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Jean Baudrillard adalah seorang filsuf Perancis dan salah satu tokoh postmodern terkemuka. Beberapa pemikiran utamanya meliputi sign-value, simulakra, dan hiperrealitas. Pemikiran ini ditulis dalam karya awal Jean Baudrillard yang diterbitkan pada 1968 hingga 1981. Sedangkan karya lainnya yang diterbitkan setelah 1981 ditulis untuk memperkuat pemikiran awalnya. Artikel ini bertujuan untuk lebih mengenal Jean Baudrillard dan pemikiran utamanya, terutama pemikirannya mengenai sign-value, simulakra, dan hiperealitas.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the problem of power distribution within networks of relationships between companies and consumers (business-to-consumer (B2C) networks) and to examine the ways in which value is created and captured in such structures. To this end, we applied the network approach to multiple theoretical constructs describing collective consumer phenomena, carried over from the field of sociology to management science. Based on the literature and case study analysis, we managed to define a typology of B2C networks consisting of three types: (1) publics – centered around and dominated by a company, with no relationships between consumers themselves, creating value through crowd-sourcing; (2) communities – also centered around a company, but independent to a degree and more focused on consumer-to-consumer (C2C) relationships, creating value through consumer-managed projects; and (3) tribes – where companies serve only as peripheral actors, and their products – as potential symbols of affiliation, with value being created through creation and reinterpretation of the said products’ meanings (sign value).

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore drug consumption from a cultural perspective, in the context of the consumer culture. It aims to identify if, through the branding process, cryptomarket vendors are attaching a sign-value to their products to facilitate the process by which consumers will recognize and appreciate it. Design/methodology/approach The study was done by performing a qualitative content analysis loosely inspired from semiotics on a sample of 40 seller pages from the Dream Market and samples of their listings, collected in 2018. The vendors who had over 1,000 successful transactions were selected, as they were considered to be the ones who have gained a certain level of trust on the cryptomarket and were considered to having to compete by differentiating their services through their brands of choice. Findings The results have shown that the sign-value attached to the drugs sold by the vendors from this sample can be divided in two different types of sign-systems: the popular culture and the drug cultures. The popular culture includes sign-value borrowed from established brands, popular media and media representations of crime worlds. The drug cultures include values from three types of subcultural systems: cannabis, party and psychonaut subculture. Originality/value The study is trying to stir the discussions around the regulation of the drug markets by looking at the market forces within them as rather a product of consumer capitalism and not as processes that happen outside the postmodern cultural and societal trends.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of problem-based learning models or problem-based learning models on the ability of students to solve mathematical story problems with learning material in space and flat in class 5 Panaragan State Elementary School 1, Bogor City. The approach used in this research is a quantitative approach with a quasi-experimental method. There are several techniques used in this study, namely observation techniques, interview techniques, and tests. Then obtained research results with the average difference in value between the control class and the experimental class, the experimental class has an average value of 73.11, and the control class has an average value of 60.86. After calculating the t-test (One-Sample Test) on the experimental class's post-test value, the Sign value is known. 0.04, because 0.04

This article engages with Marx’s and Baudrillard’s accounts of value. In so doing it puts forward a new concept of value: speculative value. If labour, use and exchange forms of value were central to Marx’s account of industrial capitalism, and symbolic and sign value were integral to Baudrillard’s observations of consumer-led capitalism, speculative value is an increasingly important component of financialized capitalism. With reference to financialization’s structural and cultural components, the article explains how speculative exchangers, rather than producers or consumers, now propel finance-led economies and, accordingly, generate speculative value to do so. Through such discussions, the article moves towards defining speculative value more broadly, distinguishing it in relation to earlier value forms.

