Society of Consumers

Vladimiro Giacché, La fabbrica del falso. Strategie della menzogna nella politica contemporanea, 3a ed., Reggio Emilia, Imprimatur, 2016, rist. 2018.

I diritti di pubblicazione appartengono esclusivamente all’autore.
È consentita la riproduzione del testo o di sue parti solo a fini non commerciali.

Indice:
7    Premessa

11  Parte prima. Guerra alla verità:
15  1. Fenomenologia della menzogna
71  2. Menzogna, ideologia, informazione: iluoghi comuni della «guerra al terrore»
101 3. La Democrazia in ostaggio
131 4. La Sicurezza al primo posto
153 5. Mercato: i mille volti di un prestanome
175 6. Totalitarismo: triste storia di un non-concetto
199 7. Dialettica del Terrorismo

229  Parte seconda. La verità del falso:
233 8. Uomini e merci. Cronache dal mondo alla rovescia
261 9. Potere e regressione
291 10. La fabbrica del falso

315  Parte terza. Strategie di resistenza:
321 11. Spiragli
343 12. Dire la verità
365 13. Smascheramenti
385 14. La verità ricordata
405 15. Parliamo di noi

On the basis of the theories of consumer sociology, this article aims to
conceptualize branding of unique concept hotel, a genre of hotels that has grown
substantially the latest decades, as a movement of cultural meaning. A content
analysis and a literature interpretation are based on the selected information related to
the example hotel from different resources. Looking into how brands have become
depicted in the branding literature and how cultural meanings move through the
narrative mode of communication, the article is trying to answer the following
questions: Why W’s branding is effective and how does it make itself effective.
Finally it is explained that through the direct (Advertising) and the indirect (System of
fashion) ways, W manage to construct the cultural meaning of its brand and translate
the “lifestyle” meaning of consumer culture to its own brand image with singularity
and uniqueness. Thereafter, consumers finish the movement of meaning through
different rituals in their practice.
This article applies the framework of sociology and complements the actual
research of Unique Concept Hotel. For the reality of business, this might offers some
ideas of innovation in the hospitality industry.

The domestic consumer electronics and durables sector has witnessed a substantial growth over the last few years. This sector plays an important part in the economy of the country and provides employment to millions of people, more importantly to a large number of women in the country. The Indian TV and consumer durables market has been growing big, primarily driven by imports. India is well positioned to increase its manufacturing base in the consumer durables. Even the manufacturers on their part are willing to invest in India and increase their manufacturing base in the country to serve domestic markets and also to export in order to gain scale and make Indian operations viable. This paper highlights the consumer durable sector opportunities, challenges, strategies and trends to provide boost to India consumer durable market.

Sur la base des théories de la sociologie de consommation, cet article vise à conceptualiser la construction de
l'image de marque dans l'industrie de la mode et du luxe, un domaine qui a considérablement augmenté, en tant
qu’un transfert de la signification culturelle. Une analyse de contenu est basée sur les informations sélectionnées
liées à ce sujet de la part de différentes ressources. En regardant la façon dont les marques sont représentées
dans la littérature publicitaire et comment les significations culturelles se déplacent à travers la communication,
l'article tente de répondre aux questions suivantes: Pourquoi et comment un branding est efficace. Enfin, il est
expliqué qu’à travers des moyens directe (publicité) et indirecte (système de la mode), une marque réussi à
construire sa signification culturelle et traduire le sens de la culture de consommation à sa propre image avec
l’identité et la personnalité. Par la suite, les consommateurs finissent le transfert par différents rituels dans leur
pratique d’achat.
Cet article concerne le cadre de la sociologie et complète la recherche auparavant. Pour la réalité commerciale,
cela pourrait propose quelques idées de l'innovation dans l'industrie de la mode et du luxe.

On the basis of the theories of consumer sociology, this article aims to conceptualize branding in the fashion and
luxury industry, a domain that has grown substantially, as a movement of cultural meaning. A content analysis is
based on the selected information related to this issue from different resources. Looking into how brands have
become depicted in the branding literature and how cultural meanings move through the narrative mode of
communication, the article is trying to answer the following questions: Why a branding is effective and how does
it make itself effective. Finally it is explained that through the direct (Advertising) and the indirect (System of
fashion) ways, a brand manage to construct its cultural meaning and translate the meaning of consumer culture
to its own brand image with singularity and uniqueness. Thereafter, consumers finish the movement of meaning
through different rituals in their practice.
This article applies the framework of sociology and complements the actual research. For the reality of business,
this might offers some ideas of innovation in the fashion and luxury industry.

This paper reports the findings from an explorative, qualitative research project that was designed to understand how
consumers use and make decisions based on content provided by members of a consumer review website. Websites such as
TripAdvisor, Epinions and Yelp have become increasingly important sources of product and service ratings, recommendations
and opinion, where these are based on the experiences of consumers. The focus of the research is on the behaviour of
consumers who have grown up with digital media, or Generation C, who constitute a significant part of the membership of 
consumer review websites.

