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Access-based consumption, defined as transactions that can be market mediated but where no transfer of ownership takes place, is becoming increasingly popular, yet it is not well theorized. This study examines the nature of access as it contrasts to ownership and sharing, specifically the consumer-object, consumer-consumer, and consumer-marketer relationships. Six dimensions are identified to distinguish among the range of access-based consumptionscapes: temporality, anonymity, market mediation, consumer involvement, the type of accessed object, and political consumerism. Access-based consumption is examined in the context of car sharing via an interpretive study of Zipcar consumers. Four outcomes of these dimensions in the context of car sharing are identified: lack of identification, varying significance of use and sign value, negative reciprocity resulting in a big-brother model of governance, and a deterrence of brand community. The implications of our findings for understanding the nature of exchange, consumption, and brand community are discussed.

This research investigating social consumption behavior in critical perspective. Consumption behavior could be said as a factor which describe social economics level. However, this research focused on socio-cultural problems related to consumption behavior, by using inspecting literature methods. This research revealed that consumption behavior can create social differentiation. Consumption then could be says as communication activity. Keywords: consumption, commodity, sign-value

Involvement has been studied for 30 years, but how product involvement is linked to brand loyalty in four- or five-star leisure hotels needs further examination. This study examines how Swiss leisure travelers' product involvement with a hotel relates to loyalty to the hotel brand. Findings demonstrate moderately high involvement levels yet weaker brand loyalty impacted by the tourist's desire to visit different destinations. Involvement antecedents “pleasure” and “sign value” show strong relationships, suggesting that tailored marketing strategies are needed to enhance involvement. Some potential involvement-enhancing strategies are discussed in the conclusions to the study.

If managerialism points to the ideological foundations and bureaucratisation of contemporary education, marketisation signals its commodification, image and exchange. This paper brings to bear the prevailing influence of marketisation on education. It begins with a brief description of the European context and development of learning outcomes, and outlines the (economic) rationale for their existence. It then sets out to explore the logic of learning outcomes, asking: what is lost in the process of education being exchanged as a commodity? We argue that marketisation, through its constituent concepts of commodification, image and exchange, seduces as an education ‘spectacle’ and ultimately shapes individuals’ value positions. In essence, marketisation, grounded in contemporary neoliberal economics, privileges quantitative, at the expense of genuinely qualitative, educational substance. Further, we argue that learning outcomes are a simulacrum: like other signifiers of commodities, they appear meaningful (...

This paper examines an IMF structural adjustment program and the role of accounting technologies and agents within that program. Focusing on banking sector reform in Nigeria, the paper shows how IMF attempts to remake economic life come up against formidable contextual challenges, and how accounting may or may not be taken up to confront those challenges. Specifically, it shows that even where accounting numbers are ‘managed’, the potential disciplinary power of accounting's system of signs remains, though again that power may not be exploited if those who are responsible for governing lack the necessary desire. The study's findings challenge two sets of understandings: that which sees the economy as somehow separate or distinct from the wider socio-political field, and that which sees crises such as occurred in Nigeria as simply resulting from inadequate or insufficient accounting regulations and controls.

This study aims to prove whether transformational leadership training is effective for building anti-corruption attitudes of villages in Kebonharjo village, subdistrict Samigaluh Kulonprogo. This research is an experimental research with one group pre and posttest design.Subject design is 17 people from village of 21 candidates registered. Measuring tool used in this research is the scale of anti-corruption perception made by the researcher referring to the 9 anti-corruption values with the value of reliability coefficient of 0.871. The module used as an intervention made by the researcher refers to the transformational leadership dimension (Bass, 1990). The data collected is analyzed by statistical analysis of different test Paired Sample Test. Initial data collection results obtained sign value of 0.770 which means> 0.05 or no significant difference between anti-corruption perception score between before and after training. After a period of less than 1 (one) month then conducted again the measurement of follow-up of the study subjects in the measurement again using the scale of anti-corruption perception. The results of the second data collection were analysed with Paired Samples Test and obtained the value of 0.623 sign meaning p> 0.05 or no significant difference between post test data with follow-up data so that the hypothesis of this study was rejected.