The aim of the research is to examine the relationship between consumer involvement and product knowledge level with utilitarian (smartphone) and hedonic (cosmetic) products and their purchasing decisions. In this study, data were collected by using survey method which is widely used in data collection in marketing researches. The research was conducted with 456 university students. Factor analysis, independent t test, one way variance (ANOVA) and correlation analysis were used in the study. When the results of the research were examined, it was found out that the perception of the men was statistically high for the interest, hedonic value, the importance of perceived risk and the product knowledge levels for information search and purchasing intention factors. In research on cosmetic products, involvement in consumer interest variable, hedonic value and sign value factors of products and product knowledge level, perception of women in information search and purchase intention were significantly higher.

Camiler biçimsel özellikleri, kullanım şekilleri, mimarlık tarihindeki önemleri bakımından akademik çalışmalara ve tartışmalara konu olmaktadır. Bu çalışmalar daha çok mimarların biçimsel arayışları ile gündeme gelen tartışmalardır. Mimarlık camiasında birçok mimar ve mimarlık eleştirmeni bu alanda düşüncelerini ifade etmiştir. Öne çıkan görüşlerden biri camilerin yakın çevresini niteleyen merkez yaratması, toplanma mekânı yaratan sosyal, kamusal bir yapı olması, anıt, simge ve işaret değeri üzerinden değerlendirilmesi gerekliliğini savunmaktadır. Cami değerlendirmelerinin çoğunlukla uzmanların biçimsel yaklaşımlarla sürdüğü görülmüştür. Buna karşın her mimari yapıda olduğu gibi sakinlerinin yorumları yapıların eksikliklerinin saptanmasında, iyileştirilmesinde ve mimari tipolojinin geliştirilmesinde önemlidir. Değişen kullanımlar ve dolayısı ile mekânsal dönüşüm kullanıcı yorumlarıyla saptanabilir kılınacaktır. Bu çalışmada Ankara’nın protokol camilerinden Ahmet Hamdi Akseki Cami ele alınmıştır. Caminin değerlendirilmesi kullanım sürecinde değerlendirme yöntemi kapsamında 139 kişilik bir alan çalışmasıyla elde edilmiştir. Cami anıt, simge ve işaret değeri, yakın çevresini niteleyen merkez yaratması, toplanma mekânı yaratan kamusal bir yapı olması, camilerin geçmiş ve güncel kullanımları doğrultusunda incelenmiştir. Böylece yapıların asıl sahibinin kullanıcıları olduğu savıyla, Ahmet Hamdi Akseki Cami’nin eksiklikleri saptanmış, öneriler sunulmuştur. İncelemeleri ve değerlendirmeleri ile bu çalışma, cami tasarımlarındaki literatüre çeşitlilik katan, kullanıcı beklentilerinin önemini vurgulayan bir etki yaratacaktır., Mosques are subject to academic studies and discussions in terms of their formal characteristics, usage patterns and their importance in architectural history. These studies are mostly debates on the formal search of the architects. Many architects and architectural critics were among the people that express their thoughts in this area. One of the prominent views claims that mosques should create a center that characterizes the immediate surroundings, social and public structure that creates a gathering place, and should be evaluated on the basis of monuments, landmarks and signs. It has been observed that the evaluations of the mosques mostly continue with the formal approaches of the experts. However, as with any architectural building, residents' comments are important in identifying and improving the deficiencies of buildings and developing architectural typology. Thus, spatial transformation will be made detectable due to changing uses. Ahmet Hamdi Akseki mosque, one of Ankara's protocol mosques, was examined in this paper. The evaluation of the mosque was obtained through a field study of 139 people within the scope of the post occupancy evaluation.The mosque has been examined in terms of its monuments, symbol and sign value, its central creation which qualifies its immediate surroundings, and its public structure which creates a meeting place in accordance with past and current uses of mosques. Thus, with the claim that the original owners of the buildings were the users, the deficiencies of Ahmet Hamdi Akseki mosque were determined and proposals were presented. This study with its reviews and evaluations it will bring diversity to the literature in mosque designs and emphasizes the importance of user expectations.

