Jasper Fanning, Thomas Marsh and Kyle Stiegert
Fast food (FF) consumption increased dramatically through the 1990s in the USA, accounting for nearly 35.5 percent of total away‐from‐home expenditures in 1999. Given dramatic…
Abstract
Purpose
Fast food (FF) consumption increased dramatically through the 1990s in the USA, accounting for nearly 35.5 percent of total away‐from‐home expenditures in 1999. Given dramatic changes in food consumption, and heightened public concern about health and obesity, there is a considerable need for research to understand better the factors affecting US FF consumption. This paper aims to fill this gap.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, logistic regression is applied to analyze the socioeconomic and demographic factors influencing the likelihood of consuming FF using United States Department of Agriculture data from the Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals from 1994 to 1996 and the Supplemental Children's Survey of 1998.
Findings
In general, the expected likelihood of FF consumption increases until around 20‐30 years of age and then decreases; increases as household income grows until about $50,000‐60,000 and then decreases; and decreases as household size grows. Further, males from the Midwest and South regions that live outside central cities in Metropolitan Statistical Areas have the highest likelihood of consuming FF.
Originality/value
While much literature has addressed key questions about expenditure on food away from home, this study complements previous work by focusing on food items consumed from FF facilities in the 1990s. In addition, the results find highly significant and important (statistically and economically) interactions between the likelihood of FF consumption and age, income, and household size.
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Jackson Bird and Thomas V. Maher
How do you get people – particularly young people – to engage with social and political issues? Activists and academics alike have been plagued by this question for some time, and…
Abstract
How do you get people – particularly young people – to engage with social and political issues? Activists and academics alike have been plagued by this question for some time, and answers to it have ranged from greater organizational involvement to framing. Another possibility is meeting youth where they are at; that is, connecting youth’s existing interests in popular culture with broader social problems and issues. A group that is doing just that is the Harry Potter Alliance (HPA), a story-fueled nonprofit organization that turns fans into heroes. In this chapter, we trace the development of the Harry Potter fan community, the stories’ resonance with fans, and how the HPA has drawn on the community and the story for mobilization. We argue that the HPA leverages culture in two ways that are relevant for social movements and political communication scholars. The HPA is able to tap into the fan community for bloc recruitment using its ties and connections to media – in this case, the fictional story – as a point of mobilization. Additionally, the HPA is able to bloc recruit from mass society – a process they refer to as “cultural acupuncture” – by strategically connecting the story with social justice issues when cultural attention is at its peak. We conclude with a discussion of the HPA’s impact on its members and how bloc recruitment and cultural acupuncture may be relevant for other fan communities.
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The deadhead subculture – centered around the band Grateful Dead – has been active for 50+ years. Despite its longevity, academic work is sparse compared to other music…
Abstract
The deadhead subculture – centered around the band Grateful Dead – has been active for 50+ years. Despite its longevity, academic work is sparse compared to other music subcultures. Given its durability and resilience, this subculture offers an opportunity to explore subcultural development and maintenance. I employ a contemporary, symbolic interactionist approach to trace the development of deadhead subculture and subcultural identity. Although identity is a basic concept in subculture research, it is not well defined: I suggest that the co-creation and maintenance of subcultural identity can be seen as a dialectic between collective identity and symbolic interactionist conceptions of individual role-identity.
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Mary Ann Glynn and Benjamin D. Innis
The authors theorize the role that identity, and especially collective identity, plays in the creation of new institutions. The authors begin by reviewing the literature on social…
Abstract
The authors theorize the role that identity, and especially collective identity, plays in the creation of new institutions. The authors begin by reviewing the literature on social movements, focusing on identity movements; from this, the authors extract and explore the role of identity in collective action and institutional formation. The authors propose that identity and lifestyle movements create institutions that furnish the necessary cultural tools to support and enact a given identity. As an example of this process, the authors examine Martha Stewart’s cultivation of a lifestyle-driven brand. The authors discuss the implications of their work on social movement theory and institutional theory.