At a moment when the future of global capitalism seems altogether uncertain, we want to take another look at Wal-Mart, the world’s largest corporation. Despite its importance to the American and global economy, surprisingly little critical scholarship has emerged on the “Beast from Bentonville.” In this working-paper we suggest that we can understand Wal-Mart as both a unique instance as well as a telling example of tendencies within the process of planetary social transformation that has come to be known as globalization. In particular, Wal-Mart strives to become what we will call a “panopticon of time”: a particularly acute and emblematic crystallization of social, economic and technological forces which express a new constellation of power under globalizing capitalism. Wal- Mart represents among the most advanced consolidations of corporate, financial, technological and managerial technologies which employees afford it unprecedented control over consumers, employees, sub-contractors, communities and even nations, as well as unprecedented profit. We argue its power stems in part from its ability to hinge various modes of power: the local and the global, spectacle and surveillance, the private and the public, the everyday and the exceptional. And it is driven as much by the need to intervene in the production of subjects and the shaping of networks as the need to generate profit; indeed, these two imperatives have become inseparable. Wal-Mart is a symptom and an agent of the depotentiation of time under corporate globalization, the confinement or incarceration of temporality within the neoliberal webs of technology, commerce and management.
We begin by reviewing the case of Wal-Mart’s financial, managerial and logistic power. Next, we take up extant criticisms of Wal-Mart which we argue tend to fail to fully apprehend and sufficiently contend the qualitatively new form of global power the firm represents. In order to better chart this new power, we then turn to some less commented-on aspects of the dispositif or assemblage of historically specific power relations Wal-Mart represents including its informatics empire, its network ontology, and its mobilization of finance, health, spectacle and security to become a pivotal intervention in both global flows and everyday life. It is for this reason that, finally, we advance an argument that Wal-Mart is a panopticon of time which brings together multiple technologies of power to define a new architecture of control over temporality, a complex machine whose purpose is to imprison human potential in multiple overlapping ways.

The aim of this article is to analyze the concept of a consumer society, based primarily on the work of Zygmunt Bauman. Bauman’s works synthesize and modernize previous ideas about this type of society. The article presents the most important of Bauman’s thoughts on the issue, including the imperative of choice, the totality of commodification, praise for transience, and permanent insatiety. These ideas are subjected to critical analysis and illustrated with examples drawn from existing sources and the author’s own observations.

Książka stanowi pierwsze na rynku polskim tak gruntowne i kompleksowe opracowanie myśli Jeana Baudrillarda. Zapełnia ona istotną lukę w polskiej humanistyce pokazując także, że autor Symulakrów i symulacji okazał się bardzo inspirujący dla różnych dziedzin współczesnej humanistyki. Zaletą i wartością pracy nie jest jednak wyłącznie jej nowatorski charakter. (...) W pracy szczegółowo zostały omówione podstawowe idee filozofii i socjologii Baudrillarda, z ideą simulacrum, hiperrzeczywistości, społeczeństwa konsumpcyjnego i mas na czele. Autorka trafnie koncentruje się na tych wątkach twórczości Baudrillarda, które są niewątpliwie najbardziej owocne i cenne naukowo, celnie uznając, iż należy zignorować te prace i motywy pojawiające się w myśli filozofa kultury, które nie tylko są słabo czytelne, ale także – co za tym idzie- mało inspirujące. (...) Wykazała przy tym bardzo dobrą kompetencję filozoficzną, socjologiczną oraz politologiczną, bezbłędnie identyfikując ważne dla Baudrillarda punkty odniesienia, jak np. ruch kontrkultury lat sześćdziesiątych i jego intelektualne tło. Uczyniła to w sposób wyczerpujący, omawiając owe punkty odniesienia dokładnie i ze zrozumieniem. Dzięki temu czytelnik nie tylko uzyskuje informacje na temat twórczości bohatera omawianej pozycji, ale także może przypomnieć sobie główne zjawiska i postaci pejzażu intelektualnego drugiej połowy XX wieku, takie jak: postmodernizm, strukturalizm, poststrukturalizm, czy także osoby: McLuhan, Debord, Derrida, Foucault, Habermas, Bauman, Beck i inni.

Öz:
Tarihi süreç içerisinde sadece ihtiyacı olan kadarını tüket-miş olan insanoğlu, günümüzde ihtiyacı olandan daha fazlası-nı tüketme çabasına girmiştir. Daha önce hiç bilinmeyen yeni ihtiyaçlar listesi oluşturan ve bunları tatmin etmeye çalışan günümüz insanının böyle bir davranış içerisinde bulunması-nın temel nedenlerinden birisi de iletişim araçları tarafından sürekli tekrarlanan tüketim vurgusudur. Özellikle kapitalist sistemin en önemli desteklerinden birisi olan reklamlar aracı-lığıyla verilen mesajlar, insanların yeni ihtiyaçlar hissetmesine ve daha önce olmayan yeni tatmin olma yöntemlerine başvur-masına kaynaklık etmektedir. Bu çalışmada global tekstil mar-kalarının reklamları göstergebilimsel analize tabi tutulmuştur. Bu analizlerin sonucuna göre reklamlar düz anlamların yanı sıra yan anlamlar ile tüketicilerin zihninde yeni mesajlar inşa etmektedir. Bu mesajlar aracılığıyla sadece ürünün satışını değil aynı zamanda yeni bir yaşam felsefesinin benimsenmesini de sağlamaya çalıştıkları görülmektedir.
Abstract:
In historical process, mankind who have consumed only as much as he needed but today, he begins to consume more than his need. One of the main reasons of today's human who creates new requirement lists that are unknown before and tries to stisfy it is constantly pumped consuming emphasis through communication tools. The messages, given especially through advertisements which are one of the most important supports of capitalist system, source people to feel new needs and appeal new satisfying methods that never existed before. In this study, global textile branding advertisements are subjected to semiologic analysis. As a result of these analyzes it is found out that advertisements build denotations in cunsomers' minds as well as new meanings with connotations. It is seen that they try to provide not only selling the product but also embracing a new life philosophy by means of these messages.