This research explores souvenir values under the influence of contemporary Chinese culture. Taking Shanghai Disney as the study context, a total of 32 onsite interviews with Chinese visitors to Shanghai Disney were conducted. Based on the analysis of 246 pages of interview transcripts, this research identifies three overarching souvenir values germane to modern Chinese culture, encompassed by sign value, meaningfulness, and hedonic value. In addition, a list of seven other values are found to uniquely exist depending on the specific recipient of souvenirs. These are classified as family orientation, and knowledge and positive education for children; individuality, instrumental value, and conformity for oneself; and kindness, and trust and harmony for others. These values provide insightful explanations for Chinese consumers’ souvenir purchase behavior in contemporary Chinese society. Theoretical and managerial implications as well as directions for future research are discussed.

The purpose of this research aims to analyze the effects of Perceived Service Quality towards Repurchase with Customer Satisfaction as an intervening variabel inFast food restaurant. This research was conducted by distributing questionnaires to 100 respondents who were customers of Fast food restaurants who had made transactions in the last six month. This research use the Perceived service quality (X1) variable with the indicators Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, Empathy, Tangible, Customer satisfaction variable (Y1) with the indicators Fulfillment, Pleasure, Ambivalance, Repurchase variable (Z1) with the indicators Interest, Pleasure-based value, Sign value, Risk Pribability, dan Risk. The results show: (1) Perceived service quality influence significantly effect customer satisfaction; (2) Perceived service quality affect significantly effect repurchase; (3) customer satisfaction has a significant impact on repurchase

This study of Sardinia, Italy, an island destination in the Mediterranean Sea, examines the role of involvement on destination personality formation process. It further investigates how destination personality affects destination satisfaction and self-congruity, and how self-congruity affects destination satisfaction and destination loyalty. A total of 1266 usable questionnaires were collected via a field survey. Utilizing structured and unstructured research methodologies, three underlying dimensions of destination personality specific to the island of Sardinia were uncovered, namely conviviality, sophistication, and vibrancy. The proposed conceptual model was tested and the results reveal significant relationships between two involvement dimensions (pleasure/interest and sign value) and various destination personality dimensions. Destination personality dimensions were found to have a strong influence on destination satisfaction and self-congruity. Furthermore, the findings provide empirical evidence of the influence of self-congruity on destination satisfaction and destination loyalty. Destination satisfaction was also found to positively influence the two dimensions of destination loyalty: referral and revisit intentions.

This interdisciplinary study, drawing on knowledge in institutional economics, history, and cartography, uses evidence based on government files up to 1975 and disclosed since 2003, aerial photographs from 1945 to 1975, and NGO publications evidence to show that developers used metes and bounds, namely the original walls of the main fort as modified by public roads, and the surveyed alignment of a stream, to delimit their building lines under uncertain jurisdictional limits of the boundaries of the Kowloon (Walled) City in spite of certitude of the alignments of its walls. In this light, the paper discusses the proposition that to both the Chinese and colonial governments, “Kowloon City”, consistently referred to as the “Kowloon Walled City” (KWC) in post-war official Hong Kong government files and recent English language academic literature, had a great sign value in terms of Peirce’s theory, as it pointed towards something more than a disused solitary fort. This value cannot be dismissed when articulating present heritage management for the KWC as a public Chinese garden.

This chapter considers the desert island settings of the film Cast Away (2000) and the TV series Lost (2004–2010). Each represents a tension between solid and liquid modernity, as described by Zygmunt Bauman. In Cast Away, Chuck Noland is a radically mobile agent of liquid modern repression. His relationship with a Wilson volleyball speaks to commodity fetishism, but exists alongside his continued preoccupation with repressive time. The film critiques repressive aspects of liquid modernity but endorses a life strategy that depends on those aspects. Lost sets up a desert island governed by repressive control, as abjected characters learn to conform to communal norms. The series’ ‘liquid cinematography’ and the island’s topological and temporal fluidity destabilise this solid modern paradigm, but it is ultimately reasserted.