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between mathematics education and the notions of education for all/democracy. In order to proceed with our analysis, we present Marx’s concept of commodity and Jean Baudrillard’s concept of sign value as a theoretical reference in the discussion of how knowledge has become a universal need in today’s society and ideology. After, we engage in showing mathematics education’s historical and epistemological grip to this ideology. We claim that mathematics education appears in the time period that English becomes an international language and the notion of international seems to be a key constructor in the constitution of that ideology. Here, we draw from Derrida’s famous saying that “there is nothing beyond the text”. We conclude that a critique to modern society and education has been developed from an idealistic concept of democracy.

The call for a new paradigm is loud and clear and consistent with postmodern methods. They are no gold standard to be applied to all investigations; no master narrative to be defended. Interdisciplinary, as the author tries to demonstrate, can mean not only cooperation among disciplines, but also the use of a variety of often discipline favoured methods by a single investigator or a team of investigators whose location within a particular ‘discipline’ is both historically contingent and likely dated in terms of its usefulness. Likewise, the use of multilevel considerations means that the diversity of methods and approaches at various levels of abstraction are necessary to begin any study of religious phenomena in their immense complexity. This study of serpent handlers focuses upon archival research; hermeneutical explorations of textual criticism of the Bible; ethnography linked to videotapes; phenomenological interviews analyzed in terms of a hermeneutical method that reveals the meaningfulness of handling serpents, being anointed, and the experience of near death from serpent bites. The author is committed to exploring the meaning of serpent handling from personal and cultural perspectives, and also takes into account psychological theories to link the symbolic and sign value of serpents that further does justice to the power of the serpent to elicit genuine religious experiences and to serve as an apologetic for a tradition that has been maligned and misunderstood by lay persons and scholars alike.

Unpacking social work's low self-image and even lower social prestige reveals multiple layers of assumptions both within and outside the discipline that coalesce to construct a profession at odds with itself. Social work colludes with social forces which devalue its work while it presents a series of signs that reinforce the negative stereo-types associated with its practices. Social work projects little sign value, and what sign value it has tends toward the negative (e.g., weak, easy, common). This essay lays out two texts in parallel columns on the page. The right-hand side column “unpacks” via standard discourse while the left-hand side comments via a combination of real and imagined advertising slogans which both spoof and invite an unbranded profession's search for its aesthetic, market niche. Recommendations include a reconstitution of BSW curricula, clarification of the practice continuum, regendering, relanguaging, and re-marketing.

In the purchase decision of a new brand from a multibranding firm, a consumer is likely to rely upon what he/she knows about the company to make an initial judgement. This paper attempts to explore how established consumer knowledge influences the consumer's new brand purchase intention and how the knowledge transfer can be moderated by some product characteristics. In this research, consumer knowledge is conceptualised by two variables, Category Expertise Belief and Category Association Belief, and product characteristics are measured by Product Sign Value and Product Pleasure Value. The research findings will help the brand manager understand how to shape and take advantage of consumer knowledge to facilitate consumer acceptance of a new brand.

