Value Judgments at the Heart of Green Transformation: The Leverage of Pension Fund Investors

As the urgency for green transformation grows, the question of whether finance capital can be harnessed to promote green transformation has been raised. Public pension funds are of particular interest since they are publicly governed, have long-term interest, and are growing in proportion to the global investment capital. However, transformative change demands a reprioritization of fundamental values in terms of trade-offs among economic, environmental, and social ends. This article identifies shifts in value judgments in public pension fund investments and particularly focuses on the institutional constraints by which value (re)priorities are resisted by investigating Swedish public pension funds. While there are signs of environmental embedding of the economy, I also note neutralization of the role and investment strategies of the funds, which has a stabilizing rather than a transformative function. The neutralization constrains deep green transformation, which demands politicization of the role of institutional investors.

Russian TV advertising: influencing perception and manipulating consumer consciousness

The subject of this research is the peculiarities of Russian TV advertising, as well as the functions of advertising with regards to the goals of advertisers, developers of advertising content, and consumers of advertising products. The article explores the specifics of modern Russian TV advertising, and analyzes the existing traditions of selective perception marketing, as well as advances the original concept of divergence of public values by the Russian media. The research employs systematic and axiological approaches, observation, system analysis, case analysis and content analysis of TV commercials, structural-functional and socio-psychological methods, as well as conceptualization and generalization techniques. The study considers 150 TV commercials broadcasted on the central Russian channels over the period from 2017 to 2020. The author reveals the peculiarities of the Russian advertising content, as well as the trends that established thereof in recent decades. The scientific novelty lies in the conclusion that the Russian TV advertising features a unique (compared to Western advertising) transformative function aimed at changing the national value system as the framework of Russian culture and mentality and the pillar of the Russian system of social values. The author also notes that many TV commercial use the techniques of manipulating consumer perception and consciousness. The acquired results can be applied in the area of protecting consumer interests in the Russian Federation, as well as bringing into correlation the interests of advertisers and consumers of advertising content for more effective promotion of products and services in tune with the interests of customers.

Exploring the boundary between narrative research and narrative intervention

Researchers need to be cautious and reflective about the boundaries between narrative research and narrative intervention. Pursuing the ethics of care and the responsive and responsible practice of narrative inquiry obliges qualitative researchers to remain sensitive about the implications of engaging participants in narrative inquiry. This is accentuated with narrative inquiry into the life experiences of marginalised or disempowered populations. This study explored the implications of engaging recently resettled young African participants in narrative inquiry interviews. Thematic analysis uncovered four themes and 11 subthemes from the interviews. The Future Career Autobiography (FCA; Rehfuss, 2009, 2015) was used to understand these participants’ narrative themes and explore the possibility of narrative change as a result of participating in narrative inquiry interviews. The findings illustrate the transformative function of narrative inquiry as uncovered by the FCA, and how narrative inquiry could potentially cross a boundary with narrative interventions such as narrative career counselling.

Mediating Social Media's Ambivalences in the Context of Informational Capitalism

This essay explores the dialectics of media, by considering the socially reproductive and transformative function of social media from a political economic perspective. The authors claim that while media have consistently generated aspirations and fear of social change, their powerful capability of shaping societies depend on the historically specific social relations in which media operate. They engage such an argument by examining how the productive relations that support user generated content practices such as the ones of Facebook users affect social media in their capability to reproduce and transform existing social contexts. In the end, the authors maintain that the most prominent mediation of social media consists of the ambivalent nature of current capitalist mode of production: a contest in which exploitative/emancipatory as well as reproductive/transformative aspects are articulated by liberal ideology.

The Politics of Social Media

This chapter explores a fundamental tension of social media by considering their socially reproductive and (potentially) transformative function. The claim is that while media and communication technologies have historically fueled both aspiration and fear of social change, their ability to shape societies are contingent on the specific social relations in which they operate. By investigating social media's economic practices, primarily platform capitalism, the reproductive relations that support user-generated content that influence platform's capabilities to reproduce and transform existing social contexts are examined. To illustrate this, political discourse via social media platforms have been used to argue that social media's current capitalist mode of production exemplifies an antagonism between exploitative/emancipatory tendencies and reproductive/transformative aspects, which are further articulated by a liberal ideology.

