In recent years, geeks have become chic, and the fashion and beauty industries have responded to this trend with a plethora of fashion-forward merchandise aimed at the increasingly lucrative fan ...demographic. This mainstreaming of fan identity is reflected in the glut of pop culture T-shirts lining the aisles of big box retailers as well as the proliferation of fan-focused lifestyle brands and digital retailers over the past decade. While fashion and beauty have long been integrated into the media industry with tie-in lines, franchise products, and other forms of merchandise, there has been limited study of fans’ relationship to these items and industries. Sartorial Fandom shines a spotlight on the fashion and beauty cultures that undergird fandoms, considering the retailers, branded products, and fan-made objects that serve as forms of identity expression. This collection is invested in the subcultural and mainstream expression of style and in the spaces where the two intersect. Fan culture is, in many respects, an optimal space to situate a study of style because fandom itself is often situated between the subcultural and the mainstream. Collectively, the chapters in this anthology explore how various axes of lived identity interact with a growing movement to consider fandom as a lifestyle category, ultimately contending that sartorial practices are central to fan expression but also indicative of the primacy of fandom in contemporary taste cultures.
Authentic Sarah Banet-Weiser
10/2012, Volume:
30
eBook
Brands are everywhere. Branding is central to political campaigns and political protest movements; the alchemy of social media and self-branding creates overnight celebrities; the self-proclaimed ...greening of institutions and merchant goods is nearly universal. But while the practice of branding is typically understood as a tool of marketing, a method of attaching social meaning to a commodity as a way to make it more personally resonant with consumers, Sarah Banet-Weiser argues that in the contemporary era, brands are about culture as much as they are about economics. That, in fact, we live in a brand culture.Authentic(TM) maintains that branding has extended beyond a business model to become both reliant on, and reflective of, our most basic social and cultural relations. Further, these types of brand relationships have become cultural contexts for everyday living, individual identity, and personal relationships - what Banet-Weiser refers to as brand cultures. Distinct brand cultures, that at times overlap and compete with each other, are taken up in each chapter: the normalization of a feminized self-brand in social media, the brand culture of street art in urban spaces, religious brand cultures such as New Age Spirituality and Prosperity Christianity,and the culture of green branding and shopping for change.In a culture where graffiti artists loan their visions to both subway walls and department stores, buying a cup of fair-trade coffee is a political statement, and religion is mass-marketed on t-shirts, Banet-Weiser questions the distinction between what we understand as the authentic and branding practices. But brand cultures are also contradictory and potentially rife with unexpected possibilities, leading Authentic(TM) to articulate a politics of ambivalence, creating a lens through which we can see potential political possibilities within the new consumerism.
Support, Barriers, and Expectations of the Reader: On Textual and Visual Choices in a Picturebook Based on the Animated Feature Film Cars Whenever an animated feature film aimed at children is ...released from a bigger production company, tie-ins will follow, including picturebooks. These books can be found in everyday grocery stores and have the potential to reach many children. Although discussed, few systematic descriptions of the literature in question exist. In this article, I examine textual and visual choices in the picturebook Bilar (Cars, 2015) based on the Disney & Pixar film with the same name (Lesseter). I investigate what barriers and what support it offers the reader to grip the story, but also whom the book addresses as a reader. The analysis focuses on resources important for comprehension, namely temporality and cohesion. Close-up analysis of text and pictures reveals and tries to explain temporal and logical gaps. The analysis shows that Bilar is quite complex, with features that contribute to distancing the story from the reader. The temporal unfolding advances quickly, but quite evenly, with few pauses. Leaps are drastic and linguistically unmarked, and intentions and events are presented indirectly. The text has few explicit causal ties and deviates from what is expected. Overall, the pictures repeat information in the text, but they also contradict the text in a way that suggests it was unintentional. Although the text manages to mediate the plot and intention – to the adult reader – it is hard to grasp in total without the movie in mind. The addressed reader, then, is plural: an adult and a child who have watched the movie and can fill the gaps, and who do not care too much about logical details. However, the study and the conclusion is based on a traditional view of the book and of reading. An investigation of the book in use might change or widen the understanding of this type of product.
Whenever an animated feature film aimed at children is released from a bigger production company, tie-ins will follow, including picture-books. These books can be found in everyday grocery stores and ...have the potential to reach many children. Although discussed, few systematic descriptions of the literature in question exist. In this article, I examine textual and visual choices in the picturebook Bilar ( Cars , 2015) based on the Disney & Pixar film with the same name (Lesseter). I investigate what barriers and what support it offers the reader to grip the story, but also whom the book addresses as a reader. The analysis focuses on resources important for comprehension, namely temporality and cohesion. Close-up analysis of text and pictures reveals and tries to explain temporal and logical gaps. The analysis shows that Bilar is quite complex, with features that contribute to distancing the story from the reader. The temporal unfolding advances quickly, but quite evenly, with few pauses. Leaps are drastic and linguistically unmarked, and intentions and events are presented indirectly. The text has few explicit causal ties and deviates from what is expected. Overall, the pictures repeat information in the text, but they also contradict the text in a way that suggests it was unintentional. Although the text manages to mediate the plot and intention – to the adult reader – it is hard to grasp in total without the movie in mind. The addressed reader, then, is plural: an adult and a child who have watched the movie and can fill the gaps, and who do not care too much about logical details. However, the study and the conclusion is based on a traditional view of the book and of reading. An investigation of the book in use might change or widen the understanding of this type of product.
