Reimagining the Oikos

We are currently living through a time in which the line dividing capital and state has dissolved behind repair, where free-market economics and rules of governance have become nothing more than a totality of bio-political control for capitalist and subjective fixes, and, where the distinctions between corporate hegemony, policy making, free-speech and mainstream media have become seemingly non-existent. This text attempts to act as a remedy to this by examining and analyzing some of the key tenets of what must be done in order to create a post-capitalist society, and move towards a reimagined oikos and oikonomia. It focuses largely on the necessity of moving away from subjectivity-centered thought, and towards a new form of materialist universality.

COVID-19 and global clothing retailers' responsibility to vulnerable workers: NGO counter-rhetoric

PurposeThis article aims to examine how non-governmental organisations (NGOs)' narratives portray the vulnerability of workers in global clothing supply chains during the COVID-19 crisis.Design/methodology/approachThe research analyses the rhetoric in global clothing retailers' and NGOs' counter-rhetoric during the first seven months of 2020.FindingsDuring this period, retailers employed rhetorical strategies to legitimise irresponsible actions (corporate hegemony prevailed), while NGOs embraced forms of counter-rhetoric trying to delegitimise the retailers' logic, stressing the role of neoliberalism in worsening the situation.Originality/valueThe authors contribute to the literature by providing new insight into the consequences of COVID-19 for retailers' neoliberal practices and the livelihood of workers in global supply chains. Findings of this study extend authors’ knowledge about retailers' COVID-19 measures: These have contributed to the plights of workers working for their supply factories in the global South.

Affective politics and online culture: Reserved’s digital marketing campaign in post-hegemonic perspective

The article employs post-hegemonic theory to reframe how power operates within online cultures. To that end, it investigates a digital marketing campaign for a Polish clothing brand, Reserved, and its reception in social media. Examining over one thousand comments on Facebook, it argues that while the initial viral success abruptly turned into public outcry, the actual response was much more varied, encompassing a multiplicity of different feelings and immediate orientations, not necessarily congruent with the backlash. In this sense, the shifting balance of power was not contingent on the emergence of a public consensus that challenged corporate hegemony, but pertained to the arrangement of affective intensities to habituate the multitude to the networked media environment. Consequently, the article approaches Reserved’s campaign and its online reception as involving a series of corporeal attunements that re-territorialized multiple and incongruent affective flows into established networked structures and corresponding relations of power.

The Dark Side of Tobacco Industry's CSR: A Socio-Legal Analysis of the Indonesian Corporate Hegemony Campaign

This paper aims to seek the legal substance's core problem to reveal how the hegemony latently operates. By doing so, it deconstructs the established dogma about the industry's misperceived social reputation that frequently serves as justifications favoring the industry. As the only country in the Asia-Pacific region that has not yet accessed the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), Indonesia faces an alarming smoking prevalence rate. The situation has worsened during the COVID-19 outbreak because excessive tobacco smoking behavior increases people’s health vulnerability. Despite the destructive impact, most Indonesian citizens share a common belief about the tobacco industry's importance to the economy. Narratives on economic contribution and the industry’s philanthropic campaigns display the industry as the protagonist sector and play a significant role in creating a false public opinion on the tobacco industry's reputation. Using a qualitative socio-legal approach, this paper critically describes how the industry uses the hegemonic methods manifested in CSR campaigns, which contradict the ethical principle to secure its market dominance. As a result, the partial legal approach to tobacco control regarding CSR encountered minimalist market interventions from the government, which emerges as the main causes of such an anomaly. As the tobacco control challenge predictably gets more difficult on the verge of an economic downturn, the urgency of accessing the FCTC is highly crucial to saving us from the upcoming demographic calamity. KEYWORDS: Tobacco Industry, Business & Human Rights, Corporate Hegemony.

EXISTENTIAL STRUGLE OF GERMAN LANGUAGE TOU GUIDE IN PT. NUSA DUA BALI TOUR AND TRAVEL, TUBAN, BADUNG

The growth of new tour and travel agents in Bali targeting the tourist market from Germany has created intense competition among travel bureaus. This causes a decrease in the number of German tourists who use the services of a travel agency PT. NDBT. The purpose of this study was to analyze the existential struggle that occurred at PT NDBT conducted by German-speaking guides. The research problems are 1) how the hegemony and counter hegemony that occurred in PT. NDBT, the factors causing and the implications for the PT NDBT. This study uses a qualitative method. Data collection techniques used were observation, interviews, and documentation studies. The theory used is the theory of hegemony, social practice theory and the theory of communicative action in an eclectic manner. The results showed that the existential struggle carried out by German guides on the corporate hegemony practice of PT. NDBT against guides as a coordinated party is a counter hegemony. Supporting factors for the German-speaking touristic licensing struggle is the decline in the number of German tourists using PT.NDBT services in Bali. As a result, the implication posed by the existential struggle is the desire to stimulate themselves in carrying out scouting work. In addition, guides must also increase knowledge of the German language and knowledge of the field of guidance. Existential struggle also has implications for the meaning of communication for fellow German tour guides. Keywords: existential struggle, German tour guides, tourists, Germany, travel agency.

A Dystopian View of Postmodern Culture and Corporate Hegemony in Max Barry’s Jennifer Government

This paper offers a dystopian view of postmodern culture and corporate hegemony to foreground the effects of late capitalism on human and society. The paper interprets Max Barrys Jennifer Government in the light of Frederic Jameson and Tom Moylans theories of postmodern culture and dystopia, respectively. For Jameson, postmodern culture is characterized by commodification of society, general depthlessness, simulacrum, and death of subjectivity. Similarly, Moylan considers dystopia an index of the systemic ills of late capitalism. The corporate hegemony enacts a socioeconomic hegemonic enclosure and deprives humans of social and individual identity. Barrys novel presents a dystopic view of postmodern culture by foregrounding the commodification of society, corporate hegemony, and intensification of economic growth at the cost of social values, which prompt general depthlessness and social disintegration. The present study offers an explicit understanding of the ills of late capitalism by emphasizing the lived experience of social reality.