Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Consumption Activities (consumption + activity)
Selected AbstractsFood consumption and political agency: on concerns and practices among Danish consumersINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONSUMER STUDIES, Issue 6 2008Bente Halkier Abstract Increasingly ordinary individual consumers are expected to perform some kind of societal or political agency. In the debates about political consumption it is a recurrent topic to what degree consumption practices can be seen as political practices and how many consumers perform such practices. The aim of this article is to empirically qualify the demarcation of the political in individual consumer activities by integrating the concept of political agency in the definition of political consumption. On the basis of empirical results from a representative survey among food consumers in Denmark, the article suggests that by supplementing the criteria of consumers performing specific consumption activities with a criteria of consumers expressing political agency, a more precise empirical delimitation of political consumption can be achieved. Three groups of food consumers are identified: those who perform political consumption practices; those who perform politicized consumption practices; and those who vocalize the discourse of political consumerism. [source] The Often-Forgotten Nonfuneral Consumer Grief for the GrievingJOURNAL OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS, Issue 3 2008ELIZABETH TAYLOR QUILLIAM Consumer protection advocates and resulting government regulation of the death care industry tend to focus on the most obvious problems, those caused by deceptive sales practices of funeral service providers. However, a spotlight on the funeral's large expenses overshadows the myriad of other consumption activities that heirs must undertake. Survivors must navigate confusing complex situations for which they are unprepared, at a time when grief increases their vulnerability. [source] Environmental Impacts of Consumption in the European Union:High-Resolution Input-Output Tables with Detailed Environmental ExtensionsJOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY, Issue 3 2006Gjalt Huppes Summary For developing product policy, insight into the environmental effects of products is required. But available life-cycle assessment studies (LCAs) are hardly comparable between different products and do not cover total consumption. Input-output analysis with environmental extensions (EEIOA) of full consumption is not available for the European Union. Available country studies have a low sector resolution and a limited number of environmental extensions. This study fills the gap between detailed LCA and low-resolution EEIOA, specifying the environmental effects of household consumption in the European Union, discerning nearly 500 sectors, while specifying a large number of environmental extensions. Added to the production sectors are a number of consumption activities with direct emissions, such as automobile driving, cooking and heating, and a number of postconsumer waste management sectors. The data for Europe have been constructed by using the sparse available and coarse economic and environmental data on European countries and adding technological detail mainly based on data from the United States. A small number of products score high on environmental impact per Euro and also have a substantial share of overall consumer expenditure. Several meat and dairy products, household heating, and car driving thus have a large share of the total environmental impact. Due to their sales volume, however, products with a medium or low environmental score per Euro may also have a substantial impact. This is the case with bars and restaurants, clothing, residential construction, and even a service such as telecommunications. The limitations in real European data made heroic assumptions necessary to operationalize the model. One conclusion, therefore, is that provision of data in Europe urgently needs to be improved, at least to the level of sector detail currently available for the United States and Japan. [source] Multiple Constraints and Hicksian Complementarity: A Generalization and an Application to Portfolio ChoiceMETROECONOMICA, Issue 1 2003Christian E. WeberArticle first published online: 19 MAR 200 Ian Steedman (Consumption Takes Time: Implications for Economic Theory, Routledge, London, 2001) has shown, among other things, that when a household chooses amounts of time to allocate to competing consumption activities subject to both a money income constraint and a time constraint, at least two consumption activities must have at least one compensated complement each. This paper generalizes Steedman's result in several directions and uses the generalized version to study compensated complementarity among state,dependent consumption levels and asset purchases in a model of portfolio choice under uncertainty. [source] An empirical analysis of the practices and therapeutic power of mood-alleviative consumption in FinlandPSYCHOLOGY & MARKETING, Issue 10 2002Harri T. Luomala This article tackles empirically the phenomenon of mood-alleviative consumption in Finland. In an attempt to advance consumer-behavior theory development toward building a theory