Naturalistic intelligence is a part of multiple intelligences, while problem-solving skills are part of higher-order thinking. Both are learning outcomes required to be developed and improved since these competencies were considered poor in Indonesia. The field trip is a learning method that can encourage students to interact directly with the real object in nature. That learning method is expected to improve students’ naturalistic intelligence and problem-solving skills. In this case, this research was conducted to discover the influence of field trip on students’ naturalistic intelligence and problem-solving skills. This research was experimental research using pre-test and post-test design. The eighth-graders of Islamic school (Madrasah Tsanawiyah) Pameungpeuk, Garut, year of 2017/2018 were employed as the respondents. The obtained data were analyzed using the average comparison tests, which were t-test (for parametric data) and Wilcoxon test (for nonparametric data) with I± value of 0.05. Based on the analysis, there was a significant difference in students’ natural intelligence with the sign value of 00,05. These results were supported by the percentage of the affective aspect questionnaire in naturalistic intelligence. In problem-solving skills analysis, the test score revealed a significant difference with a signed value of 0.025 even though the results of the questionnaire only showed a slight difference. Therefore, it was concluded that field trip influenced students’ naturalistic intelligence, however, it had no influence on the affective aspect of problem-solving skills, and conversely, it influenced the cognitive aspect of problem-solving skills. The field trip is potential to be an alternative method for the teacher in junior high school to improve naturalistic intelligence and problem-solving skills applied in ecosystem subject.

The advertisment of Meikarta, aired on the television was a promotion from property sales by Lippo Group. This paper describes the process of comodification in view editing by doing a binary oposition between Jakarta which was imaged by inferior and superior Meikarta. On the narrative, this advertisement shows hippereality and simulacra in delivering the advertisment content. Objectification also was done to make consumers interest of being a part of Meikarta which is not only buy the use value but also sign value. So as to enable unconsciously the consumers show spectacle effort when they become a part of the imajinary city. To cite this article (7 th APA style): Anwar, K. (2018). Mediatisasi Rupa Kota dalam Iklan Meikarta: Spectacle, Hiperealitas dan Simulakra [The Mediatization of a City in the Meikarta Ad]. Journal Communication Spectrum, 8(2), 147-165. http://dx.doi.org/10.36782/jcs.v8i2.1852

This is no longer a productive space, but a kind of ciphering strip, a coding and decoding tape, a tape recording magnetized with signs. It is an aesthetic reality, to be sure, but no longer by virtue of art's pre-mediation and distance, but through a kind of elevation to the second power, via the anticipation and the immanence of the code.(Baudrillard 146)The article focuses on the revaluation of Gothicism in Jim Jarmusch's latest film Only Lovers Left Alive. While delimiting postindustrial ethics of accumulation and material production, the paper stresses that Jarmusch's film subverts popular culture mechanisms to redefine its simulated surroundings and normative categories. Thus, the film implies a criticism of the homogeneity of cultural codes in the context of the postindustrial condition. In a way, the paper argues that Jarmusch's cultivation of cinematic liminality, which is characterized by the elusiveness and indeterminacy of his characters and aesthetics, becomes a continuing negotiation with mainstream trends.In his essay "Symbolic Exchange and Death" (1984), Jean Baudrillard refers to Walter Benjamin's assertion of the indefinite reproducibility in its modern industrial phase to draw a comparison between premodern society dominated by symbolic exchange1 and the succeeding development of capitalism. While following Benjamin's line of reasoning, Jean Baudrillard unfolds categories and taxonomies via which information is habitually transmitted, and cultural capital is co-opted in the postindustrial phase. In this sense, the text implies that the processes of meticulous duplication of visual material accompanied by aestheticization of the every day, contributed to the elimination of symbolic exchange and death as natural components of the cycles of life. In effect, having annulled all alternatives to itself, capitalism entered a new era of simulation in which social reproduction replaces production as the organizing force (146), ultimately contributing to a postmodern break.Since postmodern societies are organized around the appropriations of forms and codes, art, economy and politics mutually exchange signs to neutralize and ultimately dissolve all differences. In this light, forms of artistic subversion appear to be futile since the system's economy forthwith regulates non-normative activities.2 As a matter of fact, at this level, the dominance of "sign value" over a value/exchange distinction controls the world. Under the conditions of postmodernity, where signs no longer refer to either reality or signifying principles but themselves, the reproduction of the same cultural codes is immanent in its repetitions. Hence, aesthetic value is based on the visual repetition of the same material. In fact, Baudrillard repeatedly emphasizes in his succeeding publications that reality has become absorbed by the "hyperreality of the code and simulation, triggering a fabrication of effects, artificial world without meaning" (Baudrillard 120). Interestingly, as the philosopher concludes, "there is no longer such a thing as ideology; there are only simulacra" (120), a procession of the same signs that govern our reality.Subsequently, limitless combinations of visual material brought a dramatic increase in the production of imagery that ultimately contributed, following Jean Baudrillard's "The Transparency of Evil" (1994), to the formation of transaesthetics. This aesthetic reconfiguration exceeds itself, losing its purpose and specificity. Moreover, as Douglas Kellner highlights, reality is characterized by total simulation in which "there is no point of reference at all, and value radiates in all directions, occupying all interstices, without a reference to anything whatsoever, by virtue of sure contiguity" (219). In fact, when there are no criteria for value, taste and judgment, everything collapses in "a morass of indifference and inertia" (Kellner 220). In this manner, the ethics of accumulation of material results in the anaesthetization and desacralization of morality, producing a culture of death understood here as an absence of the human behind simulations. …