Masyarakat modern adalah masyarakat konsumtif. Masyarakat yang terus menerus berkonsumsi. Konsumsi telah menjadi budaya, yaitu budaya konsumsi.

Dewasa kini budaya konsumerisme bukanlah hal yang baru di era globalisasi. Dengan arus globalisasi yang begitu cepat memberikan dampak pada budaya dan gaya hidup masyarakat dunia. Tidak jarang masyarakat maupun kita sendiri kerap membeli barang yang sebenarnya tidak kita butuhkan. Akar dari konsumerisme adalah agar ekonomi bisa terus berjalan dengan baik. Anggota masyarakat harus terus membeli. “Membeli”, dalam konteks ini, merupakan suatu kewajiban dan suatu tindakan individual dan berangkat dari sebuah kebutuhan. Maka, orang membeli meskipun tiddak membutuhkan barang yang dibeli. Konsumerisme kemudian tidak menjadi sesuatu yang negative, melainkan menjadi sesuatu yang positif dan dipandang sebagai sesuatu yang bernilai sosial.

"In his hugely influential book Discipline and Punish, Foucault used the example of Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon prison as a means of representing the transition from the early modern monarchy to the late modern capitalist state. In the former, power is visibly exerted, for instance by the destruction of the body of the criminal, while in the latter power becomes invisible and focuses on the mind of the subject, in order to identify, marginalize, and 'treat' those who are regarded as incapable of participating in, or unwilling to submit to, the disciplines of production. The Panopticon links the worlds of Bentham and Foucault scholars yet they are often at cross-purposes; with Bentham scholars lamenting the ways in which Foucault is perceived to have misunderstood panopticon, and Foucauldians apparently unaware of the complexities of Bentham's thought. This book combines an appreciation of Bentham's broader project with an engagement of Foucault's insights on economic government to go beyond the received reading of panopticism as a dark disciplinary technology of power.

Scholars here offer new ways of understanding the Panopticon projects through a wide variety of topics including Bentham's plural Panopticons and their elaboration of schemes of 'panoptic Utopia', the 'inverted Panopticon', 'panoptic governance', 'political panopticism' and 'legal panopticism'. French studies on the Panopticon are groundbreaking and this book brings this research to an English-speaking audience for the first time. It is essential reading, not only for those studying Bentham and Foucault, but also those with an interest in intellectual history of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and those studying contemporary surveillance and society."

Skupljanje albuma sa sličicama istraženo je iz aspekta razvoja potrošačkog društva i popularne kulture u Jugoslaviji, ali i iz drugih aspekata kao što su socijalni i obrazovni. Uz korištenje albuma i dostupne literature, provedeno je i istraživanje nad 18 skupljača albuma koji su dali svoje odgovore na 13 pitanja u upitniku o skupljanju sličica u periodu postojanja Jugoslavije. Teme albuma bile su vezane uz popularnu kulturu, no s vremenom su i oni sami postali dio te iste kulture. Neki aspekti skupljanja albuma sa sličicama kod djece i mladih, poput pružanja (katkad i enciklopedijski organiziranog) znanja i učenja mogli su reproducirati nominalne vrijednosti socijalističkog društva, a igra, dokolica i zabava također su mogli pridonositi "jačanju" sustava omogućujući mladima i svojevrsni predah od strogo postavljenih odgojnih smjernica društvenog sustava. S druge strane aspekti vesternizacije i komercijalizacije nisu bili u skladu s proklamiranim vrijednostima društva te su posredno mogle i pridonositi njegovu "slabljenju". Albumi sa sličicama vrlo su dobra podloga za istraživanje jugoslavenske popularne kulture i potrošačkog društva, ali i za pričanje priče o socijalističkoj Jugoslaviji uopće. Uvod Posljednjih godina postaje sve popularnije istraživati svakodnevicu socijalističke Jugoslavije, osobito popularnu kulturu, pa tako postoje radovi koji pokrivaju područje filma, glazbe, književnosti, stripa, itd. Tema albuma sa sličicama iz povijesnog je aspekta u potpunosti

F*ck May 68, Fight Now: Exploring the Uses of the Radical Past from 1968 to Today

Session 1: History is a Weapon

June 8, 2018

Department of History, University of Liverpool

https://archive.discoversociety.org/2018/09/04/circumnavigating-the-past-foreclosing-the-future-commemoration-of-the-radical-past-in-the-amnesiac-present/

SUMÁRIO: Introdução. 1. O modelo aberto eleito pelo Código de Defesa do Consumidor e a importância dos princípios para seu adequado funcionamento. 2. Todo consumidor é vulnerável ? 3. O princípio da transparência. 4. O papel da boa-fé objetiva no atual contexto social. 5. O princípio da confiança. 6. A importância do princípio da eqüidade no contexto do Código de Defesa do Consumidor. Conclusões. PALAVRAS CHAVE: Contratos. Consumidor. Princípios.

