Strolling through Istanbul's Beyoglu: In-Between Difference and Containment

Cataloged from PDF version of article.In this essay, I evaluate Istanbul's Beyolu as a hybrid and negotiated space and investigate how the imaginary and lived experiences of space enable as well as constrain transgressive everyday practices and identity politics. Through analyzing memories, imaginations, and experiences of Beyolu, in particular its drag/transsexual subculture, I explore the ways in which the past and present interact under the dynamic of globalization and (re)produce Beyolu as a space of difference and containment. Beyond the intricacies of Istanbul's sex trade, night life, and queer subculture, I propose that the singular district of Beyolu, given its geographical, historical, and social location, operates as a microcosm of the tensions and negotiations between East and West, local and global, past and present

Estimating the price of privacy in liver transplantation

In the United States, patients with end-stage liver disease must join a waiting list to be eligible for cadaveric liver transplantation. However, the details of the composition of this waiting list are only partially available to the patients. Patients currently have the prerogative to reject any offered livers without any penalty. We study the problem of optimally deciding which offers to accept and which to reject. This decision is significantly affected by the patient's health status and progression as well as the composition of the waiting list, as it determines the chances a patient receives offers. We evaluate the value of obtaining the waiting list information through explicitly incorporating this information into the decision making process faced by these patients. We define the concept of the patient's price of privacy, namely the number of expected life days lost due to a lack of perfect waiting list information.We develop Markov decision process models that examine this question. Our first model assumes perfect waiting list information and, when compared to an existing model from the literature, yields upper bounds on the true price of privacy. Our second model relaxes the perfect information assumption and, hence, provides an accurate representation of the partially observable waiting list as in current practice. Comparing the optimal policies associated with these two models provides more accurate estimates for the price of privacy. We derive structural properties of both models, including conditions that guarantee monotone value functions and control-limit policies, and solve both models using clinical data.We also provide an extensive empirical study to test whether patients are actually making their accept/reject decisions so as to maximize their life expectancy, as this is assumed in our previous models. For this purpose, we consider patients transplanted with living-donor livers only, as considering other patients implies a model with enormous data requirements, and compare their actual decisions to the decisions suggested by a nonstationary MDP model that extends an existing model from the literature

The ontological pitfalls of Islamic exceptionalism : a re-inquiry on El-Bassiouny’s (2014, 2015) conceptualization of "Islamic marketing"

In response to Jafari and Sandıkcı's (2015a) critique of her 2014 article entitled "The one-billion-plus marginalization", El-Bassiouny (2015) dismisses the authors' key ontological debate over exceptionalism as a historical and political discourse and diverts attention to new areas of enquiry (e.g., disciplinary legitimacy, Islamic jurisprudence and methodological pluralism) to further her original "transcendental values integration" approach to marketing theory, practice and education. While offering new insights, El-Bassiouny's account is still largely driven by discourses of marginalization, exceptionalism and Islamism. This article therefore: (1) reappraises the oversimplification of the marginalization discourse; (2) reiterates the pitfalls of Islamic exceptionalism at an ontological level; (3) cautions against the consequences of ideological readings of Islam in marketing and consumer research; and (4) re-emphasizes the importance of understanding identity dynamics in the analysis of the complex intersections of Islam, marketing and consumption. In conclusion, the article offers some areas for future research

Western influences in Turkish advertising: Disseminating the ideals of home, family and femininity in the 1950s and 1960s

Purpose – This purpose of this paper is to explore how Western design, fashion and aesthetic styles influenced advertising practice in Turkey in the post-Second World War era. Specifically, the authors focus on the key targets of the consumerist ideology of the period, women and discuss the representations of females in Turkish advertisements. Design/methodology/approach – Data were analysed using a combination of social semiotic and compositional analysis methods. Compositional analysis focused on the formal qualities and design elements of the ads; social semiotic analysis sought to uncover their meaning potentials in relation to social, cultural, political and economic dynamics of the period. The advertisements of a prominent Turkish pasta brand, Piyale, published in the local adaptation of the American Life magazine, between 1956 and 1966, constitute the data set. Findings – The analysis reveals that Piyale followed the stylistic and thematic trends prevailing in American and European advertisements at the time and crafted ads that constructed and communicated a Westernized image of Turkish women and families. In line with the cultural currents of the 1950s and 1960s, the ads emphasize patriarchal gender roles and traditional family values and address the woman as a consumer whose priority is to please her husband and take good care of her children. Originality/value – This study contributes to the advertising history in non-Western contexts and provides an understanding of the influence Western advertising conventions and fashion trends had on developing country markets. The findings indicate that Western-inspired representations and gender roles dominated advertisements of local brands during the post-war period

A sociohistorical analysis of packaging design: a case study of the Turkish pasta brand Piyale

