Cyprus have garnered much attention since their discovery. The material from this tomb, however, needs an in-depth, object-by-object analysis that will lead to a greater understanding of the burial as a whole. In my thesis, I offer a detailed case study of a single item, an ivory-covered wooden chair—so-called Throne Γ—as exemplifying an approach to this analysis. Based on the excavation team’s exacting reconstruction, the chair is four-legged with armrests and a slightly curved backrest. Ivory overlays the entirety of the chair except on a few sections of the backrest where the wood shows through. Here as well, both figural and geometric designs decorate the ivory, and the top bar was originally overlaid with gold. As a whole, Throne Γ would have appeared as a solid ivory object, embellished with wood and gold, and was likely draped with textiles. In this study, I analyze Throne Γ as an agent of identity. To do so, I follow the example of other scholars such as Irene Winter and Marian Feldman and employ the theory of object agency, addressing Throne Γ as an affective entity. When placed in a social context—i.e., when involved in human interaction—such agentive objects actively influence their surroundings. In this case, I analyze how Throne Γ affected the individual in whose tomb it was buried. I argue that through its various affective “mechanisms”—its nature as a luxury object, the value of its ivory material, its sensory qualities (including luminosity, texture, and fragrance), its iconography, and its ritual function—Throne Γ projected a king-like identity upon the deceased individual from Tomb 79. His actual political and social power during his lifetime, however, may have been less than that suggested by the mechanisms of the chair. The inclusion of Throne Γ in the burial was therefore a conscious choice and the identity the chair projected deliberate. It was meant to agentively mark, and thus legitimize, the deceased as a politically-able, diplomatically-savvy, and divinely-touched figure in the early days of monarchy on Cyprus. / text

Indulgent and desirable, luxury both boasts and seduces. Luxury is an elaboration on the essential, manifest in forms of etiquette and exclusion. Films index both reality and fantasy. They reflect, denounce, and exaggerate, making them invaluable cultural documents. Post-World War Two, the ease of air travel, mass production of goods, and foreign influence changed the face of luxury. By examining the films To Catch a Thief (1955), La Dolce Vita (1960), and Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) – all three from the era of this shift in luxury – this essay excavates this change, by examining the narrative, objects, and architecture of selected scenes.

Waste stabilisation ponds (WSP) are an important wastewater treatment technology used by thousands of communities around the world. Unfortunately, phosphorus removal in WSP is generally low and inconsistent. The aim of this work was to investigate biological phosphorus removal by microalgae in WSP. Luxury uptake of phosphorus, which is the accumulation of polyphosphate, is known to occur in microalgae in natural systems such as lakes; however, this mechanism has not previously been studied under WSP conditions. Three methods were used in the laboratory to investigate luxury uptake and it was shown for the first time that luxury uptake of phosphorus can occur in microalgae under typical WSP conditions. Acid-insoluble polyphosphate (AISP) is a form of phosphorus storage and acid soluble polyphosphate (ASP) is used for synthesis of cellular constituents. However, the findings of this thesis indicate that ASP may also act as a form of short term storage. The environmental factors influencing luxury uptake were investigated using laboratory experiments conducted under controlled conditions. The key environmental factors were the phosphate concentration in the wastewater, light intensity and temperature. A higher phosphate concentration increased the amount of ASP accumulation and also resulted in AISP being stored within the cells instead of being consumed for growth. Higher light intensity increased ASP accumulation, but as a consequence of elevated growth, the ASP was rapidly consumed. Temperature influenced the rate of AISP accumulation and little if any was accumulated at low temperatures. The fate of polyphosphate in the sludge layer was also studied and it was shown that polyphosphate was degraded resulting in phosphate release. Therefore, to maximise phosphorus removal the microalgae needs to be harvested. Field work showed that at times the biomass contained almost four times the amount of phosphorus required for growth which confirms that luxury uptake does indeed occur in full-scale WSP. To improve phosphorus removal in WSP both luxury uptake and the biomass concentration need to be maximised simultaneously. With this new understanding of biological phosphorus removal in WSP and the key environmental factors required it may be possible to develop a new phosphorus removal process utilising luxury uptake by microalgae.