Author: Alex

Perhaps the most influential approach towards the study of fashion within the social sciences has been that associated with writers such as Veblen, Simmel and, more recently, Bourdieu. In each case, fashion is regarded as a specifically modern phenomenon that acts to express or maintain distinctions between different social groups in a situation where rigid and inflexible social hierarchies no longer apply. Veblen (1970), for example, saw fashionable dress as a form of ‘conspicuous consumption’, a means of demonstrating one’s social status through the acquisition and display of appropriate attire. Fashion cycle This was all the more important in a…

This is the greeting given to telephone callers to Diesel Industries HQ in Molvena, Italy. Diesel makes no secret of its globalising philosophy: its founder, Renzo Rosso, has stated that ‘we at Diesel view the world as a single-borderless macro-culture’, and the view of Earth from space has been a recurring icon in its advertising and catalogues (Polhemus 1998: 20). In ‘The World according to Diesel’ national boundaries lose meaning and cultures overlap. For Rosso, ‘the obvious triumphs of this nationless, raceless company make a very attractive statement about the benefits of seeing the world without strict divisions – not…

A popular comic feature of Hindi movies is to have a hero appearing dressed as a woman. This is usually at some point in the story when the hero needs to pass himself off as a woman although it can be purely for comic effect. One of the most popular songs of the 1990s, Didi tera dewar divana (‘Sister, your husband’s brother is crazy’), from Hum aapke hain kaun . . .! (‘What am I to you?’), involved men and women cross-dressing. The women of the house hold a six-month pregnancy ritual to ensure the birth of a son. This…

Ailsa Falconer is Edinburgh’s Inspiring Capital City Region brand manager. She is the first brand manager the city has employed in its long and august 1,000-year history. Prior to joining the local administration, Ailsa worked for ten years at branding giant Unilever. Her colleague, Lesley Martin, works as team leader for strategy and economic development of Edinburgh. Maintaining of robust brand values Edinburgh has to keep pushing boundaries and cannot rest on its laurels,’ Ailsa explains. ‘We cannot afford to stand still – we face an increasingly competitive global marketplace for trade, tourism and talent, and if we want to…

Christine Shewry is Global Head of People and Culture at Insurance Australia Group Limited (IAG). IAG is an international general insurance group with operations in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Asia. It is an umbrella brand with different sub-brands, including Equity Red Star (the UK’s fifth-largest motor insurer), CAA (China’s largest roadside assistance provider) and the widely known NRMA Insurance in Australia. IAG’s businesses underwrite around $7.4 billion’s worth of premiums per annum and employ around 16,000 people. War for Talent I arranged a meeting with Christine because of an article in which she talked about the ‘Recruitment Revolution’…

If one were to apply modernist terminology, one would say that education in ancient Athens, but for certain extenuating circumstances, was basically a private than a state/public affair. Educational agents The main educational agents, as Protagoras, the sophist, in Plato’s dialogue bearing the same name, noted, were (a) the family (parents, nurses, and pedagogues who often were slaves), (b) the schoolteacher (the grammatistis/language master, the kitharistis/harp teacher, and the paidotrivis/sports instructor), and (c) the polis itself with its laws (Plato, Protagoras, 326b–326d), and one should add, with its democratic institutions and its state-sponsored and citizen-supported cultural activities and institutions (e.g.,…

The modern world/kosmos we live in today is quite different from the classical Greek, politically, socially, economically, and culturally. Unlike the ancient Greek world of city-states (poleis), the modern world is one of nation-states, what we would call ethnopoleis, and in some areas, e.g., the European Union, the modern world is organized in the form of “international” or “supranational” political cum economic formations, what we could call cosmopoleis. Rule Politically also, modern liberal democracies are in many respects different from the Athenian democracy. In modern democracies, government or “rule” is carried out by representatives, who in some cases, e.g., the…

In clarifying the concepts of intrinsic and extrinsic values, it should be noted that the historical persistence of universities has been the result of a well-balanced combination of the intrinsic and the extrinsic qualities of higher education. The intrinsic qualities refer to the search for truth and the pursuit of knowledge per se, while the extrinsic qualities refer to the ability of universities to respond to the needs of societies of which universities are part (Maassen 1997: 112). Until the 1980s, in most European higher education systems, the intrinsic values were dominant. Importance In the name of trust, governments were…

To many people, sports nutrition is about carbo-loading for a competition หมาล่า, or having the latest sports food or supplement. However, the ‘big-ticket item’ with the most potential to influence your sports performance is your training diet. On the basis of time alone, your training diet is the aspect of your total nutrition most likely to make an impact on your body. It also lays the groundwork that is critical to your long-term success. Everyday eating must keep you healthy and uninjured, and in top shape for your sport. And it must support you through all the training that is…

Introduction In the old days we simply said ‘eat less fats and oils’, based on the observation that the typical Australian diet contains more fat than is necessary or healthy. The direct benefits of cutting back on fats include promoting healthy weight or weight loss and reducing the risk of some lifestyle diseases. Indirect benefits include making room in the energy budget for some more valuable foods and nutrients. Nutrition guidelines recommend that total average fat intake be reduced by a quarter, to less than 30 per cent of total energy. Body fat For people needing to reduce body fat,…