or model of mood-alleviative consumption, empirical insights derived from Finnish consumers concerning the practices and therapeutic power of mood-alleviative consumption activities are offered. A phenomenological analysis identified eight types of therapeutic power stemming from different mood-alleviative consumption activities: distraction, self-indulgence, stimulated elaboration, outcomes of mood-alleviative activities, recharging, discharging, retreat, and activation. It was also discovered that certain mood-alleviative consumer behaviors can be therapeutic in multiple ways simultaneously, that different persons may experience the same mood-alleviative consumer behavior therapeutically differently, and that certain mood-alleviative consumption activities are more typically engaged in by women, whereas certain other mood-alleviative consumption activities are more typically pursued by men. The article is concluded by a discussion highlighting theoretical implications and suggestions for further research. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] The social,psychological bases of anticonsumption attitudesPSYCHOLOGY & MARKETING, Issue 2 2002Stephen Zavestoski This article proposes that the increasing number of individuals voluntarily reducing their levels of consumption may be motivated by underlying social,psychological stress related to living in a consumer society. Of the three primary motivational bases of the self (esteem, efficacy, and authenticity), it is argued that only self-esteem and self-efficacy can be acquired through consumption. The current growth of the voluntary simplicity movement, it is argued, is among those individuals who have met the need for esteem and efficacy through consumption, but have failed to achieve a sense of authenticity. Evidence from interviews with participants in the voluntary simplicity movement is presented in support of this proposition. Anticonsumption attitudes, it is concluded, result from a process of self-inquiry triggered by the failure to feel authentic through one's consumption activities. Implications of anticonsumption attitudes in reaction to consumer culture are discussed. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. [source] Nitric oxide scavenging and detoxification by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis haemoglobin, HbN in Escherichia coliMOLECULAR MICROBIOLOGY, Issue 5 2002Ranjana Pathania Summary Nitric oxide (NO), generated in large amounts within the macrophages, controls and restricts the growth of internalized human pathogen, Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv. The molecular mechanism by which tubercle bacilli survive within macrophages is currently of intense interest. In this work, we have demonstrated that dimeric haemoglobin, HbN, from M. tuberculosis exhibits distinct nitric oxide dioxygenase (NOD) activity and protects growth and cellular respiration of heterologous hosts, Escherichia coli and Mycobacterium smegmatis, from the toxic effect of exogenous NO and the NO-releasing compounds. A flavohaemoglobin (HMP)-deficient mutant of E. coli, unable to metabolize NO, acquired an oxygen-dependent NO consumption activity in the presence of HbN. On the basis of cellular haem content, the specific NOD activity of HbN was nearly 35-fold higher than the single-domain Vitreoscilla haemoglobin (VHb) but was sevenfold lower than the two-domain flavohaemoglobin. HbN-dependent NO consumption was sustained with repeated addition of NO, demonstrating that HbN is catalytically reduced within E. coli. Aerobic growth and respiration of a flavohaemoglobin (HMP) mutant of E. coli was inhibited in the presence of exogenous NO but remained insensitive to NO inhibition when these cells produced HbN, VHb or flavohaemoglobin. M. smegmatis, carrying a native HbN very similar to M. tuberculosis HbN, exhibited a 7.5-fold increase in NO uptake when exposed to gaseous NO, suggesting NO-induced NOD activity in these cells. In addition, expression of plasmid-encoded HbN of M. tuberculosis in M. smegmatis resulted in 100-fold higher NO consumption activity than the isogenic control cells. These results provide strong experimental evidence in support of NO scavenging and detoxification function for the M. tuberculosis HbN. The catalytic NO scavenging by HbN may be highly advantageous for the survival of tubercle bacilli during infection and pathogenesis. [source] Applying general living systems theory to learn consumers' sense making in attending performing artsPSYCHOLOGY & MARKETING, Issue 5 2001Marylouise Caldwell Consumers seek pleasurable experiences when attending performing arts. Yet, no theory exists to explain and predict the sense making associated with this unique consumption activity. General living systems theory (GLST) is applied to offer a systems-based model intended to be useful in this respect. This work contributes to some important streams of research. For certain types of hedonic consumption, behavior can only be understood in the light of the subtleties of consumer interpretation and the entire buying,consuming process. The suggested GLST paradigm attempts to go beyond choice to achieve an understanding of lived experiences within the realities perceived by consumers. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. [source] | ||||||||||