With the rising popularity of the Internet, interactions between companies and their consumers have become more common and meaningful. Researchers often tend to apply the metaphor of community to these on-line networks of B2C relationships. However, this term implies durability and a long-term orientation. It does not cover more incidental, short-lived groups of consumers, who therefore should not be treated as communities. The purpose of this paper is to explore the ability of these short-term, collective consumer phenomena (addressed as e-crowds within the scope of this paper) to create value. Based on a critical literature analysis that considers works from several different fields of knowledge (including management, economics, psychology and media studies) and empirical examples, we argue that while lacking a complex internal organization, e-crowds are capable of creating use, exchange and sign value when certain conditions are met. However, they are equally likely to perform value-destroying activities, which present real risks for companies that interact with e-crowds.

Critical sociology suggests that taste judgments are not independent of the social, as actors use them to claim social value. This article demonstrates that this critical perspective has gained currency among laypersons, transforming everyday struggles over cultural evaluation. I discuss the new discursive category ‘farterism’, which emerged in Israel in the 1990s to denounce vain pretence and became ubiquitous in everyday evaluation. I analyse online user-generated reviews on films and restaurants alongside broadsheet newspaper articles to explore how this category is used in different contexts by different actors, which aesthetic surface characteristics are most associated with it and why, and how farterism critique reshapes the relationship between lay judgments and established market (prices) and field/art-world (status) hierarchies. Farterism critique is often used to fend off symbolic violence, but cultural elites use it too, despite their interest. I discuss the implicit ethic behind farterism critique, and its connections with recent transformations of capitalism.

This study considers the effectiveness of destination-focused vis-a-vis price-focused advertisements commissioned by low-cost carriers (LCCs) through the sign and hedonic information values embedded within the advertisements, and construal level theory. Based on 2 × 2 between-subjects factorial design with temporal distance (12 months versus 2 weeks) and advertisement type (destination-versus price-focused) as independent variables, the analysis revealed that, including sign and hedonic values better explain recommendations to fly LCC than if only using advertisement attitude. The influence of sign value on recommendation intention is more limited than that of hedonic value. Influence of sign value is more prominent for destination-focused advertisements. Consumers planning leisure travel see themselves as passengers rather than being tourists, meaning price-related characteristics are their primary concern.