In describing 'mission-shaped presence' and contrasting it with ecclesial forms of Christian presence, I suggest that mission-shaped presence is essential to the theological renewal of current ecclesiopraxis. My treatment falls into three sections. Initially I attempt an impressionistic portrait of important distinctions between two forms of Christian presence; one is characterized as ecclesial, the other as missional. Secondly, I offer several brief descriptions of what may be called forms of mission-shaped presence. Finally, I theorize sociologically about this dialectic using the work of Anthony Giddens on structuration, and the way in which this bears upon an understanding of the institutions of modernity. This leads us to conclude that mission-shaped forms of Christian presence, though vitally important, are transitional forms that stimulate and orient the journey towards a truly post-modern expression of the church of Jesus Christ. From this perspective, the process of reflexive action within these forms of mission-shaped presence is arguably more important than the particular forms themselves. I. Introduction Ia. MFG and the Roman Catholic Church in France In March 2005, French fashion designer MFG displayed a female "Last Supper" on the billboards of Neuilly, near Paris. MFG rather trumped Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code by portraying every individual present at the table as a woman. It was a scene that one suspects not even Leonardo would have been bold enough to portray! Not surprisingly, the advert proved to be highly provocative and controversial. The French courts considered the advert to have insulted "the religious feelings of Roman Catholics", and banned it from public display. In the same year, I entered a trendy clothes store in Amersfoort, Holland, and was more than a little surprised to be greeted by the bleeding heart of Jesus, a Madonna and Child, and a crown of thorns. These were not religious icons but as style icons, borne on the sleeves, chests and quilted padding of jackets, T-shirts, and other items of clothing manufactured by G-SUS Industries. (1) Ib. Vogue and Bible Society In its May 1999 British edition, Vogue magazine ran a promotional feature titled "A New Spirit", and with a series of fashion images spread over six pages. Ostensibly, the feature was characteristic of Vogue's editorial policy: images modelling various items of clothing with accompanying text detailing manufacturer, price and outlet details. However, the series of striking images, posed in a variety of settings, were juxtaposed with a range of aspirational statements that were capable of deeper explication. A short biblical reference that extended the possibilities for such explication accompanied each statement. Bible Society (Swindon, UK) had placed the advertisements in consultation with Justin Creedy-Smith, a leading public relations (PR) company. 2. Subversion and triumph 2a. A clash of icons I recall observing a very well dressed young Russian woman (in the Russian-speaking Holy Trinity congregation of the Finnish Orthodox Church in Helsinki) attending to her religious devotion during a Sunday service in December 2005. She moved purposefully around the church, as she venerated a careful sequence of religious icons. As she did so, the light of candles and the sunlight streaming through the windows played on the fittings of the belt she wore on her hips. It was a black leather belt threaded through a sequence of large, dazzling, chrome-plated metal letters spelling out the brand name, "Dolce & Gabana". I could not fail to be impressed by the contrast of cultural and religious iconography! I am intrigued, as I recall the images and text from each of these instances. In the first two, the MFG and G-SUS fashion labels arouse religious sensitivities. This is achieved by challenging the monopoly that religious institutions exercise over the sign value of particular religious icons. …

This article is a search for the promises of public education and the place where they are broken by progressive critics feeding at the academic and professional trough. It is an indictment of the exploitation of proliferating education academic simulations of working-class solidarity, borrowing the image of emancipation while feeding off the social capital of postmodernist sign value. The author conducts this exploration as a fellow edu-racketeer, too often guilty himself of this phony lifestyle radicalism. The author uses a comic bit and surrealist techniques to pry open the lid of these researches. In homage to Lenny Bruce, the author charts the course of censorship and academic exclusion from the American Educational Studies Association, where a few radicals who write about transgression threw the author out of the conference and the conversation, because he actually, not virtually, transgressed.

This article focuses on the development of consumer culture and specifically the notion of consumer freedom in the transitional society of Estonia. Drawing on the work of Zygmunt Bauman and Don Slater as well as the notion of ‘transition culture’ proposed by Michael Kennedy, it investigates the importance of western goods and western notions of consumer choice in anchoring emerging conceptions of individual freedom in post-socialist countries. This theme is explored through an analysis of a consumer item with a particularly high sign value in Estonia: the mobile phone. The analysis details the transformation discourses around freedom in print advertisements for mobile telephony from 1991–2001, demonstrating how over this period the meaning of freedom as a value shifted from political and economic conceptions to an individualized discourse of consumer choice emphasizing hedonism, self-expression and leisure. KEYWORDS advertising, consumer culture, freedom, mobile telephony, post- socialist context

The article examines the relationship between the culture (film) and tourist industries, suggesting that we reconsider the validity of their analytical differentiation. Contextually, it focuses on the generation of a new tourist industry in New Zealand after the global success of the cinematic ‘trilogy’ The Lord of the Rings (LOTR) (dir. Peter Jackson). It is argued that the LOTR tourist industry is characterized by simulation of a fantasy to such an extent, that we must reconsider the notion of ‘authenticity’ to examine this film-induced type of tourism. More insight is gained in this direction when we explore reactions of film viewers, and the way that commercial tourist providers use the films in the manufacturing of the tourist experience. The article also explores the response this global success instigated in New Zealand, making some observations on the relationship between cultural appropriation in tourist consumption, and cultural self-recognition.

