Browsing by Subject "Money"

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    Accounting for Money: Keeping the Ledger of Monetary Memory in Germany
    (2014-01) Dalinghaus, Ursula
    This dissertation traces the socio-economic problem spaces and afterlives of the 1990 currency and economic union between West and East Germany, and the parallel process of creating the European single currency. Based on two and half years of full-time multi-sited (geographically and institutionally) fieldwork in Frankfurt am Main (West) and Leipzig (East) Germany, I show the pragmatic challenges of defining, enacting, and materializing relations of solidarity and obligation through new forms of monetary relations. I argue that the long and fraught histories of harmonizing east and west German regions offer critical insights for analyzing the new fault lines emerging between `core' and `periphery' nations in the euro-zone. My project therefore makes a contribution in narrating currency unions as emergent technical and social relationships, through which expert and lay understandings about money and economy are unwound and remade over time. In pursuing this line of inquiry, a key focus of my research included participatory research on the communications work of the German Central Bank (Deutsche Bundesbank) in Frankfurt am Main and Leipzig.
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    The Influence Of Nostalgia In The Domains Of Money And Health
    (2013-07) Lasaleta, Jannine
    While nostalgia is a prominent theme in marketing, very little is known about how feeling nostalgic influences consumers' attitudes, motivations, and behaviors. Much research on nostalgia in the consumer domain has been somewhat limited to conceptualizing nostalgia as a characteristic of products (e.g., Holbrook and Schindler 1989, 1994; Schindler and Holbrook 2003), and has studied why consumers favor nostalgic, relative to neutral, products. Recent research on nostalgia revolves around nostalgia-evoked aspects of well-being, namely social support and meaning in life (e.g. Juhl et al. 2010; Wildschult et al. 2006; Zhou et al. 2008). Much of this recent research has shown the restorative and buffering functions of nostalgia. The purpose of this dissertation was to examine if and how nostalgia influences consumer attitudes, behaviors, and motivations in the realms of money and health. To do so, I made links among nostalgia, well-being, and lay perceptions of what constitutes a good life. I extended prior findings by demonstrating the influence of nostalgia across the domains of money and health, two areas that are not directly linked to the aspects of well-being elicited by nostalgia. Furthermore, my research was not concerned with the restorative or buffering function of nostalgia, rather, I primarily focused on how nostalgia influences attitudes, behaviors, and cognitions across two domains that are of utmost importance to people's lives (Bowling 1995). Past research and preliminary findings from this dissertation have shown that when people are reminded of what constitutes a good life, they find money relatively less desirable (King and Napa 1989), and health relatively more desirable (chapter 1 pretest). Following this logic, I formulated two hypotheses, which I tested separately in two different essays. In essay #1, "Nostalgia Weakens the Desire for Money," I tested the hypothesis that those in a nostalgic, relative to neutral, state would find money less desirable. Findings supported my prediction; across five experiments I found that nostalgia participants indicated less desire for money. In essay #2, "Nostalgia Increases Receptiveness to Self-Threatening Health Information," I tested the hypothesis that those in a nostalgic, relative to neutral, state would be more receptive to self-threatening health information. Findings were inconclusive; in two studies nostalgia increased receptiveness to self-threatening health information, in one study nostalgia decreased receptiveness to self-threatening health information.