This study aims to analyze the influence of tourist attraction on tourist visiting decisions (study of zoo tourists Gembiraloka Zoo Yogyakarta), both partially and simultaneously. Population in this study are visitors who visit Gembiraloka Zoo Yogyakarta. Samples taken were 60 respondents with the sampling technique using Non Probability Sampling with Purposive Sampling. Types of data are primary data and techniques data collection using a questionnaire that has been tested first with validity and reliability tests. Data analysis method used is quantitative analysis using multiple linear regression, t test, and F test coefficient of determination (R2). Based on the results of data analysis with SPSS program statistical tools 20, it can be concluded that the price variable (X1) has a significant effect on decision to visit tourists with a sign value of 0.018. Place (X2) no significant effect on the decision of visiting tourists with the sign value is 0.089. Product (X3) has a significant effect on decisions visiting tourists with a sign value of 0.033. Employees (X4) are influential significant to tourists visiting decisions with a sign value of 0.019. Simultaneously the price, place, product, and employee have a significant effect to the decision to visit tourists with a sign value of 0,000 Coefficient the resulting determination of 0723 which means that at 72.3% the decision to visit the Gembiraloka Zoo in Yogyakarta is influenced by all four variables are used, and the rest are influenced by other variables.

Rebekah Modrak's Learning to Talk like an (Urban) Woodsman: An Artistic Intervention project presents an artistic critique of the Best Made Co. lifestyle “axe” brand. The article and the Re Made Co. “plunger” art piece it describes engage directly with issues discussed by brand researchers and other scholars, such as the strategic use of appealing design and product aesthetics, the sign value of brands, and the creation of brand identity and cultural codes based upon the performance of an idealized, historicized and gendered mythology. The artwork itself, the reactions to the Re Made Co. project and the artist's reflections, all add to the interdisciplinary exploration of brands, brand culture and meaning.

This article examines and critiques the logic and practices of branding that inform contemporary American political campaigns within the context of ethical surplus, sign value versus use value, emotion and reason, and the tension of authenticity and cynicism. The original research is based upon 38 one-on-one, in-depth interviews with political consultants, including media strategists, communication directors, and advertising producers who are involved in the encoding and cultural production of political discourse. The qualitative findings illuminate a professional ideology among these elite practitioners that obfuscates the pursuit of power by strategizing texts that involve emotional evocation rather than rational deliberation and embed candidates within signifiers of and proxies for authenticity. These efforts are intended to strike a disinterested, non-instrumental pose on behalf of the “branded candidates” they represent.

Lecturers are professional educators and scientists with the main task of transforming, develop and disseminate science, technology, and art through education, research, and community service. But still questioned regarding the performance of lecturers who are still not optimal, and also at private universities, especially the economic field in this case is the accounting and management still has an organizational culture that tend to be less conducive. Is this lack of conducive organizational culture influences the performance of lecturers in the works. Campus culture conducive proved a significant influence (sign value = 0.000) and positive (value b = 0.886) on the performance of private lecturer especially those working in the accounting and management courses in Riau province. This result proves that the more conducive campus culture will increasingly meninggkat private lecturer performance. Keywords: lecturer Performance, Organizational Cultur

Value is a reflection of current circumstances, a deeply personal construct that resides in our intrinsic motivation. This chapter explores few value dimensions, specifically focusing on categories best described as intrinsic value, extrinsic value and reference value. Intrinsic value is the value that we assess when we are looking at an object, be that an idea – an object for the mind – a physical object, a space or an item of food. Extrinsic value is value external to the object, a material or immaterial value assigned by others. Reference value is an attribute inclusive of both intrinsic and extrinsic value. The value dimensions described merged with the system of objects, form the conceptual framework of the Hierarchy of Values. The first value is the functional value. The second value is the exchange value of objects, which is potentially their economic value. The final value is the Sign Value of an object.