We are haunted by waste. While we try to stack away our nuclear waste in places that don’t change too much and that–hopefully–no one will ever return to, burying and burning “residual” waste, it keeps coming back. Not full circle, but in uncanny loops; like the plastic soup that is taking possession of the oceans, of fish, of us. The moment we stop desiring objects, they become waste. We use disposable items, minimizing care, saving time. But of course, these things  don't go away. Waste lingers. We act as if things are passive, inert, waiting to come to human consciousness and return to that passive state when we are done with them. But they don't. They stay, or seemingly disappear and come back later. Waste appears to have a haunting quality, and it is beginning to “force thought”, as Gay Hawkins puts it, and to force us out of what she calls “presentism”, a temporality that is characterised by the denial of the time to come and the idea that everything is available here and now.

BIB, São Paulo, nº 71, 1º semestre de 2011, pp. 25-43. Quando aparece uma nova instituição ou um novo campo científico, nem sempre se tem, imediatamente, a dimensão do que está surgindo e nunca se sabe aonde as mudanças produzidas vão nos levar. Com o campo da sociologia das profissões também foi assim: começou como uma abordagem sociológica do fenômeno das ocupações modernas e hoje já constitui, ou se autointitula, um campo autônomo dentro da sociologia, com autores e teorias próprias, com objetos de pesquisas próprios e com sua historicidade e metodologias. O objetivo deste artigo é permitir melhor compreensão dos diferentes modelos teórico-metodológicos desse novo campo da sociologia, como o funcionalismo, o interacionismo e o weberianismo.

Este estudo, depois de inventariar cada uma das vertentes dogmáticas que se propõem -no território brasileiro -a discorrer acerca de qual deve ser o prazo para a correção do vício do produto ou serviço e de verificar que aparentemente todas elas desprezam a existência de alternativas supostamente mais interessantes, visa a promover -tendo por lastro a uma matriz epistemológica de viés crítico e que está alinhada às correntes pós-positivistas de compreensão do fenômeno jurídico -a investigação de qual seria o prazo correto para que tais vícios sejam sanados no sistema consumerista.

Este artigo é dedicado aos Estudos de Vigilância e à sua aplicação à obra de Tolkien, Senhor dos Anéis. Nesta análise, é feita uma introdução histórica aos Estudos de Vigilância, uma contextualização histórica e social do autor, identificando, na narrativa em discussão, reflexos de uma sociedade conturbada e, por fim, um enquadramento teórico e social dos Estudos de Vigilância ao “mundo secundário”1 da Terra Média2, demonstrando os paralelismos entre as teorias dos irmãos Bentham e Foucault e as relações de poder presentes nesta região do mundo metafísico do imaginário de Tolkien.
No final do artigo, são ainda analisadas duas vertentes das teorias do poder, o poder da retórica e a resistência ou contra-poder, também presentes na Terra Média, assumindo, a par das relações de poder, várias representações simbólicas.

This article is dedicated to Surveillance Studies and their application to Tolkien’s literary work, Lord of the Rings. A historical introduction to Surveillance Studies, a historical and social contextualisation of the author, identifying, in the discussed story, the reflections of a troubled society, and, finally, a theoretical and social framework that relates Surveillance Studies to the "secondary world" of Middle Earth are presented in this analysis, demonstrating the parallels between Bentham's and Foucault's theories and the social relations of power in this region of the metaphysical world of Tolkien's imagination.
At the end of the article, two aspects of the theories of power are also analysed, those being the power of rhetoric and resistance or counter-power, also present in Middle Earth, assuming, just like power relations, several symbolic representations.

Resumo: Os autores analisam os elementos da relação de consumo, o estado da arte acerca do conceito de consumidor e os enquadramentos jurisprudencial e doutrinário acerca das hipóteses em que a pessoa jurídica é considerada consumidora no Brasil. Propõe-se, ao final, uma nova teoria para conceituar o consumidor stricto sensu -a teoria conglobante -que na visão dos autores é a que define com exatidão o consumidor descrito no art. 2º, caput do Código de Defesa do Consumidor.

The paper reports on both methodological and substantive findings. It presents a method for generating simplified representations for regional urban populations, their geographical sub-populations and communities. the method generates greatly simplified high-resolution socio-economic profiles of populated geographical areas from complex large census data sets.

Brands are always considered as one of the most valuable assets of an organization. Making strong brands and essentiality of strong presence in mind are the proprieties of most organizations. Because in general believes, the strong brands can increase the competitive advantage. The brand personality and brand equity are variables that can be effective on customers and also affect their shopping behavior; therefore, the purpose of this study is to survey the mediating role of brand equity in the relationship between the brand personality and obsessive shopping behavior of sport clothes consumers. The statistic society of this research is constituted the sport clothes buyers of Tehran that 246 persons were chosen as the sample using Cochran's unknown sample size formula. For data collection, Aaker brand equity questionnaires (1996), brand personality questionnaire of Jones et al (2009) and obsessive shopping behavior questionnaire of Edwards (1993) were used. The results of study showed that there is a meaningful relationship between the brand personality and its components with brand equity and obsessive shopping behavior of sport clothes costumers. Also, the results of model showed that brand personality both directly and through the brand equity is effective on costumers' obsessive shopping behavior. According to these results, it can be suggested that for affecting the costumers' obsessive shopping behavior, the brand personality and brand equity should be reinforced for customers.

