Browsing by Subject "Consumption"
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Item Branding a global identity: labor anxieties, conspicuous consumption, and middle class culture in Hyderabad, India.(2012-07) Aaftaab, Naheed GinaSince India's economic liberalization in the1980s, corporations in the U.S. and Europe have been outsourcing service and computer programming jobs to urban centers in India such as Hyderabad. In this period, numerous Indian national as well as international processes have gone into making Hyderabad a "global city," where information technology (IT) jobs in multinational corporations provide new kinds of cultural capital and prestige that are shaping global Indian middle class identities. In this dissertation, I critically analyze how global neoliberal discourses encounter established, local practices, changing the previous calculus of social relations as well as refashioning particular meanings of the "global." IT professionals have to adapt quickly to take advantage of opportunities in the new economy, while also conforming to social benchmarks of job security set by previous generations. IT professionals have found ways to "brand" themselves and their careers to find a more solid foothold in a transient, transnational job sector. The process of branding involves specific kinds of soft skill training, resume building, networking, and practices outside of the professional space to be recognized as a "quality IT professional." New urban spaces of consumption such as malls, theme parks, and consumer showrooms have become iconic sites of global consumerism that seek to cater to these global, IT professionals. The significance of these landscapes is dependent on everyday, repetitive actions and narratives about consumption that highlight the city's present international role. Consumer practices play a dual role, at once the site of claiming to be globally Indian and the site of accusatory assertions of the loss of Indian traditional culture and the incursion of Western frivolity. Instead of looking at "traditional" and "Western" as opposing influences, I investigate how these concepts are produced through consumer practices and narratives of consumption. Furthermore, processes of professionalization and consumerism are incorporated into a global, modern, Indian middle class and the politics of exclusion that they deploy; a politics that recognizes some as being in synch with global and national growth, and renders large sections of the population invisible or outside of the citizenry of the Indian nation.Item Changing Chapultepec: construction, consumption, and cultural politics in a Mexico City Forest, 1934-1944(2013-12) Moerer, Andrea Kristine"Changing Chapultepec: Construction, Consumption, and Cultural Politics in a Mexico City Forest, 1934-1944" asks to whom does the forest belong? A study about how Chapultepec Forest in Mexico City became an emblematic space filled with didactic institutions, it argues that actors involved in social stabilization and economic modernization institutionalized the concept of "nature" in the urban environment, propagating social divisions through metaphors of naturalness to shape subjects in an era of heightened concern with both Mexicanness and foreign investment. Thus it documents the shifting understandings of what constituted nature through four thematic chapters looking at a failed international exposition, two foundational museums, an exhibition-, print- and legislative-based crusade against the use of charcoal, and out-of-doors sporting and consumer activities. These chapters detail conflicts among symbolism and materiality, popular access and privatization, and national goals and an effort to appeal to foreigners. Criminals, presidents, elite and working women, foreign businessmen, schoolchildren, entertainers, scientists, and civil servants among others demonstrate that though Chapultepec is considered a public space, its meaning and usage have been highly constructed and restricted.Item Increasing the understanding of whole grain use and consumption, and improving whole wheat tortilla quality(2016-08) Liu, TingAlthough the 2015 U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommend a higher intake of whole grain foods, considerable challenges limit the frequency of use and overall consumption. The objectives of this study were to increase whole grain consumption by gaining a better understanding of whole grain challenges in restaurant settings, along with improving whole-wheat flour (WWF) end-product (tortilla) quality. Current use of whole grains and factors that influence future whole grain use in restaurants were examined with 30 Chinese restaurants via face-to-face or phone interviews. Moreover, the acceptability of brown and white rice was compared in a restaurant setting. Results suggest that future efforts might focus on increasing the availability of brown rice in restaurants, so it becomes an easily accessible and desirable food choice for brown rice eaters. Incorporating WWF into tortillas is a practical approach to introduce more whole grains into the American diet and potentially increase whole grain consumption. Reducing the median particle sizes of WWFs from ~175 μm to ~130 μm would significantly improve the WWF tortilla quality. In addition, A leavening system including 2% sodium bicarbonate (and equivalent SALP acid), 177°C hot-press temperature, and 25°C dough temperature would be most suited to produce more opaque WWF tortillas. Lastly, sprouted WWF would bring benefits to WWF tortilla’s baking performance, i.e. better appearance, higher consumer acceptability, and longer shelf life. Therefore, with an optimal particle size range, optimized chemical leavening system and processing condition, and the incorporation of sprouted WWF, the quality of whole wheat tortilla has been improved.Item Momentum - Summer 2010(2010) University of Minnesota: Institute on the Environment