Decline and Ascension. Paul’s Apostolic Self-Definition in 2Cor 12,1–10

There is considerable scholarly uneasiness concerning the interpretation of Paul’s ecstatic journey to heaven (2Cor 12,1–10) as a genuine element of the “fool’s speech” (2Cor 11,16–12,13). Unlike the passages wherein Paul describes his weaknesses, little importance is attached to this heavenly ascent. The present study analyses both the argumentative function of the heavenly ascent within the context of the “fool’s speech” and its transformative function with regards to Paul’s addressees. They both culminate in a changing of perspective: It is this view from above, achieved by means of his heavenly ascent, which allows Paul (and his readers) to understand his earthly existence in weakness as the very space wherein he receives a relational experience and revelation of Christ.

Two Perspectives on the Performative Social Body: Teenage Make-up Routines in „Fanfik” and the Jeżycjada cycle

Two Perspectives on the Performative Social Body: Teenage Make-up Routines in Fanfik and the Jeżycjada cycle. The article discusses make-up as an important element in a storyworld of YA fiction. It uses examples taken from novels by two Polish authors, the well-established and acclaimed Małgorzata Musierowicz, the author of the Jeżycjada cycle 1977–2015, and Natalia Osińska, who has recently debuted with a novel entitled Fanfik 2016. The article shows that Osińska’s novel can be seen as a transformative rendition of Musi­erowicz’s works. It also focuses on the paratexts adding meaningful context in the case of both Musiero­wicz and Osińska, as well as comments on the public recognition of Musierowicz’s fiction, the responses of Musierowicz’s fandom to the alleged ideological message of her novels, and the political agenda of the publishing house that put Osińska’s book on the market. The concepts of the performative social body, the cosmetic paradox, and glamour are employed to argue that Osińska’s book is intended as a critique of the world-view presented in Jeżycjada’s storyworld. Although a direct relationship between the two fictional worlds cannot be established, the article highlights some tangent points between them: in both cases, make-up serves the expression of the value system. In the Jeżycjada cycle, it is presented mostly as disguise and deception even though at the same time discreet make-up is meant to be part and parcel of womens’ lives. By contrast, featuring queer teenagers, Osińska’s debut novel highlights the transformative function of cosmetics as tools used to create the social body.Две точки зрения на перформативное социальное тело: подростковый макияж в романах Fanfik и Jeżycjada. В тексте рассматривается макияж как важный элемент мира беллетристики для юных читателей. В статье использованы примеры из романов двух польских авторов: из­вестной Малгожаты Мусерович, автора цикла Jeżycjada, и Натальи Осинской, которая недавно дебютировала c романом Fanfik. Текст объясняет тот факт, что роман Oсинской был провоз­глашен своего рода интерпретацией произведений Мусерович. В статье проанализированы паратексты, создающие значимый контекст, в произведениях Мусерович и Осинской. Автор исследования затрагивает вопрос об общественном признании литературы Мусерович. В статье прокомментированы ответы фэндома писательницы на предполагаемое идеологическое посла­ние ее романов и рассмотрена политическая позиция издательства, которое выпустило книгу Осинской на рынок. В статье также идет речь о концепции перформативного социального тела, косметического парадокса и гламура. Книга Осинской считается критикой мировоззрения, представленного в мире Jeżycjady. Хотя прямая связь между двумя вымышленными мирами не может быть установлена, между ними, безусловно, есть некоторые точки пересечения. В обоих случаях макияж служит для выражения системы ценностей. В цикле Jeżycjada макияж представ­лен в основном как маскировка и обман, но в то же время сдержанный макияж — неотъемлемая часть жизни женщин. С другой стороны, опиcывая квир подростков, Осинская подчеркивает в своем дебютном романе трансформационную функцию косметики как инструмента, исполь­зуемого для создания социального тела.