JEL: L67, L83, Z20, Z29

This is a final draft. Please cite only the published  in Gregory R. Smulewicz-Zucker and Michael J. Thompson, Radical Intellectuals and the Subversion of Progressive Politics: The Betrayal of Politics (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), pp. 211-236.

"Urban-Public Space Crisis: Personalized  Tele-Visual Spaces; A News Agenda on Reminding and Making Forget" 17 th International Symposium Communication in the Millennium CIM 2020 November 5-6 2020 p. 236 (Bildiri Özeti)

Özet
Örgütlü ve siyasi bir yapılanma şekli olarak kamusal alanın ilk tasarımı Antik Yunanda yer almaktadır. Emek yoğun üretimin ve köleliğin kurumsallaştığı Polis, sadece özgür erkek yurttaşların kamusal alana katılımını sağlayan bir mekân örgütlenmesi olarak idealize edilmiştir. Kent ve kamusal alan etkileşimi bu tarihten itibaren benzer şekilde emek yoğun üretimin yapıldığı Orta Çağ Avrupa’sında bazı sembolik değişimler olsa da özel alan ve kamusal alan birbirinden tam ayrılmamıştır. Kamusal alan Avrupa’da 17. Yüzyıl sonrası modern dönem boyunca, kamusallaşmış olayların kamusal bir alanda eleştirel denetimine tabii tutmak olarak biçimlenmiştir. Oysa ki günümüzde neoliberal ekonomik sistemin toplumun her alanında etkisini hissettirdiği postmodern dönemle birlikte, kamusal alandaki yapısal dönüşüm teknoloji merkezli bir denetim alanına kaymıştır. Geleneksel toplumlarda bir yere bağlı olan zaman ve mekân örgütlenmesi postmodern dönemle birlikte şekil değiştirerek yer duygusunun yitirildiği sanal ekosistemlerin topoğrafyalarına doğru yönelim göstermektedir. Bu toplumsal yapı içerisinde televizyon yayıncılığı da yeni medya olarak adlandırılan dijital teknolojiler ile eklemlenerek kültürel içeriklerin aktarılma ve alımlama süreçlerinde dijital ortamın aktif izleyicisi kavramını öne çıkarmıştır. Post-kapitalizmin dinamiklerinin ivmelendirdiği gündelik yaşamın televizyondaki bilgi ve haber içerikleri, dijital teknolojiler yoluyla herhangi bir kısıtlama olmaksızın dolaşıma girmektedir. Kişiselleştirilmiş tele-görsel mekânlarda kişisel ilgileri temelinde biçimlenen haber içeriklerine yönelimde, toplumsal hafıza kaybolmuş, hatırlama ve unutmalar medyanın çoklu denetim ve temsil alanlarına terkedilmiştir. Televizyon üzerinden yaratılan yapay kamusallıklar üzerinden oluşan tarafgirliklerle ekonomik ve politik sorunlar gerçek toplumsal bağlamlarından uzaklaştırılırken, haber içerikleri hatırlatma ve unutturma mekanizmaları üzerinden işlerlik kazanarak bütünsel bir gösteri söyleminin parçası haline gelmektedir. Bu çalışmada postmodern kentsel mekan içerisinde kamusal alanın dönüşümü tarihsel gelişimi göz önünde bulundurularak tartışılırken, televizyon haberlerinin oluşturduğu gündemin süreçteki rolü ve önemi eleştirel bir paradigma içinde teorik olarak değerlendirilmektedir.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Kamusal Alan, Postmodern Kent, Televizyon Haberleri, Tüketim Toplumu

Abstract
The first design of the public space as an organized and political structure was first seen in Ancient Greece. The Polis, where labor-intensive production and slavery were institutionalized, had been idealized as a spatial organization that allows only free male citizens to participate in the public space. Even though there have been certain symbolic changes in this interaction between the urban and the public space since these dates, the private space and public space have not been completely separated from each other also in Middle Age Europe, where labor-intensive production was carried out. The public space was used in Europe during the modern period after the 17th century for civil society to criticize and control the events that became public. However, in today's world, along with the postmodern period when the neoliberal economic system makes its impact felt in all areas of society, the structural transformation in the public space has shifted to a technology-centered control area. The organization of time and space, which depends on a place in traditional societies, changes shape with the postmodern period and tends towards the topographies of virtual ecosystems where the sense of place is lost. Within this social structure, television broadcasting has been articulated with the digital technologies that are called as the new media, bringing forward the concept of active audience of the digital environment in the transfer and reception processes of cultural contents. The information and news contents on television regarding daily life, accelerated by the dynamics of post-capitalism, are circulated without any restrictions through digital technologies. In the orientation towards news contents in personalized tele-visual spaces that are shaped on the basis of personal interests, social memory has been lost and reminding and making forget have been left to the multiple control and representation areas of the media. While the economic and political problems are removed from their real social contexts with the prejudices formed over artificial publicities created on television, the news contents become part of a holistic demonstration discourse by gaining function through mechanisms of reminding and making forget. In this study, while the transformation of the public space within the postmodern urban sphere is discussed by considering its historical development, the role and significance of the agenda formed by television news is evaluated theoretically within a critical paradigm.

