This book explores Eastern European consumer cultures in the twentieth century, taking a comparative perspective and conceptualizing the peculiarities of consumption in the region. Contributions cover lifestyles and marketing strategies in imperial contexts in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; urban consumer cultures in the Interwar Period; and consumer and advertising cultures in the Soviet Union and its satellite republics. It traces the development of marketing throughout the century, and the changes in society brought about by democratization and the 'Americanization' of consumption. Taken together, the essays gathered here make a valuable contribution to our understanding of consumption and advertising in the region.

The collapse of state socialism ushered in dramatic political and economic change, producing new freedoms and opportunities, but also new challenges and disappointments. Focusing on laborers, professionals, youth, women, sexual minorities, foreign students, and emigrants, Everyday Postsocialism in Eastern Europe explores these multifaceted changes and people’s varied experiences of them. The featured narratives complicate hegemonic representations of transformation, revealing ruptures and continuities, progress and reversals. Highlighting the multi-directionality of change over the last thirty years, the book reappraises 1989 as an epochal event for all.

As the markets in transitional economies open and grow, major challenges and opportunities arise for multinational firms entering these markets, local firms facing these new competitors, and policymakers seeking to increase the ability of all firms to compete fairly and efficiently. Yet despite the important questions transition economies pose for policymakers and companies seeking to enter and compete in these new markets, there has been a relative absence of systematic research on these concerns. This book seeks to fill a gap in the existing literature by offering a pioneering and comprehensive examination of issues that have developed as markets in transitional economies become more deregulated and open. The countries discussed include China, the Czech Republic, Hungary, India, Poland, Romania, Russia, South Africa and South Korea. The topics covered are divided into five main sections, and the individual chapters are written by some of the world's leading academic experts on these issues. Most of the authors draw from freshly-collected data in new studies of consumers and/or firms in transitional economies. After an opening section which discusses the marketing issues and challenges multinational and local firms face in transitional economies, the next three sections offer detailed treatments of changing consumer behavior, measuring and improving the marketing orientation of firms, and implementing and managing distribution channels. The fifth and final section is devoted to firm strategies and tactics, examined variously from the perspective of multinational firms entering these new markets, from the viewpoint of existing local firms facing new competitive challenges from global entrants, and from the perspective of local firms seeking to establish themselves in foreign markets where they have not previously competed. Most of the individual chapters are revised versions of papers originally presented at a conference sponsored by the William Davidson Institute, which focuses on research related to emerging and transitional economies, and have not previously appeared in published form. Thus, the book is a unique collection of cutting-edge scholarship on the various aspects of marketing in transitional economies. It will prove valuable reading to academics, policymakers, and international business strategists.

On the eve of the 20th century, Jews in the Russian and Ottoman empires were caught up in the major cultural and social transformations that constituted modernity for Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jewries, respectively. What language should Jews speak or teach their children? Should Jews acculturate, and if so, into what regional or European culture? What did it mean to be Jewish and Russian, Jewish and Ottoman, Jewish and modern? Sarah Abrevaya Stein explores how such questions were formulated and answered within these communities by examining the texts most widely consumed by Jewish readers: popular newspapers in Yiddish and Ladino. Examining the press's role as an agent of historical change, she interrogates a diverse array of verbal and visual texts, including cartoons, photographs, and advertisements. This original and lively study yields new perspectives on the role of print culture in imagining national and transnational communities; Stein's work enriches our sense of cultural life under the rule of multiethnic empires and complicates our understanding of Europe's polyphonic modernities.

Twentieth century Europe went through a dramatic transition from low income populations experiencing hunger and nutritionally inadequate diets, to the recent era of over-consumption and growing numbers of overweight and obese people. By examining the trends in food history from case studies across Europe, this book offers a historical context to explain how and why this transition has occurred and what we can learn in order to try and address the vitally important issues arising from obesity in contemporary Europe.

This book serves as a reader exploring the scholarly inquiry, professional education, and practice of Russian public relations and advertising in multiple contexts. It examines significant parts of what can be encompassed under the umbrella of strategic communications, including public relations and advertising, rather than investigating all areas of communication in Russia. Within the context of Russia’s history, culture, and ideology, the book begins by tracing the development of communication as a field, as a discipline, and as a social institution in Russia. It then samples current studies in Russian strategic communications, examining this professional specialization’s current state and likely future directions. The book’s authors are mostly Russians who are experts in their specializations. Chapters are predicated upon the premise that this is an exciting time of great opportunity for Russian strategic communications. However, in Russia, exploiting such opportunities for strategic communications scholarship, education, and professional practice presents challenges within the context of that nation’s cultural, historical, and ideological heritage that presently may be unique. The book concludes with a prognosis of the future of Russian strategic communications. The book is recommended reading for a worldwide audience of strategic communications scholars, educators, students, and practitioners. Such readers will find the book of interest and of unique value as the book will help them to better understand, appreciate, and respect Russian strategic communications, its genesis, and present state.

This book analyzes the main post-war features of consumption. It traces the historical development of consumption and discusses the major contributions made by sociologists in discussing the subject. Robert Bocock is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the Open University.

The world's most comprehensive, well documented, and will illustrated book on this subject. Extensive subject and geographical index. 146 photographs, maps and illustrations - mostly color. Free of charge in digital PDF format on Google Books

This book comprehensively covers the science and policy issues relevant to one of the major public health disasters of modern times. It pulls together the aetiology and burden of the myriad of tobacco related diseases with the successes and failures of tobacco control policies. The book looks at lessons learnt to help set health policy for reducing the burden of tobacco related diseases. The book also deals with the international public health policy issues which bear on control of the problem of tobacco use and which vary between continents. The editors are an international group distinguished in the field of tobacco related diseases, epidemiology, and tobacco control. The contributors are world experts drawn from the various clinical fields. This major reference text gives a unique overview of one of the major public health problems in both the developed and developing world. The book is directed at an international public health and epidemiology audience includng health economists and those interested in tobacco control.

A survey of the origins and development of musical instruments world-wide from Paleolithic times to the present day. Illustrated with pictures of several hundred instruments from all over the world on 120 plates, with five maps for ease of reference to exotic places.