Online Social Networks: An Online Brand Community Framework

This article explores the various stances and ideas that firms must both heed and consistently adapt to in the perpetuation ofthe Web 2.0 phenomenon of online social networks (OSNs). Within the article, the sociological implications of OSNs areexplored before discussing various strategies, opportunities, and problems that are associated with the continued growth ofOSNs within and outside of the firm, ending with the creation of a theoretical framework for value co-creation using OSNsand brand communities, and critical success factors in utilizing said framework

Framing the Mother Tac : the racialised, sexualised and gendered politics of modern slavery in Australia

Centred on the slavery trial “Crown vs. Rungnapha Kanbut” heard in Sydney, New South Wales, between 10 April and 15 May 2019, this article seeks to frame the figure of the “Mother Tac” or the “mother of contract”, also called “mama tac” or “mae tac”—a term used amongst Thai migrants to describe a woman who hosts, collects debts from, and organises work for Thai migrant sex workers in their destination country. It proposes that this largely unexplored figure has come to assume a disproportionate role in the “modern slavery” approach to human trafficking, with its emphasis on absolute victims and individual offenders. The harms suffered by Kanbut’s victims are put into context by referring to existing literature on women accused of trafficking; interviews with Thai migrant sex workers, including Kanbut’s primary victim, and with members from the Australian Federal Police Human Trafficking Unit; and ethnographic field notes. The article unveils how constructions of both victim and offender, as well as definitions of slavery, are racialised, gendered, and sexualised and rely on the victims’ subjective accounts of bounded exploitation. By documenting these and other limitations involved in a criminal justice approach, the authors reveal its shortfalls. For instance, while harsh sentences are meant as a deterrence to others, the complex and structural roots of migrant labour exploitation remain unaffected. This research finds that improved legal migration pathways, the decriminalisation of the sex industry, and improved access to information and support for migrant sex workers are key to reducing heavier forms of labour exploitation, including human trafficking, in the Australian sex industry

International films and international markets: the globalisation of Hollywood entertainment, c.1921-1951

The international appeal of Hollywood films through the twentieth century has been a subject of interest to economic and film historians alike. This paper employs some of the methods of the economic historian to evaluate key arguments within the film history literature explaining the global success of American films. Through careful analysis of both existing and newly constructed data sets, the paper examines the extent to which Hollywood's foreign earnings were affected by: film production costs; the extent of global distribution networks; and also the international orientation of the films themselves. The paper finds that these factors influenced foreign earnings in quite distinct ways, and that their relative importance changed over time. The evidence presented here suggests a degree of interaction between the production and distribution arms of the major US film companies in their pursuit of foreign markets that would benefit from further archival-based investigation

The neomodern Olympic Games : the revolutions in Europe and the resurgence of universalism

Analyse de l'histoire des Jeux olympiques du 20e siècle à la lumière du contexte social et politique de l'époque, en exploitant divers courants de théorisation sociale (Baudrillard, Habermas, Alexander ...) pour mieux comprendre les transformations de l'idéal olympique, les mutations idéologiques de l'olympisme. Jeux du début du siècle, expression classique de la modernité; puis transformation des Jeux en un phénomène postmoderne après l'effondrement du projet moderniste au cours du 20e siècle, développement qui a permis le maintien des Jeux en discréditant l'olympisme; émergence récente d'une néomodernité, précipitée par les révolutions d'Europe de l'Est, qui a redonné une crédibilité aux projets universalistes tels les Jeux olympiques

Tip Work: Examining the Relational Dynamics of Tipping beyond the Service Counter

Tips constitute a growing form of income for roughly three million American workers today. While existing scholarship on tipping focuses on worker-customer dynamics, it neglects the implications of gratuities beyond the service counter. Drawing on the case of restaurant workersin Los Angeles, this study analyzes tip work, the bundle of social relations and labor experiences framed by tips in commercial settings. I argue that tipping strains relations between subgroups of workers who, despite collectively producing service, are subject to unequal access to tip earnings. Tips thereby shape relations among workers in ways that exacerbate existing organizational and social hierarchies