Keywords: Public Space, Postmodern City, Television News, Consumption Society

Structured Abstract
Purpose: Previous research suggests that constructions of legitimacy play a central role in the development of markets, yet little attention has been given to how that legitimacy is constructed through the material practices of market actors. This paper aims to address this gap via an examination of cultural intermediaries in the fine wine market of Shanghai.
Methodology/approach: An interpretive thematic analysis was carried out on data from 13 semi-structured interviews with fine wine intermediaries based primarily in Shanghai (5 wine writers/educators; 5 sommeliers/retailers; 3 brand representatives).
Findings: The dimensions of the legitimation of wine were examined, identifying three key themes: the legitimacy of intermediaries as experts; the legitimacy of a particular mode of wine consumption; the legitimacy of the intermediaries as exemplars for not-yet-legitimate consumers. These findings suggest that cultural intermediaries’ personal, consuming preferences and practices are significant to the formation of a new market, and that they must negotiate potential tensions between interactions with legitimate, not-yet-legitimate and illegitimate consumers.
Research limitations/implications: Limitations with regard to generalizability are discussed with regard to potential future research.
Social implications: The focus on cultural intermediaries and dimensions of legitimation can be used to examine the case of other emerging markets to anticipate the pathways to institutionalizing new forms of taste and consumption practices.
Originality/value of the paper: The paper offers empirical insight into the market dynamics of distinction in the Shanghai wine market and conceptual insight into the importance of cultural intermediaries as exemplar consumers.

Keywords: Bourdieu, China, Cultural Intermediaries, Legitimacy, New Economic Sociology, Wine

The analysis of this work is focused on the erosion of statehood and democratic civic culture from the colonization of the state apparatus in the hands of organized crime, more specifically, drug trafficking. the central thesis is that drug trafficking, unlike other criminal organizations, such as transnational terrorism, not only needs sovereign democratic states in their current configuration, but also requires that state institutions enjoy certain legitimacy for the majority of the population. but this need, far from strengthening the values of the rule of law, weakens them to the point that the discourse that sustains them ends up becoming empty rhetoric, devoid of content and binding force. this poses a serious danger for democratic governance, which, from modernity to the present, has been sustained by the principles of popular sovereignty and equality before the law.

Keywords: drug trafficking, organized crime, rule of law, state legitimacy, cooption of the state, corruption, citizenship, political representation.

The paper analyzes the birth and historical development of consumer societies. Historians see their source in major European centers, mostly in London and Paris, in the eighteenth or nineteenth century. This period is characterized by the growing role of fashion and the beginnings of “massification” of consumption. The mass consumption, however, fully developed in the United States in the early twentieth century. The notion of consumer society crystallized in the social sciences in the 60s of the XX century and was used to describe the contemporary capitalist societies, which since the 50s (first America, and soon after West European countries) were dominated by the ideology of consumerism. This period should be considered a moment of emergence of a mature consumer society. Over the next decade, it strengthened its status, which was due to cultural revolution of the 60s, weakening of the Protestant ethics, liberalization and individualization of life.

The new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) introduced a highly automated and much cheaper systematic observation of personal data. ICTs advance the intensification and the extension of surveillance, such that an expanding quantity of data can now be collected, tabulated and crossreferenced more rapidly and more accurately than old paper files. This process contributes to the building a "new electronic cage" constraining the individual, on the basis of his e-profile and datamatching.
Especially two agents of surveillance are interested in collecting and using such data: government authorities and private corporations. Massive stores of personal data held on ordinary
people are now vital to both public services and private business purposes. The new electronic cage is more all-encompassing and complete, being able to produce a complete profile of citizens and consumers in real time. Both public and private information agencies rely on one another for creating and modelling the profiles of good citizens/consumers who, by definition, are well integrated into social life, exhibiting predictable behaviour that conforms to the general needs of contemporary consumer/oriented social relations. The underlying assumption under girding the public/private exchange of personal data, the idea is that a good consumer is also a good citizen, and vice versa.

... The Forest of Symbols, Aspects of Ndembu Ritua. ... school colors' has its own entry within the US Library of Congress classification system, suggesting that at some point it was considered a worthwhile subject of scholarly attention, the exact origin of this practice remains elusive. ...

L'ordoliberalismo scioglie l'individuo entro un ordine di mercato entro il quale si conoscono solo produttori e consumatori. Entrambi assolvono a compiti in qualche modo loro delegati da uno Stato di polizia economica. Da questo punto di vista, il consumatore appare come un tipo umano razzizzato.