Over the last few decades a certain fragmentation of economy and society has taken place on a global scale. A related observation is that the marketplace for landed property has become more complex, involving more actors and informal networks. The consequence is a cultural and behavioural reorientation of the conceptual model of property-value formation, which traditionally is anchored in equilibrium economics. This postulate is especially relevant for the residential sector as households and their preferences, as well as external factors forcing their mobility, are factors that contribute to the formation of house prices. However, from the early 1970s there was literature that pointed to a multidimensional theoretical framework on aesthetic and other values that ‘make the place’. Using more multiple and idiosyncratic perspectives of value conceptualisation is therefore not a completely new trend, only a neglected line of research. With these potentially powerful formulations as the background, this contribution presents evidence of property-value formation from the 1990s Helsinki housing market. Using the analytic hierarchy process, quality ranks for different bundles of locational attributes were generated based on interactive data, and compared with actual market-outcome data. Both the theoretical and the empirical material compiled for this paper suggest that, to remain a valid concept, equilibrium needs to be treated at the level of market price together with stated actor choice—not just on the level of the first concept.

This paper examines the concept of sustainable consumption by focusing on the consumption habits of Irish consumers. The key research findings fit into three broad and interrelated categories. Firstly, whilst recent sustainable consumption literature suggests that new research should focus on the issue of consumption, in and of itself, our study shows that consumers themselves view environmental problems from a supply and not a demand perspective. They focus on issues such as recycling and waste and not consumption itself. Secondly, our study shows that consumers have green opinions about very diverse issues and these are directly related to the individuals' lifestyles. Finally, our research shows that “material green” consumers are buying into a particular image in their consumption practices. This is very much connected to the meanings of their consumption that are derived from the communication value they attach to commodities. As such our study provides support for earlier conceptual research which su...

This study aims to analyze the influence of information asymmetry and firm size on earnings management.In this study the object of research is the Indonesia Stock Exchange. Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) or can also called Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX). Form data in this research is quantitative data. The data used in this research is the company's financial report along with independent auditor's report on the consumer goods industry in IDX period 2011-2015. The sample is determined by purposive sampling. Data analysis methods used consist of descriptive statistical analysis, classical assumption test analysis, multiple linear regression analysis, coefficient of determination and correlation coefficient, and hypothesis test.Based on the results of research show the value of correlation coefficient (R) of 0.230. From the calculation results can be concluded the relationship between variables Asymmetry Information (X1), and Company Size (X2) to variable Management Profit (Y) is weak and positive. While the value of coefficient of determination (R2) seen from Adjusted R Square shows the value of 0.039 or 3.9%. Hypothesis test results show the sign value of 0,048 that information asymmetry significant effect on earnings management. The firm size variable shows a sign value of 0.98 that firm size has no significant effect on earnings management. While testing simultaneously shows sign value of 0.028 that information asymmetry and firm size together have significant effect to earnings management. Keywords: information asymmetry, firm size, earnings management

Few studies on sign value offered by tourism information are available. This study focuses on the effect of sign meaning of tourism information provided by travel blogs on leisure negotiation mechanism, i.e., whether sign value assists information seekers to enforce their motivation, initiate leisure negotiation to overcome obstacles and contribute to overseas travel intention. Partial least squares analysis of data collected from Taiwanese residents on their intentions to tour Thailand showed that sign value enforces motivation and intention but cannot initiate negotiation strategies. The nature of travel blogs is conducive for tourism information to provide sign meaning to the information seekers. This study has added to the literature in tourism information search behaviour that centred on travel blog and leisure negotiation mechanism, and suggests that destination marketing organisations and bloggers could enhance their service and symbiotic mutualistic relationship by working together to provide sign-rich information to their visitors/readers.

Welby introduced the term “significs” for her special approach to the study of signs and meaning towards the end of the nineteenth century. This term was completely free from technical associations and was suitable to describe her focus on sign and meaning in relation to values and sense. Significs transcends pure descriptivism and analyzes signifying processes beyond logical-cognitive boundaries to explore the ethical, aesthetic and pragmatic dimensions of sign activity. Welby exchanged ideas with numerous personalities of the day, in some cases influencing the course of their research as in the case of Charles Peirce during the last decade of his life or Charles Ogden in his early student days. Her work inspired the Signific Movement in the Netherlands which flourished across the first half of the twentieth century thanks to mediation of the Dutch poet and psychiatrist F. van Eeden.

