Evolution, Autism and Social Change: A New Feminine Theory of Evolution That Explains Autism

125 p. Libro ElectrónicoEl libro pretende hacer una reseña a cerca de los cambios que se han visto reflejados en la sociedad, respecto a lo que es la participación de las mujeres hoy en día.Incluye ilustracione

Sustainability in design: now! Challenges and opportunities for design research, education and practice in the XXI century

Copyright @ 2010 Greenleaf PublicationsLeNS project funded by the Asia Link Programme, EuropeAid, European Commission

Driving Foreign Relations: The European Sports Car and the Globalization of America

Historians are just beginning to examine the ways in which Americans were affected at home by contact with the peoples and cultures of Europe through consumption. As Kristin Hoganson notes in Consumer’s Imperium, when it comes to Americanization and the globalization of culture “we know more about the outgoing tide than the incoming swells.”1 My dissertation takes the notion of Americanization and inverts it to examine the influence of a European product, the sports car, on American consumers and automobile manufacturers in the postwar period. By using European sports cars as a case study to explore the influence of European culture, modes of production, and manufacturers within postwar America I challenge the myth of postwar American cultural and economic impermeability. Secondly, I argue that the process described as Americanization was one part of a larger process of cultural and economic globalization, and that the globalization of America began immediately following the end of World War II. The tendency to ascribe globalization a national character is a relic of the privileged position that America held when technology and geopolitical reality all made America finally, inescapably, global. Therefore, my work provides a new context for understanding the ultimate collapse of the Bretton-Woods agreements in 1971 and America’s increasingly globalized economy by demonstrating that globalization was a process that began immediately after the end of the war rather than a “shock” that came in the 1970s

Volume 20, Full Contents

Full Contents of Volume 2

Uneven and combined development: modernity, modernism, revolution

Trotsky’s theory of Uneven and Combined Development was born out of his experience of the Russian Revolution. To mark the centenary of the revolution, we are publishing a series of five pieces by Neil Davidson that explore the theory’s wider contribution to how we understand capitalist modernity. These articles show how ideas that began life in the revolution continue to inspire new ways of grasping the world, and that we are very much engaging in a living 21st century world when reflecting on the previous century. The series published here are extracts of his forthcoming book Violating all the Laws of History that will be published in the Haymarket Historical Materialism series in 2018

Situating Taiwanese identities: social transformations, young people and television drama

This thesis examines the recent production and consumption of television dramas in Taiwan in the context of Taiwan's complicated modem history, rapid social transitions, budding self-assertiveness and changing relationships with regional and global players. The detailed analysis in this subject matter contributes to wider debates in the media globalisation theory, reaffirming the continuing development of an East Asian cultural trading block and pointing to a formation of the distinctive regional popular culture that is more effective in shaping up the local production and consumption activities. The rising regional dynamism in Taiwan's television drama production and consumption since the late 1990s has been encapsulated in this thesis in three main points: 1. The findings from detailed content analysis on programming schedules of seven locally-run channels has shown that regional programming is more integrated with local business while global programming (mostly American) has shifted to be produced and distributed single-handedly by the transnational media corporations. 2. The first-hand audience interviews revealed a subtle difference in young people's viewing experiences of the global and the regional programming. Situated in a broader social context, their experience of the former has primarily crouched on a fantasy of liberal individualism while the latter provided a desirable template for emulation in everyday life. 3. The thesis also discussed the emergence of a new drama genre on Taiwanese television-Idol drama, which can be seen as the reactions to the widespread regional television deregulation, commercialisation and growing intra-regional cultural trade. Its late development has also epitomised An inevitable negotiation of local characteristic with regional forces

The moderating effect of social media involvement and brand love on the consumer perceived values and purchasing intention of fast-fashion products

This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonThe concept of “customer perceived value” has been evolving as an essential area within the marketing discipline for decades. Knowing what shapes consumer perception towards a product or service is vital for businesses (Sweeney and Soutar, 2001), especially for fashion products whose trends are ever-changing. Nevertheless, in the technology era, fashion consumers tend to use the spectrum of media platforms to search for information, to compare prices and exchange experiences amongst a common group. According to McKinsey and Company (2014), up to 35% of fashion consumers rely on online recommendations prior to making a purchasing decision. Given the challenges in this area of business, the aim of this study is to develop the multidimensional scale to measure consumer social media involvement. The measurement scale has been tested in the conceptual models by investigating the moderating effect of social media involvement influencing the relationships of customer perceived value and purchasing intention. The proposed scale is also examined within the customer perceived value dimensions against the key consequences. Moreover, the concept of brand love is incorporated within this study. Sometimes, people purchase brand not product itself and brand love construct is recently new concept and limited studies investigated into this area. Therefore, this study focuses on the moderating effect of social media involvement and brand love towards customer perceived value and purchasing intention for fast-fashion products. A quantitative research method was undertaken to collect research data. The self administered questionnaires were completed by Thai consumers at three particular department stores located in central Bangkok. The data analysis was then performed based on the returned, completed questionnaires of 630 respondents. Both exploratory and confirmatory analysis techniques were used to validate the measurement scale of the study. Structural equation modelling was conducted to test the hypotheses of both direct and indirect relationships. The quantitative results show customer perceived value from multiple dimensions (social, emotional, price and quality) towards fast fashion products. It was found that there is a direct causal relationship between the customer perceived value and purchasing intention, influenced by the level of social media involvement and brand love. An individual who has a high level of social media involvement and brand love tends to perceive a greater consumption experience which lead to preceding the positive outcomes. Therefore, fashion retailers should consider these dimensions and maintain a favourable relationship to enhance the consumer perception experience. Moreover, utilising the advantages from social media to connect with customers should not be neglected. However, the results showed that not all dimensions were found to have a positive effect on consumer purchasing intention towards fast fashion products equally; hence, the fashion marketers should deliberately evaluate each dimension of desired customer perceived value prior to applying a particular strategic plan. Moreover, the findings of this study are of the greatest importance to consumer behaviour especially in the area of involvement by extending the further knowledge. Social media involvement measurement scale has been developed from the limitation of exising studies by incorporated multi-facet dimensions (affective, cognitive and behavioural involvement) in the way to capture the complex nature of involvement variables. Furthermore, the model framework demonstrated the motive force behind behavioural intention by investigating the moderating role of social media involvement and brand love within the fast fashion products