Özet
Günümüzde gündelik hayat, modernitenin özelliklerini yitirmekle birlikte postmodern özellikler kazanmaktadır. Tüketim kültürü çerçevesinde gündelik hayatın kazanmış olduğu anlam kendisini geçmişe dönüşte göstermektedir. Özellikle moda ve eğlence alanında görülen geçmiş yıllara dönüş, kitsch objelerin yaygınlaşması, gündelik hayatın kendisini günümüz dinamiklerini kullanarak yeniden üretemediğini göstermektedir.
Anahtar kelimeler: Gündelik hayat, postmodernizm, tüketim toplumu, kitle kültürü, kültür endüstrisi, kitsch

Postmodernization Of Everyday Life: Non-Reproduction Of Everyday Life In The Context Of Consuming Past As Narration
Abstract
Nowadays, everyday life is gaining postmodern features along with losing the characteristics of modernity. The significance which reached by everyday life in the context of consumer culture indicates itself by harking back. In particular, harking back in the field of fashion and entertainment, the spread of kitsch objects indicate that everyday life could not re-product itself by using the dynamics of it.
Keywords: Everyday life, postmodernism, consumer society, mass culture, cultural industry, kitsch

Öz
İnsanın yaşamının normal döngüleri arasında bulunan yaşlılık günümüzde bir sosyal sorun olarak tanımlanarak kaçınılması, dolayısıyla geciktirilmesi gereken bir durum olarak algılanmaktadır. Bu durum yaşlılığın toplumsal boyutuna dikkatleri çekmektedir. Çünkü yaşlılığı tanımlayan ve toplumsal hiyerarşide dezavantajlı alanda konumlandıran söz konusu toplumdaki iktidar ilişkilerini belirleyen egemen değerlerdir. Bu anlamda beden politikaları ve bedenin bir tüketim alanı olarak tüketim toplumundaki konumu da önemli olmaktadır. Buradan hareket eden bu çalışma, günümüz tüketim toplumunda yaşlanma ve yaşlılığı aktif çalışma yaşamında yer alamaması nedeniyle önce dışarıda bırakan yönüyle yeni bir ayrım biçimi olarak ele almaktadır. Ardından yine tüketim ilişkileri içinde tüketici kimliği bağlamında dahil edilen yaşlılık kavramı sorgulanmaktadır. Yani bu çalışma kısaca toplumsal iktidar ilişkileri içinde yaşlılığa yüklenen anlamlar ile sosyal alanda iktidar kaybı olarak tanımlanan yaşlılığa dair pratiklerin piyasa ekonomisi odaklı olarak tartışılmasına dayanmaktadır. Bu çerçevede yaşlılık bir anlamda iktidar kaybı olarak tanımlanıp bir yandan fiziksel boyutuyla tıp alanında, hastalık, sağlık, estetik ve ölümle ilişkilendirilerek ayrıştırılmaktadır. Diğer yandan sosyal, psikolojik ve hukuksal boyutlarıyla güç ilişkileri ve toplumsal eşitsizlik, ayrım ve dışlanma bağlamında tartışılmaktadır.
Abstract
Aging, which is among the normal cycles of human life, is in our day perceived as a social problem to be avoided and therefore to be kept back. This situation draws attention to the social dimension of the old age. Because what defines aging and places it in a disadvantaged space in the social hierarchy is the dominant values that determine the relations of power in a given society. In this context, body politics and the position of the body within the consumer society as a consumption field also become significant. This study, which is based on that aspect, regards aging and old age in today's consumer society as a new manner of discrimination that excludes them first as they cannot take part in active working life. Then, the concept of old age, which is included in consumption connections as a consumer, is questioned. In short, this study is based on the market economy oriented discussion of practices about old age which is defined in the social field as a loss of power and the meanings attributed to old age within the social power relations.

Japan  has often been considered  by the rest of the world as an orderly country without much civil unrest. As evidence of that, Prime Minister Abe speech promoting Tokyo for the 2020 Olympic Games emphasized the  fact that the city was one of the safest in the world. However, dissatisfaction amongst Japans youth has frequently appeared in my  ethnography.  How  can  this  dissatisfaction  coexist  with  the  image  of  cohesion  and obedience that Japan sustains? In order to elaborate on this topic, this paper  introduces narratives from the dissatisfied youth in Japan that, due to seeing no prospect of change in  the  country,  have  opted  out  of  Japan  altogether,  preferring  to  live  their  lives  in countries  they  see  as  fitting  their  lifestyle  best.  More  than  discussing  this  phenomena through  the  lenses  of  class  privileges,  this  paper  also  sees  the  issues  surrounding  the choices  made  by  the  dissatisfied  young  Japanese  not  so  much  as  a  source  of cosmopolitan  subjectivity,  but  instead  as  a  condition  made possible  by  a  neoliberal ideology.  Such  ideology  commodifies  identities  and  notions  of  belonging,  shaping  the way the Japanese youth deal with dissent into more consumer oriented logics than those of  collective  politics  and  mobilization.  It  is  this  shift  from  the  citizen  to  the  consumer that, this paper argues, is behind the choice for escape rather than change.

This paper analyzes the use of surveillance by activist groups opposed to the extensive securitization of the US-Mexico border and examines the implications of their activities for scholarship on borders, surveillance, and empowerment. The work of three organizations-the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), No More Deaths, and Humane Borders-is covered. While there is some overlap in their practices, these three organizations, respectively, have concentrated on (1) the use of digital photography and video recording equipment to monitor state agents and vigilante organizations; (2) the coordination of citizen-organized foot patrols to locate and assist migrants in danger; and (3) the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to support the provision of water and high-resolution border maps to migrants. In documenting the practical use and symbolic framing of surveillance by secular and faith-based activists, this article adds necessary complexity to prevailing conceptualizations of observational strategies and practices. It demonstrates that, while they may enhance and extend state control over bounded territories and populations, watching, monitoring, and rendering visible are not inherently exclusionary or repressive acts and can, in fact, be used in the service of undermining borders and their attendant consequences. The groups examined herein have applied surveillance towards contesting official gatekeeping strategies and creating alternative moral geographies where the imperatives of sovereignty and national security are subordinated to social justice and global hospitality.

