Viable Systems Approach and Consumer Culture Theory: A Conceptual Framework

Abstract

The aim of this study is to depict the relational dynamics between the firm/brand and the individual/consumer or communities of consumers. To this aim we propose a conceptual framework, integrating the viable systems approach (VSA) with consumer culture theory (CCT), which considers the individual as an active co-maker of the product/brand (‘prosumer’). The VSA view of the firm overcomes the limitations of CCT research, which is mainly focused on the individual, giving little consideration to the other actors in the context. Among the different approaches under the umbrella of viable systems we chose the VSA because of its emphasis on the analysis of the systemic external relations with the agents in the context, helping to underscore the marketing and social perspectives of CCT. Using a viable systemic perspective, the firm/brand and the individual/consumer can be conceived as viable systems embedded in a social-business context. Therefore, the consumption system can be considered as the momentum for the creation and maintenance of symbolic and cultural relationships between the firm/brand and the individual/consumer or communities of consumers (i.e. brand communities or subculture of consumption). These relationships are finalized to establish a common and consonant language in order to achieve a desired consonance level capable of enabling both the consumer and the firm/brand to co-evolve, maintain, and enhance their systemic viability.     

A Smoking and Health Fair: Implementation and Evaluation

Abstract

A two-day health fair that focused entirely on the tobacco smoking habit was organized. Participating agencies offered information on smoking effects, cessation programs, and health screening to fair visitors. A visitor questionnaire indicated that the fair was successful in attracting both smokers and nonsmokers and that each group found information that was perceived as helpful. Issues involved in coordinating the project are discussed and suggestions for future smoking and health fairs are offered.     

‘Presentable’: the body and neoliberal subjecthood in contemporary India

The opening up of the Indian economy through a series of neoliberal reforms since 1991 ushered in processes of globalization that have led to a rapidly changing socio-cultural environment in India. Economic growth, globalizing discourses, and new consumer choices have driven desires for new global-yet-Indian identities. An emerging consumer agency has allowed for the embodiment and performance of these identities at the site of the body, even as new spaces of consumption have necessitated new bodily dispositions and practices. In this paper, I focus on how access to new commodities and discourses has affected understandings of the modern Indian body. In particular, I concentrate on appearance and the notion of exercising consumer agency to be ‘presentable’ as a lens through which to examine broader aspects of the body in the creation of neoliberal subjects in India.     

文化创意的形上之思

文化创意具有情感的逻辑特点,但能够实现个体性与共通性的统一;文化创意是一种自由的表达,但又受到理性逻辑的制约与引导;文化创意往往以文化消费为目的,但在文化消费中人们又可以实现生命的建构与精神的超越。     

Fiscal Policy and Urban and Rural Residents＇ Marginal Propensity to Consume

基于代表性家庭最优消费决策及其与财政政策的关系,估计中国财政政策对城乡居民边际消费倾向的影响,结果表明,自1998年至今,城乡居民边际消费倾向的下降幅度超过20％。城乡居民边际消费倾向下降,．除源于收入分配、经济发展程度、预期、消费结构等因素的影响外,与财政政策运用也有很大关系。其中,未预期到的财政政策冲击对居民边际消费倾向产生的综合效应显著为负。以未预期到的税收增加为融资工具的策略选择,大大抑制了结构调整的正面效应。因此,扩大居民消费,不仅要通过财政增收,提高居民消费能力,而且要通过调整财政收支策略,稳定居民消费预期,提升居民边际消费倾向。     

Making ethnic boundaries in the society of religious renaissance: Islam and everyday ethnicity in post-Soviet Tatarstan

ABSTRACT

This article investigates the conflict between closely intertwined specific ethnic and universal religious practices that affect the formation and maintenance of ethnic group boundaries in the society of simultaneous Islamic and ethnic renaissances: contemporary post-Soviet Tatarstan. I argue that the negotiation of this conflict produces both reinforcement and erosion of the titular ethnic group boundaries. I pay special attention on ethnicity performance and ethnicity consumption practices. Thus, I conclude that practices of performing and consuming ethnicity serve as effective mechanism of boundary formation not just between various ethnic groups in the multi-ethnic republic but also inside the group itself.     

The “Nationalization” of Oil Painting and Cartoons

1 .Breakout of Oil Painting After crushing the "gang of four"in October 1976, Deng Xiaoping returned to political power , and all China advocated “emancipating the mind , and seeking truth from facts...     

甘肃省人口年龄结构与居民消费:1994—2011

本文以生命周期假说为理论基础,以居民消费率作为居民消费行为评价指标,建立分析人口年龄结构与居民消费率关系的计量模型,对1994—2011年的甘肃省居民消费行为进行了实证研究。结果发现,甘肃省儿童抚养系数和老年抚养系数对居民消费具有负影响,即儿童抚养系数和老年抚养系数的提高均降低居民消费率,因此甘肃省人口年龄结构变化是目前居民消费率过低的原因。     

Regulating The Abject

In this paper, through an examination of mostly British make-over television programs we examine how the feminine has become a new site of limitless possibility and endless consumption, the fulcrum of intensifying processes of neo-liberal reinvention of continuously making over the self into successful, post-feminist bourgeois subjects. We argue that the central premise of contemporary make-over programs is the question: “Is the transformation of abject subjects possible?” We also suggest the focal object of transformation in many shows is the working class woman who fails both as subject/object of self-reflexivity, desire, and consumption. We argue it is her mind and body that represents a core site of abjection—a subjectivity designated as uninhabitable and therefore also a central site of regulation. It is upon the working class woman's mind and body that the drama of possibility and limitation of neo-liberal reinvention is played out. We also argue that it is perhaps in reference to that which is made abject and uninhabitable that it becomes possible to talk about class as a dynamic of identifying against what we must not be, and which fuels incessant attempts to refashion selves into generalized and normalized bourgeois feminine subjects.     

能源消费、经济增长与碳排放总量之间的关系研究——以辽宁省为例

本文根据1985-2010年辽宁省的能源消费数据估算了辽宁省历年的碳排放总量,研究了辽宁省碳排放总量与能源消费总量之间的关系,并对影响碳排放量的因素进行了分析,探讨了经济增长、能源消费总量、能源消费结构等因素对碳排放总量的影响.最后结合实证分析结果给出辽宁省节能减排、提高经济发展质 量的政策建议.