Promotional Culture and Convergence: Markets, Methods, Media

The rapid growth of promotional material through the internet, social media, and entertainment culture has created consumers who are seeking out their own information to guide their purchasing decisions. Promotional Culture and Convergence analyses the environments necessary for creating a culture of collaboration with consumers, and critically engages with key areas of contemporary promotional development, including: promotional culture’s primary industries, including advertising, marketing, PR and branding, and how are they informed by changes in consumer behaviour and market conditions; how industries are adapting in the digital age to attract both audiences and advertising revenue; the evolving dialogues between ‘new consumers’ and producers and promotional industries. Ten contributions from leading theorists on contemporary promotional culture presents an indispensable guide to this creative and dynamic field and include detailed historical analysis, in-depth case studies and global examples of promotion through TV, magazines, newspapers and cinema

Organize

Digital media technologies re-pose the question of organization - and thus of power and domination, control and surveillance, disruption and emancipation. This book interrogates organization as effect and condition of media. How can we understand the recursive relationship between media and organization? How can we think, explore, critique - and perhaps alter - the organizational bodies and scripts that shape contemporary life

Organize

Digital media technologies re-pose the question of organization—and thus of power and domination, control and surveillance, disruption and emancipation. This book interrogates organization as effect and condition of media. How can we understand the recursive relationship between media and organization? How can we think, explore, critique—and perhaps alter—the organizational bodies and scripts that shape contemporary life

The Social and Cultural Contexts of Historic Writing Practices

Writing is not just a set of systems for transcribing language and communicating meaning, but an important element of human practice, deeply embedded in the cultures where it is present and fundamentally interconnected with all other aspects of human life. The Social and Cultural Contexts of Historic Writing Practices explores these relationships in a number of different cultural contexts and from a range of disciplinary perspectives, including archaeological, anthropological and linguistic. It offers new ways of approaching the study of writing and integrating it into wider debates and discussions about culture, history and archaeology

God and Tawhid in Classical Islamic Theology and Said Nursi's Risale-i Nur

Theology is a rational endeavour to understand everything about God, from within a faith tradition and its scriptures, and in response to problems posed by the conditions of a particular time and place. Islamic theology, in particular, has been a reactive discipline. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (1876-1960), as a prominent scholar in the modern era, lived through a tumultuous period witnessing the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the emergence of secular nation states for the first time in Muslim history, two world wars, and the challenges imposed by European modernity on traditional Muslim societies and Islam. Unlike other revivalist leaders, in dealing with the complexity of circumstances and the social and political restrictions around him, Nursi chose to respond following a theological revival method, where he attempted to revive Islam by renewing faith in people through his theological writings. By loading so much significance and revivalist objectives to theology, Nursi produced an original and fresh expression of Islamic theology based on the Qur’an. In this thesis, my original contribution to knowledge is the critical evaluation of Nursi’s writings about God and identification of his contributions to Islamic understanding of God and tawḥīd as the central doctrine of Islam

The Social and Cultural Contexts of Historic Writing Practices

Writing is not just a set of systems for transcribing language and communicating meaning, but an important element of human practice, deeply embedded in the cultures where it is present and fundamentally interconnected with all other aspects of human life. The Social and Cultural Contexts of Historic Writing Practices explores these relationships in a number of different cultural contexts and from a range of disciplinary perspectives, including archaeological, anthropological and linguistic. It offers new ways of approaching the study of writing and integrating it into wider debates and discussions about culture, history and archaeology

Top-Managers of Foreign Multinational Enterprises in Mexico : Socialization, Leadership Style and Impact

This study focuses on the top-managers who run the subsidiaries of foreign multinational enterprises (MNEs) in Mexico. While some of them are Mexican, others are foreigners who have been sent from the countries of origin of their enterprises. The thesis explores and compares the socialization, worldviews, values, identities and social distinction practices of these top-managers and investigates the intercultural interactions, identity, struggles and communication problems between Mexican and expatriate managers. In addition, the relationship and misunderstandings between foreign managers and local workers are taken into account. Furthermore, the impact of foreign multinational enterprises and foreign business elites on their local employees, their families and communities, and on Mexican society as a whole is examined. The question Are foreign multinational enterprises and elites agents of cultural and institutional change and, if so, which impact do they have on Mexican society? is addressed

