The Issues of Fashion Brand Equity in a Circular Economy

Theoretical background: The worldwide fashion business has confronted the demand to transit from a linear to a circular business model that involves a series of fundamental alterations to the hitherto highly efficient strategies. As a consequence, a conceptual issue concerning fashion brand value creation has emerged. This applies notably to luxury, premium and fast fashion brands. Satisfying the expectations of customers and stakeholders should cease to be simply a matter of manufacturing a varied and impressive product line, since it has to be both sustainable and sensitive to the emergent requirements of the natural and social environment. Along with the aforementioned challenges, the key messages conveyed by brands through the marketing communication are also undergoing a transformation.Purpose of the article: To present the perspectives on building fashion brand equity in a circular economy, including risks and opportunities.Research methods: A review of scientific and specialised studies, selected using specific keywords, was undertaken. Data sources included academic resources: books, articles, market data (e.g. McKinsey & Company) and statistics published on the Statista platform, as well as specialised resources: expert articles, reports from organisations approaching the issue under research (e.g. EU, UN, Fashion Revolution, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, etc.). The search area was composed of electronic resources: licensed, open access websites and topic-related websites. The aim of the data analysis was to systematise background knowledge through an inductive method.Main findings: 1. The fashion business needs a change of mission, vision and strategy along with cooperation and coopetition among brands of the luxury goods, mass goods and organic MSMEs markets within its ecosystems in order to achieve the expected brand value. 2. The implementation of circular economy model in the fashion business implies the necessity to restrict overproduction and overconsumption of clothes and accessories at the same time as utilising sustainable raw materials and production technologies. Furthermore, it requires the dissemination of the slow fashion model, which incorporates the reuse of clothes by other users (rental of clothes, second hand, upcycling). 3. Change of consumer behaviour, popularisation of research findings and expertise from independent organizations is a factor stimulating fashion brands to act towards a circular economy in order to maintain high brand value

Creativity for multiculturalism: the artistic and educational action for developing borderland identity

The purpose of this text is to showcase creativity in action, creativity that has been directed to fostering mutual understanding and cooperation in a culturally diverse environment – in a region that has seen ethnic conflict. The text is devoted to the analysis of the work of two interrelated organisations – the Borderland Foundation, Poland and the Center for Borderland Arts, Cultures and Nations, Poland – which for decades have been working innovatively on a complex history, together with the local community. This is a history that includes nationally and religiously diverse groups. Experiences with the local community have provided the inspiration for the Borderland Foundation and the Centre for Borderland Arts, Cultures and Nations for further creative work in art, education and history focussed on the phenomenon of borderland identity. The text is based on an analysis of both institutions’ websites, as well as interviews with their team members and project participants

Tożsamość etniczna jednostki w kontekście pogranicza

Wydział Pedagogiki i Psychologii Uniwersytetu w BiałymstokuWydział Historyczno-Socjologiczny Uniwersytetu w Białymstok

Us and them : the image of the others in the Swedish-American periodicals for youth (1890-1920)

Between 1890 and 19201 Swedish immigrants to America established a well-organized and dynamically working ethnic community. With the increase in their number and the development of ethnic institutions, the question of ethnic identity emerged. It became especially pressing when immigrants’ children started growing up and looking for their own, unique space - both within their ethnic group and American society. Ethnic leaders attempted to respond to this situation with creating an ideology which would correspond with the complex cultural background of young generations. Ethnic press and literature were of crucial importance in this process. The literary leaders strove to present what it meant to be Swedish-American, but also - what it did not mean. The latter was easiest to explain through the useful category of Others. Thus, the focus of this chapter is the image of the Others as presented in the Swedish-American writings for youth. Drawing on the material published by the Lutheran publishing house Augustana Book Concern within the years 1890 - 1920, it examines the stereotypes, values and features attributed to Them, as contrasted to Us, ‘real’ Swedish-Americans. Since Augustana leaders made Lutheranism the very core of their message, the Others will be analyzed within the context of religion

Exotic otherlands, headquarters of death : sub-tropical land - and cityscapes in The Southern Vampire Mysteries

The landscapes and cityscapes of the sub-tropical Southern United States, with their opulent nature, exuberant cities, boisterous cultural diversity and troubled history of conflict and violence have long offered an alluring locale for Gothic narratives. This article explores the ways in which The Southern Vampire Mysteries (2001-2013) - the best-selling literary series by Charlaine Harris and the basis for the HBO TV series True Blood-construct the Gothicised imageries of the American South as the terrain of confusing ambivalences; of glamour and exoticism, death and the uncanny. Informed by the discourses of tropicality, Tropical and Urban Gothic and exotic tourism - and the ways they interweave with the concept of Otherness - the paper seeks to illuminate the process of interrelating and consequently exoticising the figure of the Other and Southern sub-tropical land-and cityscapes. It also examines the tropes of urban inter-species relations articulated in the series as a metaphor for the Southern racial/ethnic heritage with its anxieties of miscegenation, transgression and "excessive" heterogeneity. A particular emphasis is placed on the accounts of New Orleans as the liminal space of cultural blending and touristic exploration of the figure o the Other

Gauge Symmetries and Amplitudes in N=2 Strings

Picture changed operators are discussed in $N=2$ strings with space-time signature $(2,2)$. A gauge symmetry algebra is derived in a background of torus space-time $T^{2,2}$ and its simple representation on the picture changed operators is given. Simple Ward identities associated with the gauge algebra and their consequences for three and four point amplitudes of arbitrary loops are also discussed.Comment: 16 page

The generalized no-ghost theorem for N=2 SUSY critical strings

We prove the no-ghost theorem for the N=2 SUSY strings in (2,2) dimensional flat Minkowski space. We propose a generalization of this theorem for an arbitrary geometry of the N=2 SUSY string theory taking advantage of the N=4 SCA generators present in this model. Physical states are found to be the highest weight states of the N=4 SCA.Comment: 13

Recombinant Flag-tagged E1E2 glycoproteins from three hepatitis C virus genotypes are biologically functional and elicit cross-reactive neutralizing antibodies in mice

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a globally disseminated human pathogen for which no vaccine is currently available. HCV is highly diverse genetically and can be classified into 7 genotypes and multiple sub-types. Due to this antigenic variation, the induction of cross-reactive and at the same time neutralizing antibodies is a challenge in vaccine production. Here we report the analysis of immunogenicity of recombinant HCV envelope glycoproteins from genotypes 1a, 1b and 2a, with a Flag tag inserted in the hypervariable region 1 of E2. This modification did not affect protein expression or conformation or its capacity to bind the crucial virus entry factor, CD81. Importantly, in immunogenicity studies on mice, the purified E2-Flag mutants elicited high-titer, cross-reactive antibodies that were able to neutralize HCV infectious particles from two genotypes tested (1a and 2a). These findings indicate that E1E2-Flag envelope glycoproteins could be important immunogen candidates for vaccine aiming to induce broad HCV-neutralizing responses