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Verena E. Wieser, Andrea Hemetsberger and Marius K. Luedicke
Whenever the news media feature brand-related moral struggles over issues such as ethicality, fairness, or sustainability, brands often find themselves in the position of the…
Abstract
Whenever the news media feature brand-related moral struggles over issues such as ethicality, fairness, or sustainability, brands often find themselves in the position of the culprit. However, brands may also take the opposite position, that of a moral entrepreneur who proactively raises and addresses moral issues that matter to society. In this chapter, the authors present a case study of the Austrian shoe manufacturer Waldviertler, which staged a protest campaign against Austria’s financial market authorities in the wake of the authorities demanding that the company closes its alternative (and illegal) consumer investment model after 10 years of operation. In response to this demand, the company organized protest marches, online petitions, and press conferences to reclaim the moral high ground for its financing model as a way out of the crunch following the global credit crisis and as a way to fight unfair administrative burdens. The authors present an interpretive analysis of brand communication material and media coverage that reveals how this brand used protest rhetoric on three levels – logos, ethos, and pathos – to reverse moral standards, to embody a rebel ethos, and to cultivate moral indignation. The authors also show how the media responded to protest rhetoric both with thematic coverage of context, trends, and general evidence, and with episodic coverage focusing on dramatic actions and the company owner’s charisma. The authors close with a discussion of how protestainment, the stylization of a leader figure, and marketplace sentiments can ensure sustained media coverage of moral struggles.
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Comedy and parody in rock and metal music have been around since the genre's inception. The Italian comedic music genre known as rock demenziale employs the use of nonsense and…
Abstract
Comedy and parody in rock and metal music have been around since the genre's inception. The Italian comedic music genre known as rock demenziale employs the use of nonsense and surrealism which turns conventions upside down. The demenziale has also attracted a slew of bands that employ this humour within the heavy metal genre, most famous of which is the Roman band Nanowar of Steel. With their jabs at Manowar and power metal bands, they place mundane activities and characters into the grandiose medievalist and fantasy worlds commonly used by those bands to the point of absurdity. However, with humour being deeply culture-specific, jokes that draw from a country's pop culture and makes extensive use of puns may be lost to an audience not familiar with that culture. Nanowar of Steel's unique position of having songs written in seven languages, primarily English and Italian, allows us to take a deeper look at how language and humour interfaces with the local and global metal scenes.
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Maite Tapia, Manfred Elfström and Denisse Roca-Servat
In this paper, we draw from our own empirical data on worker organizing and identify important concepts that bridge social movement (SM) and industrial relations (IR) theory. In a…
Abstract
In this paper, we draw from our own empirical data on worker organizing and identify important concepts that bridge social movement (SM) and industrial relations (IR) theory. In a context of traditional union decline and a surge of alternative types of worker mobilization, we apply SM and IR concepts related to the mobilizing structures and culture to cases of labor organizing via worker centers and community–labor alliances in the United States and China. From an analytical perspective, we argue that the field of SMs and IR can both benefit from this type of cross-discipline theorization.
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THAT SUPERSONIC RIDE courtesy of British Airways I flew to Bahrain and back in Concorde G‐BOAC. This gave me the opportunity to see the very comprehensive engineering support…
Abstract
THAT SUPERSONIC RIDE courtesy of British Airways I flew to Bahrain and back in Concorde G‐BOAC. This gave me the opportunity to see the very comprehensive engineering support provided by BA with Bill Jasper—who is one of those compulsive residents of the Gulf—and his staff. I nearly froze to death in his air‐conditioned stores and workshops but otherwise found the experience pleasant and instructive.
Hyun-Woo Lee, Heetae Cho, Emily Lasko, Jun Woo Kim and Woong Kwon
In highlighting brain wave responses of emotional processing, the purpose of this study is to investigate (1) the effect of sport participation involvement on affective reaction…
Abstract
Purpose
In highlighting brain wave responses of emotional processing, the purpose of this study is to investigate (1) the effect of sport participation involvement on affective reaction in viewing photos; and (2) the association between affective reaction and behavioral intentions.
Design/methodology/approach
Using lateralized event-related potentials, the authors examined how brain wave reactions are different based on different sport involvement between two groups where one group had varsity sport experience while the other expressed that they were not fans of the sport.
Findings
Results indicated a significant difference in lateralization between groups. Brain responses were greater in the high involvement group and positively correlated with the intention to attend future games.
Originality/value
The findings in this study elucidate the linkage between one's history of sport involvement and affective brain wave responses. Implications from neurophysiological evidence provide means to further dissect the multifaceted construct of involvement in the field of sport marketing.