Since the early twentieth century, with the increasing development of economy, the invention of Fordism and the accelerating course of urbanization, America has eventually stepped into the threshold of consumer society. According to Jean Baudrillard, a famous French philosopher, an object, besides its use value and the exchange value, has the value of sign. The value of sign embodies an object’s “differences” that enable the object to contain some symbolic meanings. Consumption thus becomes “a system which assures the regulation of signs”: when people consume an object, they consume the value of sign instead of its materialization or utility. In this way, people convey some important social meanings such as social position, personal tastes, and unique lifestyles through the commodities they purchase. Theoretically, as Saussure’s sign theory has claimed that sign can be divided into “signifier” and “signified” whose relationship is arbitrary, Barthes further proposes the idea of “mythology” to explain the creation of sign value; in practice, the advertisements and the fashion system reinforce the power of sign value through the differences of appearance, space and services.

This paper opens new insights into the use of corporate architecture in ambient marketing communications. As an expressive system, architectural discourse transcends functional use-value, while providing potent contextual cues that enhance brand engagement. Within the integrated marketing communication mix, spatial signifiers create epistemic and experiential value. Two case studies from the European finance sector exemplify the communication relevance of architectural design. The interpretative methodology, based on a contrasting semiotic analysis, explores the meaning-generating potential of the square, a central structural element of the headquarters of Deutsche Bank and Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena. Symbolic correlations between spatial organization and connotative implications show the salient features of aesthetic place-making in financial communication. This paper contends that corporate architecture not just serves as a support for ambient marketing initiatives, but its sign value as an urban a...

As one of the foremost American postmodern authors, Don DeLillo tends to focus on construction of postmodern subject’s consciousness through media, technology and consumption. Nevertheless, despite many affinities between Baudrillard and DeLillo, many researches which have been done on his works have failed to theoretically analyze them from Baudrillardian perspective. Although there is affinity between Baudrillard and DeLillo, there is dissimilarity as well. While Baudrillard believes that that there is no escape for individual from the ideology of the system, DeLillo claims that there is hope for change and revolution for the individuals by their action in society, particularly by the means of art, to be more than a cog in the machine of ideology of system. Baudrillard, as one of the most influential postmodern theorists, defines consumption as organized control of sign and one of the many ways any subject is assimilated in any given society. For Baudrillard the logic of consumption is based on social differentiation. By the logic of social differentiation, individuals distinguish themselves and obtain social prestige and standing through the purchase and use of consumer goods. In his theorization about the concept of need and value, Baudrillard finds Marx’s logics of use value (utility and functionality) and exchange value (economic value) inadequate to include the whole function of an object and adds the logic of sign value. Baudrillard asserts that in consumption economic exchange value (money) is transformed into sign exchange value (prestige, etc.); yet this functioning is maintained by the use value. The only way out of this dilemma, Baudrillard claims, is to return to symbolic exchange which is neither a conception nor an agency, but an act of exchange and a social relation and the only approach to real human communication and understanding. Therefore this research attempts to highlights those affinities in DeLillo’s first post-9/11 novel a.k.a. Cosmopolis .

It is well known that markets are value creating economic, social and cultural systems. In marketing, Sydney Levy originally proposed symbolic value as the notion underlying consumption activity. This was followed by Kotler's elaboration of customer value or customer satisfaction as the basis and justification for marketing. We have also seen the emergence of exchange value and use value in the works of Bagozzi and Holbrook respectively as the corner stone of all marketing and consumption activities. More recently, with the emergence of brand marketing globally, Peñaloza and Venkatesh introduced the notion of sign value, asserting that the market economy is tending toward a sign economy. Thus markets are viewed as social/cultural constructions and what is created is a system of meanings, especially in the global and cross-cultural environments. It is in the broad context of established works and more specifically in the context of consumer culture that we comment on Karababa and Kjeldgaard's article in this issue that takes the value discourse one step further by enunciating a cultural paradigm. They present a comprehensive analysis that includes “exchange value,” “perceived value,” “value as cognitive evaluation,” “social values and value systems,” “value as co-created,” “aesthetic value,” and “identity and linking value.” We believe that Karababa/Kjeldgaard's framework is a good start and is indeed a contribution to the growing literature on market value.