The point of departure of this paper is that markets as much model as mirror cultures, that trade introduces goods and competencies that can be used to transform social relationships. Kearney (1996) has suggested that Bourdieu's (1986) work on forms of capital and Baudrillard's concept (1981) of ‘sign value’ are useful tools in studying rural development and differentiation. This paper examines entrepreneurs active in the production and marketing of garlic in the Venezuelan Andes who take advantage of local sharecropping practices and the codes and concepts of the traditional economy to build efficient rural businesses. In so doing, they use both symbolic and economic capital to appropriate economic wealth. Successful entrepreneurs acquire material goods, behavior, and an economic rationality characteristic of the market economy, which they manipulate to transform social values.

Here we consider whether jean Baudrillard's theory of ‘sign value’ and ‘political economy of the sign’ offer a credible alternative to economic and utilitarian definitions of value. We begin by introducing the concept of value as it has been conventionally understood, proceeding to an introduction of Baudrillard's notion of ‘sign value’. Drawing on the findings of a recently conducted research project into museum visiting, we discuss whether'sign value’ provides a credible description of the museum consumption experience. We propose that Baudrillard's theoretical contributions should neither be wholly embraced nor totally rejected. Sign value can help provide a credible explanation of the value in museum visiting, but only when conceptualised in combination with other forms of value. In particular, following Heidegger, we identify one of these different forms of value in the museum experience as ’Dasein Value'; i.e. the value of ‘being there’.

A constant failure and frustration of relationships can be traced in most of Fitzgerald’s works of fiction. The most prominent instance seems to be the case of Gatsby and his elusive and obscure object of desire Daisy, yet Fitzgerald’s short stories can be considered as no exception. “Winter Dreams” is one of the short stories in which the prospect of an imminent downfall of relationship always haunts the protagonist. This essay attempts to shed light on the roots of this meltdown through Guy Debord’s theories. As a founding member of Situationist International (SI), Debord believed that the modern world’s defining characteristic is spectacle which mediates the relationships among the members of society. The lack of directness and immediacy which is caused by the Society of the Spectacle (La Société du Spectacle) seems to be the originator of the unremitting failure between the characters in the case of “Winter Dreams” and therein lies the rub.Keywords: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle (La Société du Spectacle), Sign-value, Exchange-value

This exploratory study identifies the dimensions of enduring involvement with wine. This article outlines the conceptualisation and measurement of enduring involvement of consumers with wine in regard to its value order in the hierarchy of needs. A convenience sample yielded 140 useable surveys after questionnaires were administered to pre-qualified consumer respondents. Data were analysed using the Predictive Analytics SoftWare statistical software package and its add-on feature, AMOS 18. It was found that wine consumers exhibit varying dimensions of enduring involvement according to the characteristics of the hierarchical order of need. The dimensions of enduring involvement identified to be associated with wine as a social and esteem value order product were: pleasure/interest, wine-related lifestyle/enjoyment and self-image/sign value. We conclude that enduring involvement is the more important of the two variants (situational and enduring) of the involvement paradigm. When harnessed by wine marketers, this may therefore boost sales and customer loyalty. Marketers need to know the drivers of wine consumers in relation to the product they buy. This will help in communicating the best strategies to adopt for consumers and how they are applied. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

The built environment can be regarded as a theatre set of signs which convey meanings and values. The developers and consumers of contemporary speculative developments are complicit in the process of defining the nature of such signs, as they are manifest in the built form of developments. It is argued that urban design theory and practice are frequently naive with regard to the process of defining and using images in what has been termed the commodification of the public realm. The characteristics of signs and sign value are examined, with an assessment of how signs contribute in the determination of the form and image of the public realm. Examples of development trends that rely partly on the interpretation and valorisation of such signs are then considered. The specific case of speculative housing development is then analysed. The results of a survey of 79 housing schemes are presented. In the survey the qualities of the built form were analysed and the value of signs was considered in the design of bu...

In this chapter I analyze how our freedom to create financial literacy knowledge is influenced by commodity sign production. In carrying out this semiological and structural analysis aimed at illuminating and denaturalizing further constraints on our freedom, the following analysis hopes to avoid being ‘idealist’ by reifying signs and giving them a power independent of our making, or falling into the opposite trap and portraying the sign environment as a superstructural reflection of a material base.

From the discussions of Veblen (1899) to the writings of contemporary researchers, there has been a compelling argument that consumption in leisure has a strong symbolic character. By focusing on the nature of that symbolism, unequivocal parallels are apparent in leisure consumption and leisure theory. This article reviews the literature in leisure and consumer behavior to identify these parallel issues from conceptualizations of sign value and self‐expression. Directions for future research investigating the roles of sign value and self‐expression in leisure, and a theoretical model of the relationship between leisure choice, personal identity, and social identity are provided.

Este artículo analiza el "etnoarte indígena" a partir de los conceptos valor simbólico y valor económico, valor signo y valor símbolo y, al mismo tiempo, examina su transformación en souvernir turístico. Se busca profundizar en el asunto teniendo como presupuestos teóricos las representaciones sociales y las resignificaciones de las manifestaciones culturales indígenas. Por último, se investigan los cambios que surgen debido al mercado y al turismo. This article analyze the "Indian ethnic-art" from the concepts of symbolic value and economic value, sign value and symbol value, and study the transformation of the ethnic-art into a touristic souvenir. The purpose is to go deep in this subject, taking as theoretical assumptions the social representations and significations of the manifestations and traditions of the native brazilian culture. At the end, the article explores the changes caused by the market and the tourism.

The involvement construct has received a great deal of attention in recent years. However, the majority of research on this topic has focused on the individual and has ignored spouses’ shared leisure involvement. In addition, little work has been done on involvement in the product‐class context of family vacations. This study examined the underlying dimensions of married couples’ involvement with family vacations and how these dimensions relate to selected personal variables. Factor analysis revealed two underlying dimensions. Stepwise multiple regression revealed that pleasure‐importance was positively related to gender role ideology and education and negatively related to presence of children in the home. A positive relation existed between the second dimension, sign value, and age. The study provides insight into both the nature of the involvement construct and how it might be used in future research.

Examining two Nathan Farb Adirondack landscape photographs from a wall calendar, this paper asks whether or not one can read a Nature photograph as an ideological text First, the paper traces Farb's way of seeing Nature to the emergence of the 19th century bourgeoisie and the Transcendental philosophy of Emerson and Thoreau in which Nature is positioned as an alternative to modernity and urban existence. Second, it notes that the Nature photograph contains three levels of discourse: substantive, technical and aesthetic. As a photograph moves through these levels of discourse, both its exchange value and its sign value increase. Third, it investigates the ambivalent relationship between the photograph and its subject Fourth, it examines the ideological boundaries of alternative ways of photographing Nature. The paper concludes that the realistic landscape photograph is deeply rooted in the history of the American bourgeoisie, its way of seeing is an extension of bourgeois semiotics, and its value ...

ÖZETTASARIM VE ÜRETİMİN SANALLAŞTIRILMASIBaşar ErdenerGrafik Tasarımı Yüksek Lisans ProgramıDanışman: Yard. Doç. Dr. Mahmut MutmanTemmuz, 2006Bu çalışma, tasarım ve üretim teknolojilerindeki son gelişmeleri göz önüne alarak, ürünlerinanlamlarını analiz etmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Ürünlerin kullanım, değişim ve gösterge değerleri,tüketim mantığı içinde, ilgili örnekler vasıtasıyla araştırılmakta ve sorgulanmaktadır.Teknolojideki en son gelişmelerin bir sonucu olarak seri uyarlama, pazardaki ürünlerinanlamları ve sunumları üzerindeki etkileri bağlamında tartışılmaktadır. Bunun yanısıra,bilgisayar destekli tasarım ve üretim metodlarının, üretim biçimlerine olan etkisi ve bu etkininkarşılaştığımız ürünlerin sunumlarına olan yansımaları irdelenmektedirAnahtar Kelimeler: Bilgisayar Destekli Tasarım, Seri Uyarlama, Kullanım Değeri, DeğişimDeğeri, Gösterge Değeri, Hipergerçeklik, Endüstriyel Tasarım ABSTRACTVIRTUALIZATION OF DESIGN AND PRODUCTIONBaşar ErdenerMFA in Graphic DesignSupervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Mahmut MutmanJuly, 2006This study aims to make an analysis on the meaning of products with regards to recentdevelopments in design and production technologies. The notions of the use, exchange andsign values of products are aimed to be questioned and explored through relevant instanceswithin the consumption logic. Mass customization, as an outcome of recent advances intechnology is argued through its effects on the meaning and presentations of products withinthe market. It is also discussed in this thesis how the computer aided design andmanufacturing affects the mode of production and how this reflects on the representations ofproducts that we encounter.Keywords: Computer Aided Design, Mass Customization, Use Value, Exchange Value, SignValue, Hyperreality, Industrial Design 97

In this paper, we explore the eLearning process cycle as a business value chain. We make a constructive critique of the conventional value-concept in traditional value-chain models and propose an extended set of value types that are crucial for business modeling of eLearning processes when higher education and academia are involved in the learning process. The types of value selected for discussion of eLearning as business are based on Jean Baudrillard’s four value types: Use Value, Exchange Value, Sign Value and Symbol Value. Our investigation of the full eLearning life cycle and the value adding that occurs in different phases of the cycle indicates that it is very meaningful to proceed further with this framework for the analysis and design of business models for eLearning. In fact, it seems quite reasonable to discuss four different types of business units or value adding organizations that together can build up a collaborative business community for eLearning where each business unit can be strong in its key value adding capacity. The principal discussion of such a collaborative business eco-system for eLearning is only indicated in this paper.

What is luxury? The concept has never received proper attention in social theory. It seemed as if luxury was a highly economic concept that did not need any further investigation. Primary and secondary needs are considered to form the basis of the luxury concept. Luxury has been viewed as useless and superfluous because it belongs to the realm of desires instead of elementary needs. This definition has often been used to stigmatize the use and demonstration of luxury. The needs-wants dichotomy was severely criticized a few decades ago. Luxury touches more than the question of necessity in society. This article attempts to outline the formulation of a definition of luxury. We leave the classic concept of luxury in favor of a more socio-semiotic approach of the concept. The bounds between luxury and some specific product property will be cut through. There is no such thing as a luxury good comparable to categories like ‘cars,’ or ‘clothes.’ Luxury is defined as a specific kind of sign value, produced in specific narratives and used in processes of stratification. As a sign, it becomes apparent that luxury is a relative concept. Every social group can be said to have its own luxury. Every social group has in fact a different kind of luxury, which means that a Cartier is no luxury in some cases where a television is highly exclusive in other cases.

And all look up, in absolute amazementAt those airborne above.-Ovid, "The Story of Daedalus and Icarus," in MetamorphosesFrench modernist architect Le Corbusier recalled the effect of the first airplane over Paris in 1909, when he looked up to see the Comte de Lambert's Wright biplane circling the Eiffel Tower. "It was miraculous, it was mad!" he proclaimed. For Le Corbusier "the airplane, the advance guard of the conquering armies of the New Age, the airplane arouses our energies and our faith."1 For Le Corbusier, the airplane was the mad harbinger of a futuristic modernity. He was not alone. In America, an air-minded nation looked upon the Wright brothers as quasi-messianic inventors of a "wondrous, even miraculous machine":2 "Aviation was the future. . . . Many viewed airplanes as prophetic machines, promising enhanced mobility, enlarged prosperity, cultural uplift and even social harmony and perpetual peace in the emerging 'air age.'"3 In 1906 Britain, the Wrights were initially seen as secretive Americans selfishly unwilling to collaborate with other would-be aviators to secure what the Spectator referred to as the "Conquest of the Air."4 No matter, the inevitability of heavier-than-air flight was by this point assured, thanks to burgeoning technological ingenuity in England and abroad. Certainly in the first decade of the twentieth-century the airplane was a figure of transfixing spectacle.Embedded in the very language of Le Corbusier's and others' celebratory pronouncements of the new technology is the military application of the airplane: "advance guard," "conquering armies," "conquest." The air, like the future, so said these early enthusiasts, would be conquered by the airplane. Around the time of the Spectator article cited earlier, the Wright brothers were secretly negotiating with the British War Office to sell their flier and aeronautical knowledge. Negotiations broke off in December 1906, not because the War Office lacked interest in military potential of this wondrous invention, but because the Wrights insisted on signing a contract before allowing their clients to observe their aircraft in flight.5 Far from being committed to advancing a gospel of peace and uplift, the Wrights were complicit from the very beginning in recruiting the airplane into the armies of a new age of European empire, literalizing Le Corbusier's proclamation.Le Corbusier's "New Age" accords nicely with Enda Duffy's claim about "the age of speed" powered by the development of the airplane and the motorcar.61 refer to the airplane as an object of mobility rather than a mechanical thing because I am interested in it as an entity whose meaning inheres within not only its material essence-its thingness-but within its relation to the human (typically masculine) subject who seeks to control it.7 As W. J. T. Mitchell succinctly puts it, "Objects are the way things appear to a subject."8 The airplane is an object that, to paraphrase Bill Brown, "produce[s] use value, sign value [and] cultural capital."9 What the airplane signifies, and indeed its uses within masculinist, nationalist, and imperial frameworks, are important parts of this essay.Coming in the early years of the twentieth century, the "age of speed" coincides with the age of European empire at its height and, paradoxically, the onset of its decline.10 Duffy asserts that the age of speed contributed to the winding down of empire insofar as speed and the mechanical objects, automobiles and airplanes, through which human agents attain speed served, pragmatically, to de-exoticize distant colonized lands. The airplane arrived "at that paradigm-shattering moment," argues Duffy, "when it became clear that the whole world had been mapped and conquered, and that global space was finite."" The airplane, with its speed and its godlike capability to fly above gravity-bound mortals, seems at first blush to be ready-made for imperial conquest. It is after all the "advance guard" of a "conquering army," in Le Corbusier's terms, an object figuratively inflected with subjugating imperial powers. …

The importance of the symbolic value and of the product utility for a consumer's involvement in fish products was determined by applying a model to data collected in Denmark in 1999. The relative importance of these two antecedents of product involvement differed between two segments of consumers important to marketing strategies. However, the potential effects of involvement did not differ between the segments. Rather, the customer's involvement ensures that sign value and utility have effects such as greater enjoyment of shopping and higher frequency of usage.

… What is real? Because increasingly we are bombarded with pseudo-realities manufactured by very sophisticated people … I do not distrust their motives; I distrust their power.’ … in Disneyland there are fake birds worked by electric motors which emit caws and shrieks as you pass them by. Suppose some night all of us sneaked into the park with real birds and substituted them for the artificial ones. Imagine the horror the Disneyland officials would feel when they discovered the cruel hoax. Real birds! Dick (1985)

This study explores the relationship between involvement and brand loyalty among flight passengers in an airline service context. We adopted three dimensions from a consumer involvement profile (CIP) and two dimensions of brand loyalty (attitude loyalty and purchase loyalty) as a conceptual framework. A total of 271 valid responses were obtained at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport for SEM analysis. Results revealed significant relationships between attitudinal loyalty and the two involvement dimensions of pleasure and sign value. In addition, attitudinal loyalty was a significant explanatory variable in the prediction of behavioural loyalty. Implications for airline practice and further research are also discussed.

Prototypical distinctions between men’s and women’s activities and social domains emerge boldly through African art. This situation, however, is not peculiar to African societies. The history of women in Western art from the 15th century to the present demonstrates a close relationship between the social status of women and their public exclusion from the mainstream of art production (Tuchman, 1975:171–202). At the beginning of the Renaissance, women were not considered capable of any significant contribution to the arts, except, perhaps, to the needle arts, and they were excluded from craft associations (Wilkins, 1975:107–115). By linking cultural perceptions to the process of art production, it is possible to examine the origins of expressive culture and its relationship to particular social groups. We can see how the sign value of the art object is transformed when it is exchanged between one subgroup of producers and a broader consumer audience.

International audience; There is more than one kind of consumer involvement. Depending on the antecedents of involvement (e.g., the product's pleasure value, the product's sign or symbolic value, risk importance, and probability of purchase error), consequences on consumer behavior differ. The authors therefore recommend measuring an involvement profile, rather than a single involvement level. These conclusions are based on an empirical analysis of 14 product categories.