Este artigo argumenta sobre o nascimento do Panóptico1 na Rússia absolutista do século XVIII, passando pelo seu percurso histórico, arquitectónico, teórico e social, terminando com a análise do conceito de Panóptico Digital, nos dias de hoje, na Federação Russa do século XXI.
Entre outros tópicos, são abordados o nascimento do conceito e do projecto arquitectónico do Panóptico na Rússia (numa região que hoje pertence à República da Bielorrússia) pelas mãos e pensamento de Jeremy e Samuel Bentham, relacionando este nascimento com as condicionantes e o papel de poder da Igreja Ortodoxa no controlo social, o Panóptico na génese do pensamento moderno sobre a vigilância e a Teoria do Poder de Foucault, que relaciona o conceito de Panóptico com a dualidade poder/conhecimento e a análise da evolução e utilização do Panóptico na democracia musculada da Rússia da Era Digital.

This article argues about the birth of the Panopticon in absolutist Russia of the XVIII century, approaching its historical, architectural, theoretical and social course, ending with the analysis of the Digital Panopticon concept, nowadays, in the Russian Federation of the XXI century.
Among other topics, the following will be discussed: the birth of the concept and the architectural design of the Panopticon in Russia (in a region which now belongs to the Republic of Belarus) through Jeremy and Samuel Bentham’s hands and thought, relating this birth to the constraints and the role of power in social control played by the Orthodox Church, the Panopticon in the genesis of modern thought on surveillance and the Theory of Power by Foucault, which relates the concept of the Panopticon with the power/knowledge duality and the analysis of the evolution and use of the Panopticon in Russia’s Digital Age muscled democracy.

В статье рассматриваются основные вызовы, с которыми сталкивается христианская традиция в эпоху господства технологий. Несмотря на то, что христианская община является меньшинством в секулярном обществе потребления, у неё сохраняется исторический шанс реанимировать библейские ценности. Христианский образ жизни и диалог с другим, остаются наиболее действенными инструментами влияния Церкви как на повседневность секулярного современника, так и на его эсхатологическую перспективу.

Ключевые слова: общество потребления, христианская этика, ортодоксия, ортопраксия, ценность, благо, вера, эсхатология.

Os fragmentos unidos às linhas que compõem esse singelo ensaio emergem da colisão havida entre (a) raciocínios lastreados em um direito construído visando à solução de problemas existentes em um tempo que, paradoxalmente, embora tenha se esgotado, teima em sobreviver, (b) a eleição de moldura dogmática aparentemente inadequada à solução do conflito que clamou pela atenção do Direito e, enfim, (c) a complexidade indelevelmente fundida ao Contemporâneo. Um ensaio que se propõe a explorar – sem a pretensão de ser conclusivo – o mosaico construído por decisão do Superior Tribunal de Justiça  versando acerca das consequências da violação de dever contratual  caracterizado no não comparecimento do devedor, expert, em tempo hábil, à promoção da coleta de células-tronco embrionárias de infante recém-nascido, células as quais se obrigara, expressamente, algum tempo antes, a recolher e, adequadamente, crioconservar.

RESUMO: Os brasileiros engordam em ritmo preocupante. Aparentemente, esse fenômeno está intimamente conectado, em boa parte, à mudança de hábitos alimentares e ao consumo excessivo de açúcares. Mais precisamente, ao menos por aqui, ao consumo do açúcar da sacarose. Os números apontam que, desde os 15 kg iniciais, per capita, ingeridos pelos brasileiros, por volta do ano de 1930, o consumo desse produto, no país, subiu para os 40 kg, em 1975; quase 50 kg, em 1980, vindo a atingir o quádruplo inicialmente catalogado, alcançando alarmantes 62.9 kg, per capita, no ano de 2011. Por se tratar de consumo médio, aliás, alguns brasileiros podem ter consumido mais de 100 kg de açúcar apenas naquele ano! Sob outro vértice, esses dados demonstram que a ingestão de açúcar, no Brasil, em média, ultrapassou, em mais de 50%, aquilo que é considerado como um parâmetro aceitável pelas pesquisas que tangenciam aspectos ligados à saúde da população. De algum modo, isso se explica: a cana de açúcar e seus derivados estão – e muito intimamente – conectados aos quinhentos anos da história do Brasil. Daí que, a partir de tais premissas, com lastro em uma postura crítica alinhada às correntes pós-positivistas de compreensão do fenômeno jurídico e tendo por hipótese a miopia e a surdez de um Estado que insiste em ignorar a questão – e a sua urgência –, abstendo-se do dever que lhe cabe de prevenir e combater os problemas provocados pelo crescente consumo do açúcar – hodiernamente comprovados –, este estudo tem por escopo identificar se existem alternativas juridicamente viáveis – e, nessa hipótese, quais seriam elas – que possam conduzir à regressão dos inúmeros quadros patológicos – deveras preocupantes, por sinal – identificados no alinhavar das ideias expostas no texto.