Purpose – This paper aims to understand how social, cultural and political economic dynamics inform packaging design. Specifically, it focuses on one of the oldest Turkish pasta brands, Piyale, and seeks to understand the impact of the changes in the macro-institutional structures on its packaging practices over the course of almost a century. Design/methodology/approach – The analysis is mainly based on data collected through archival and documentary research. The archival data are gathered from various sources including the personal archives of the former managers, advertisements published in the popular magazines of the time and industry reports and documents. Data are analyzed using a combination of compositional and social semiotic analysis. Findings – The analysis indicates four distinct periods in the brand’s history. The design elements and visual identity reflect the social, cultural, political, economic and technological changes shaping the Turkish society in these different time periods. The findings show that a socio-historically situated analysis of a brand’s packaging design transformation reveals the complex relationship between design and culture and provides clues to the market-society interface. Originality/value – This study provides a comprehensive historical analysis of the visual identity evolution of the oldest Turkish pasta brand Piyale and contributes to research on packaging histories in the non-Western markets

Politically Motivated Brand Rejection

Cataloged from PDF version of article.This paper introduces the concept of politically motivated brand rejection (PMBR) as an emergent form of anti-consumption behavior. PMBR is the refusal to purchase and/or use a brand on a permanent basis because of its perceived association to a particular political ideology that the consumer opposes. Specifically, the paper discusses three distinct sets of political ideologies that can lead to rejection of certain brands by some consumers. These ideologies include predatory globalization, chauvinistic nationalism, and religious fundamentalism. The target of PMBR can be both local and global brands and consumers who engage in PMBR do not expect any change in marketing practice. © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Poverty and socioeconomic injustice in Muslim geographies

This chapter critiques the extant literature’s lack of attention to poverty and socioeconomic injustice in Muslim geographies and offers a research agenda to critically examine these phenomena in the context of Islamic consumptionscapes. The authors locate the recent interest in understanding the connections between Islam, consumption and markets within the neoliberal political economy and argue that the subject of the existing research has mostly been the relatively wealthy, educated and urban Muslim consumers. Noting that a significant portion of Muslim geographies are characterized by poverty, underdevelopment and socioeconomic inequality, the authors advocate a critical research perspective on poor Muslim consumers

Religion and everyday consumption ethics: a moral economy approach

As research on ethical consumers and consumption practices has continued to grow, a complimentary body of work concerned less with ethical consumption but more with ethics in consumption has emerged. Problematizing the divide between ethical and non-ethical consumption, this stream of research focuses on the domain of everyday and explores the moral struggles individuals face while engaging in ordinary consumption practices. However, the attention on the ordinary runs the risk of obscuring the contribution of the ‘extraordinary’ or the transcendental to the ethical concerns embedded in the mundane flow of the everyday. This study addresses this blind spot and explores the ways in which religion is implicated in everyday consumption ethics. In doing so, I go beyond a view of religion as an individual trait and emphasize its role as a major institutional structure of the contemporary political economy. The empirical context of the study is the controversy over the so-called halal nail polish. The debate over the products’ appropriateness for Muslim women provides a fertile setting to explore how an ordinary object becomes an ethical problem amid changing relations between religion and market. In order to trace and analyze the linkages between daily practices and institutional dynamics I draw from the moral economy framework and discuss the multiple and conflicting moral repertoires that shape the ethical evaluations of the object. The study offers several contributions to the existing theorizations of everyday consumption ethics and moral economies of consumption. It also highlights the potential of interdisciplinary approaches in providing a holistic understanding of the ethical and moral dimensions of consumption

Strolling through Istanbul's Beyoʇlu: In-between difference and containment

In this essay, I evaluate Istanbul's Beyoʇlu as a hybrid and negotiated space and investigate how the imaginary and lived experiences of space enable as well as constrain transgressive everyday practices and identity politics. Through analyzing memories, imaginations, and experiences of Beyoʇlu, in particular its drag/transsexual subculture, I explore the ways in which the past and present interact under the dynamic of globalization and (re)produce Beyoʇlu as a space of difference and containment. Beyond the intricacies of Istanbul's sex trade, night life, and queer subculture, I propose that the singular district of Beyoʇlu, given its geographical, historical, and social location, operates as a microcosm of the tensions and negotiations between East and West, local and global, past and present. © The Author(s) 2013

Researching Islamic Marketing: Past and Future Perspectives

Cataloged from PDF version of article.Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the reasons underlying the recent interest on Islamic marketing, discusses past research on the topic and offers a future research perspective. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on a critical review of the existing literature. It offers ethnoconsumerism as a way to develop a situated understanding of Muslim consumers and businesses. Findings: Two distinct phases, omission and discovery, characterize the existing literature. Omission derives from the stereotyping of Muslims as traditional and uncivilized people and Islam as incompatible with capitalist consumer ideology. Discovery relates to the identification of Muslims as an untapped and viable consumer segment and the increasing visibility of Muslim entrepreneurs. Research limitations/implications: A deeper understanding of Muslim consumers and marketers requires doing away with essentialist approaches that reify difference. Instead of focusing on differences future research needs to pay attention to how such differences play out in the daily lives of consumers and examine the religious, political, cultural and economic resources, forces and tensions that consumers experience and negotiate as they (re)construct and communicate their identities as Muslims. Practical implications: Managers should not assume Muslims to be a homogeneous and preexisting segment. They should focus on the daily practices for which the product may be relevant and generate solutions that will help Muslims live proper Islamic lives. Originality/value: The paper draws attention to the potential problems in carrying out research on Islamic marketing and highlights the dangers of an essentialist perspective. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited