The Consumer Revolution, 1650–1800

The production, acquisition, and use of consumer goods defines our daily lives, and yet consumerism is seen as increasingly controversial. Movements for sustainable and ethical consumerism are gaining momentum alongside an awareness of how our choices in the marketplace can affect public issues. How did we get here? This volume advances a bold new interpretation of the 'consumer revolution' of the eighteenth century, when European elites, middling classes, and even certain labourers purchased unprecedented quantities of clothing, household goods, and colonial products. Michael Kwass adopts a global perspective that incorporates the expansion of European empires, the development of world trade, and the rise of plantation slavery in the Americas. Kwass analyses the emergence of Enlightenment material cultures, contentious philosophical debates on the morality of consumption, and new forms of consumer activism to offer a fresh interpretation of the politics of consumption in the age of abolitionism and the Atlantic Revolutions.

Consumers’ Active Reaction to Brands Taking Stands on Public Issues on Twitter

With the growing interest in sustainability, brands increasingly use social media not simply to advertise their products but also to share their positions on ongoing public issues. This study investigates the effect of public-issue posts on consumers’ active reactions and provides comparisons between two samples—public-issue posts and all Twitter posts. After collecting data from Twitter based on tweets from official sportswear brand pages, we find that public-issue posts have a positive influence on consumers’ active reaction (i.e., number of retweets, number of quotes, number of replies, and post-social search behavior). Moreover, the effect of brand activeness, which is brand social activity on Twitter, and media type (photo or video presence in a tweet) are included in the analysis. With user engagement in the public-issue post sample, the effect of the media type is not significant, whereas the effect of brand activeness is significant. This study aggregates literature on brand activism and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria to propose a measurement for a public issue in a single post rather than at the corporate level. The results of this study are useful for brands of all scales taking sustainable marketing strategies and aiming to improve interactions with consumers on Twitter.

SOCIAL ECONOMY ENTITIES IN PUBLIC POLICY

This paper focuses on the issue social economy entities and the role they play in the public policy. The paper argues in favour of the thesis that social economy entities are an important component of what can be described as the capacity of the public policy system in a given country. They contribute significant resources – intellectual, organisational, executive [financial], etc. – to the system. The larger these resources are, the more efficient the whole system becomes, i.e. the ability to identify key public issues and to program their solutions, to implement these solutions and to evaluate the results of public policy actions in various forms. It indicates that it is in the interest of the State and the general public to strengthen the social economy entity sector.

Indigeneous Public Administration: A Review and Deconstruction of the Idea, Concept, and Theory of Government and Governance

Indigenous Public Administration (IPA) has attracted researchers' attention and awareness of the importance of developing contextual theory and practice of public administration, especially in developing countries such as Indonesia. IPA emerges in many developing countries since the concept, theory and practice of Western Public Administration (WPA) have failed to respond to local issues, and therefore WPA practice is considered irrelevant. Basically, IPA is a constructed concept to fill a vacant space that unoccupied by Western Public Administration (WPA). This descriptive qualitative study aims to explain and criticize the theory and practice of IPA and WPA. The data were gathered from books, journals, institution reports, regulations and other relevant writings of organizations, professionals, and academicians. The technique of data analysis was based on a data analysis spiral. It reveals that IPA applies to countries such as Indonesia and China. In both countries, the practice of IPA helps to overcome public issues concerning social, economic, and political. It is expected that the findings of this study will pave the way for developing both concept and theory of IPA and responding to more complex society and government's demands and needs.

Linguistic Speech as a Challenge for the Translator and the Foreign Language Tuition

The current article examines Bulgarian public political speech as a challenge for the professional translators and as a series of political messages addressed to young people who study at higher educational institutions in Bulgaria. The article analyses the perception of clichéd constructions as well as the models of speech aggression which are widely practiced in different discussion formats such as election campaign debates, parliamentary control, public debates on TV where important public issues are discussed. The observations on the presidential election campaign in 2021 are also presented as well as the perception of the political messages by the nominees. The main conclusion from the scientific study shows that both Bulgarians and foreigners face problems with the grammatically correct sentence constructions behind which there is a minimum of information. The study also confirms the hypothesis that foreign students in Bulgaria recognize a number of common features between the political speech in our country and in their home countries. The clichés and the speech aggression are present in the global political speech as a component which defines the models of public speech and Bulgaria is no exception from that. A similar conclusion can be made about the interconnection between political and journalistic speech where the following common speech features can be recognized: inability to listen to the interlocutor; politicians slide over journalistic questions; the “self” overexposure, etc.

Civic Participation in Chinese Cyberpolitics: A Grounded Theory Approach of Para-Xylene Projects

The internet provides a free and convenient platform for the public to obtain political information and participate in political life. Meanwhile, there occurs fierce confrontation of various values and ideologies, shaping a complicated and changeable field of public opinion. The strategies of civic participation and the generation of public opinion show quite different characteristics in such a mediatized society. This article aimed to study civic participation in Chinese cyberpolitics and to find its patterns and the logic behind it. Due to the natural advantage of the environmental issues in its commonality, the internet events in the last decade related to the PX (para-xylene) project were selected as the research object. This study used grounded theory as the method and conducted a cross-case analysis on the original data captured on Weibo—one of the most popular social media sites in China. Finally, four patterns of civic participation in internet events were found and summarized, as well as the intervention and influence of media logic in different modes. However, it is political logic, rather than media logic, that reveals greater vitality in the civic participation of cyber deliberation. Mediatization does exist but is far from dominance. It has certain significance for the supervision and management of public opinion and the rational and harmonious development of civic participation in public issues.

Scaled, citizen-led, and public qualitative research: A framework for citizen social science

We propose a framework for citizen social science that brings together three reinforcing elements of a research project – scale, citizen-leadership, and publicness – to improve qualitative research. Our framework was born out of necessity; a desire to involve ordinary citizens, in researching public issues, with limited funding. We illustrate the application of our framework using insights from research we have led, involving first, a series of qualitative studies of state and civil society organizations working on community engagement by three separate years of public policy students; and second, a qualitative study on the system for processing salary and injury disputes for low-waged migrant workers in Singapore conducted by over 100 volunteers and activists. Drawing on a review of the literature and our own experiences, we speak to the advantages and trade-offs of adopting this approach and suggest practical methods for conducting citizen social science.

Recurring Lexis and Reader-Reception in Horace’s Odes: The Formation of a Lyric Opus

<p>This study investigates perceived patterns of lexical recurrence in consecutive or closely proximate poems in Books 1-3 of the Odes of the Roman poet Horace and considers the significance these may have for the structure and organization of this work and its interpretive reception by readers. An initial discussion and demonstration of the types of lexical recurrence observed and their frequency prompts the question of the extent to which these recurrent lexical usages are intentional on the part of the author and hence whether they were factors in determining the order in which the poems of each book are arranged. This question is investigated firstly through statistical analysis, which shows that there is no statistically significant greater clustering effect apparent in the lexical patterns observed than had the odes been arranged in random order. Nevertheless, given than certain recurrences between closely adjacent poems do stand out because of the identity or close similarity of their grammatical or morphological forms and/or metrical location, and that this phenomenon has been perceived by other commentators, the significance that might be attributed to these as poetic effects falls within the domain of reader-reception theory. A summary review of the principal tenets of this theory as developed especially by Ingarden, Gadamer, Jauss and Iser is undertaken in order to derive a sound theoretical method by which the recurrence patterns may be analysed and coherent meaning may be constructed from them. This method is then applied to analysis of a prominent cluster of lexical recurrences over the final five poems of Odes 1 (1.34-1.38). The question of how far such meaning may have corresponded to the intentions of the author Horace is then addressed. A distinction is made, following Bakhtin, between the “primary”, historical author who composed the work and the “secondary” authorial consciousness who engages the reader through the text. While intentions of the former are ultimately unknowable, the secondary author “Horace” does declare intentions for his work through his texts which the reader may then reconstruct. The thesis posits that the poetic ambition of Horace within this textual horizon was first to acquire an erudite and discerning audience capable of accepting him and appreciating his artistry, and then to develop a distinctive generic vehicle by which to engage this audience in dialogue about matters of importance in the Roman social, political and cultural worlds. The development of an audience is a major theme of his Satires Book 1, while the book of Epodes is the framework for his attempt to adapt the iambic metre of Archilochus to his dialogic purpose. The analysis shows that this latter project proved unfruitful because of the indelible association of iambic with invective. The concluding chapter shows that it was the adoption of archaic Greek lyric metres other than iambic that finally provided Horace with the poetic vehicle he sought to write verse that both adhered to the Callimachean aesthetic of brevity and technical perfection and allowed engagement with serious as well as frivolous themes. It examines the manner by which the three Books of Odes, read sequentially as a single opus, firstly familiarize their readers with these archaic metres and the range of lyric themes they can encompass before leading them to an acceptance that lyric can also address important public issues, notably in the “Roman Odes” of Book 3. The perception of the patterns of lexical recurrence throughout the three books is a significant factor in promoting this dialogic engagement of the reader with the text.</p>

Recurring Lexis and Reader-Reception in Horace’s Odes: The Formation of a Lyric Opus

<p>This study investigates perceived patterns of lexical recurrence in consecutive or closely proximate poems in Books 1-3 of the Odes of the Roman poet Horace and considers the significance these may have for the structure and organization of this work and its interpretive reception by readers. An initial discussion and demonstration of the types of lexical recurrence observed and their frequency prompts the question of the extent to which these recurrent lexical usages are intentional on the part of the author and hence whether they were factors in determining the order in which the poems of each book are arranged. This question is investigated firstly through statistical analysis, which shows that there is no statistically significant greater clustering effect apparent in the lexical patterns observed than had the odes been arranged in random order. Nevertheless, given than certain recurrences between closely adjacent poems do stand out because of the identity or close similarity of their grammatical or morphological forms and/or metrical location, and that this phenomenon has been perceived by other commentators, the significance that might be attributed to these as poetic effects falls within the domain of reader-reception theory. A summary review of the principal tenets of this theory as developed especially by Ingarden, Gadamer, Jauss and Iser is undertaken in order to derive a sound theoretical method by which the recurrence patterns may be analysed and coherent meaning may be constructed from them. This method is then applied to analysis of a prominent cluster of lexical recurrences over the final five poems of Odes 1 (1.34-1.38). The question of how far such meaning may have corresponded to the intentions of the author Horace is then addressed. A distinction is made, following Bakhtin, between the “primary”, historical author who composed the work and the “secondary” authorial consciousness who engages the reader through the text. While intentions of the former are ultimately unknowable, the secondary author “Horace” does declare intentions for his work through his texts which the reader may then reconstruct. The thesis posits that the poetic ambition of Horace within this textual horizon was first to acquire an erudite and discerning audience capable of accepting him and appreciating his artistry, and then to develop a distinctive generic vehicle by which to engage this audience in dialogue about matters of importance in the Roman social, political and cultural worlds. The development of an audience is a major theme of his Satires Book 1, while the book of Epodes is the framework for his attempt to adapt the iambic metre of Archilochus to his dialogic purpose. The analysis shows that this latter project proved unfruitful because of the indelible association of iambic with invective. The concluding chapter shows that it was the adoption of archaic Greek lyric metres other than iambic that finally provided Horace with the poetic vehicle he sought to write verse that both adhered to the Callimachean aesthetic of brevity and technical perfection and allowed engagement with serious as well as frivolous themes. It examines the manner by which the three Books of Odes, read sequentially as a single opus, firstly familiarize their readers with these archaic metres and the range of lyric themes they can encompass before leading them to an acceptance that lyric can also address important public issues, notably in the “Roman Odes” of Book 3. The perception of the patterns of lexical recurrence throughout the three books is a significant factor in promoting this dialogic engagement of the reader with the text.</p>

Adolescents in Virtual Forum: Playing, Socializing, or Engaging in Public Issues?

This research examines how adolescents perceive their memberships and involvement in virtual forums and whether the young generations see this involvement facilitate their engagement with public issues surrounding them. The increase of political discussions and political debates over the Internet and social media in Indonesia has become the trigger of this research to see whether adolescents as the group of new voters, even first-time voters, use virtual forums to be critically engaged in a discussion of public issues. Alternatively, this research would see whether their engagement in virtual communities is mainly related to entertainment, social connections, and other matters not directly related to politics and discussion of public issues. By interviewing a group of adolescents from at least eight provinces in Indonesia, this research examines the phenomenological experiences regarding their action, perception, and evaluation of their involvement through various virtual communities. This research highlights the importance of understanding adolescents’ experiences in virtual communities to understand better their tendency and attitude in relating to issues in their online and offline environments.