Attuning to ‘the oneness’ in ‘the church in Taiwan’: an historical ethnography

This thesis describes the life of an international Christian group in Taiwan, which is referred to by members simply as “the church” (zhaohui, 召會) and regionally as “the church in Taiwan” (taiwan zhaohui, 台灣召會). It is more widely known as “the Little Flock”, “the Local Churches” and “Assembly Hall”. The group is founded upon the teachings of the Chinese Christian reformers, Watchman Nee (Ni Tuosheng, 1903-1972) and Witness Lee (Li Changshou, 1905-1997). Initially expanding the group in China, from the late 1940s onward Lee and other group members fled to Taiwan, to escape Mao’s communist takeover. From there, the group spread world-wide. The church’s ‘ministry’ (zhishi, 職事) consists of a relatively unique, detailed and extensive set of ideas concerning the importance of “oneness” (heyiwujian, 合一無間). The group also engages in a distinctive set of aesthetic, linguistic and bodily practices. Aside from describing the group, the thesis attempts to do two further things. First, it attempts to understand the contemporary and historical continuities and discontinuities between this group and other forms of religiosity in China and Taiwan. Secondly, it attempts to construct an ethnographic theory of social unity. Adopting Phillipe Descola’s (2013) “ontological regime” of “analogism” as a frame of ethnographic description and historical contextualisation, I argue that church concepts of “oneness” draw upon pre-conceptualised, and pre-Christian Sino-Taiwanese approaches to social unity. To this “analogistic” framework I add the concept of “attunement”, which is inspired by longstanding Chinese debates concerning the relations between cosmological structure (tianli, 天理) and social propriety (li, 禮). Throughout the thesis I try to understand the social reality of oneness in the church in Taiwan as a “parallax” of sameness and difference, movement and stasis, to which church members are variously attuned

What does psychology know and understand about the psychological effects of reading superhero comic books?: An exploration study

Superheroes in comic books have been recently used in psychological interventions (e.g. Superhero Therapy, Geek Therapy, Comic Book Therapy, etc.). Previous research has placed focus on the effects of, the experiences of bibliotherapy, cinema therapy, video game effects or "media effects" among other forms of when used in psychological intervention. However, little research has been conducted on the effects of and experience of superhero comic books on mental health. The present study looks to gain understanding of the effect and experience of superhero comic books using qualitative phenomenology. Self-Determination Theory of motivation was used as a guide in interpreting the data. A sample size of 15 participants were selected and interviewed. Phenomenological thematic analysis yielded physiological & emotional reactions, nostalgia, source of coping, moral guidance, social utility, relating to characters, and building knowledge as common themes reported by participants. The essence of experiences or overall experience of participants who read superhero comic books was a form of psychological coping & escape

Customer-to-customer co-creation of value in the context of festivals.

The notion of customers co-creating value with the firm has recently gained considerable attention within the service marketing discipline. The Service-Dominant (S-D) and the Customer-Dominant (C-D) logic in marketing in particular emphasise the active role of customers in the co-creation of value. But further theoretical insights are needed into the process of value co-creation. Specifically, customer-to-customer (C2C) value co-creation that takes place as customers come together to socialise, interact with each other and to be co-present in socially dense service settings, requires further conceptualisation. C2C value co-creation is explored in this thesis in the socially dense service setting of multi-day outdoor festivals, using the concept of value-forming social practices as a theoretical lens. The methodological design is guided by the social constructionist stance, which complements the practice-based value approach in co-creation research by emphasising the importance of social contexts. Methods adopted include ethnographic-style participant observation, document and visual materials analysis, and a total of 52 in-depth interviews at five different UK-based outdoor multi-day festivals. Interpretive analysis identifies six distinctive C2C co-creation practices: Belonging, Bonding, Detaching, Communing, Connecting and Amiability. Each practice is described in terms of the actions in which it is embodied. The practices are positioned in a two-dimensional framework, with the Value orientation and the Value immersion dimensions reflecting the complexities and ambiguities that exist in social contexts. Aspects of subject- and situation-specific practice elements are examined with regard to their role in influencing the C2C co-creation process at festivals. Practice-based segmentation and social servicescape design strategies are proposed, which can be used to support and facilitate C2C co-creation. A theoretical contribution is made to the body of knowledge in service marketing, and the S-D and C-D logics in particular, by advancing understanding of what specifically is involved in C2C value co-creation. The thesis also offers holistic insights relevant for service marketing practice. It provides tangible recommendations that could lead to more favourable social outcomes for customers and consequently, competitive advantage for the firm