As owners of extensive matrilineal joint households in the Tellicherry Coastal town (North Malabar, South India), Keyis upheld an urban-centred identity in the colonial period. Scattered around the ...coastal town of Tellicherry in Cannanore, the Keyis today form an economically diverse group. The socio-economic distinction of the Keyis from other Muslim merchants on the Coast, their consolidation of social organisation along the matrilineal line and their economic relations based in landlord–tenant relations are explored here. The nature of the transformation of economic relations and kinship practices among the Keyis in the colonial and post-colonial period puts forth interesting dimensions of their everyday practices as shaped by historic and region-specific socio-economic, legal and political conditions. By undertaking a historical and ethnographic examination of this kinship group, this paper explores Muslim communities and cultures through their pluralities and recommends a methodological shift towards the exploration of kinship practices to inform the current scholarship on the Anthropology of Islam and Kinship Studies.
The layout of a store is an important aspect influencing consumer buying behaviour and a significant determinant in the formation of a retail image. Well-designed store layouts are critical because ...they have a strong influence on in-store movement designs, shopping environment, shopping behaviour, and operational productivity (Behera & Mishra, 2017). When there is inconsistency in the layout of the store, some clients will abandon that establishment in search of one that delivers faster, more convenient, and better services. Taking a more thoughtful approach to retail layout can pay huge returns in terms of higher sales, customer loyalty, and, ultimately, turnover (Clark, 2003). The overarching study goal was to determine whether independent convenience stores in Kwa Mashu are aware of the effects of store layout on consumer purchasing patterns. To achieve the study's aims, a quantitative study was undertaken at Kwa Mashu convenience stores using self-administered questionnaires. A total sample of 400 respondents participated in the study. Non-probability sampling was used to select the respondents, and convenience sampling was utilized. Following that, conclusions and recommendations were derived from the literature and the study's findings. According to the findings of this survey, consumers have issues with store layout. It was discovered that the appearance of the store, merchandise display, retail atmosphere, in-store service, and accessibility are the key contributors to this pain. As a result, it is recommended that convenience shop owners in Kwa Mashu attend to the above-highlighted areas and ensure that strategies are implemented to assist customers where there is a need.
The YouTube channels Good Mythical Morning, grav3yardgirl, and the Vlogbrothers are analyzed to understand the function of fandom names on the platform. The selected YouTubers explain that their ...named fandoms create a sense of community on their channels. However, YouTube celebrities attempt to assert control over the narrative of their fan groups and encourage viewers to perceive them in a particular way. This control often relates to how content creators use the names to brand their channels and sell merchandise. Names of fan groups emphasize communal relationships but also perform a prominent business function. Understanding how the demonyms try to balance these different motivations reveals that the commercialization of fandom is embedded in everyday social media practices and the relationship between online celebrities and fans.
PurposeLive streaming commerce, a new form of social commerce where firms integrate with broadcasters, community members and customers in live chat rooms for real-time interaction to help sell ...products, has become increasingly popular. However, factors that impact the success of live streaming commerce are not fully explored. The purpose of this study is to examine these factors by exploring the relationships among customer trust (i.e., trust in broadcasters, community members, and products) and customer engagement, and the mediating role of swift guanxi.Design/methodology/approachThe authors surveyed 422 customers who have watched Taobao Live, one of the largest live streaming commerce sites in China, and used their questionnaires to test the research model employing partial least squares modeling.FindingsThe authors’ results indicate that trust in broadcasters has a positive effect on trust in products and community members, which positively influences trust in products. Additionally, swift guanxi has a fully mediating effect on the relationship between customers' trust in broadcasters and customer engagement.Originality/valueFirst, from the theoretical perspective, this study comprehensively identifies three types of trust, explores the transfer relationships among trust in broadcasters, community members, and products based on Trust Transfer Theory. In addition, this study examines the mediating influence of swift guanxi on the relationship between customer trust and engagement. Second, from the managerial perspective, the study provides insights to help broadcasters and practitioners use live streaming to facilitate shopping.
There is a close relationship between natural resources and production in many sectors, and production and consumption can also have an environmental impact. Low environmental quality affects ...economic growth and well-being. Environmental protection and economic growth cannot be maximized simultaneously. Choosing the right balance between the two aims is imperative for each country. By moderating the role of merchandise trade and manufacturing value-added from 1970 to 2016, we examine the dynamics of China’s natural resource rents, environmental sustainability, and sustainable economic growth. Overall, the results of this study indicate that natural resources improve environmental sustainability at the expense of economic growth. In contrast, financial development, merchandise trade, and urban population growth promote environmental degradation. It is vital to understand governance mechanisms to sustain natural resource policies, considering environmental, social, and governance concerns to benefit society.
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Using a multi-year qualitative study, I explain how employees at a fast-growing retail organization used creative resourcing—that is, the manipulation and recombination of objects in novel and useful ...ways to solve problems. I induce two core organizational processes (autonomous resourcing and directed resourcing) that explain how organizations foster ongoing creative activities in response to different perceived resource endowments. In doing so, I add clarity to a mixed literature that argues on the one hand that limited resources foster creativity, and on the other, that abundant resources foster creativity. Instead, I reorient the questions that scholars ask by shifting the conversation away from variance-explanation models and towards understanding organizational processes, specifically around how employees use resources in. dynamic ways and how managers enable them to do so. My study unpacks how the link between resources and creativity is rooted deeply in the actions of managers and employees embedded in organizations over time. In elaborating theory around these actions, I contribute to scholarly and practitioner understanding around how organizations foster creativity in a variety of resource environments.
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