Fashion and the individuality of mass consumption

As a result of the formation of new geopolitical, economic, and social conditions, the consumer goods market is undergoing high volatility, which entails significant changes. At the same time, the transformation concerns not only the behavior of consumers but also the marketing policies of companies selling goods from the fast-moving consumer goods sector. The scientific article presented the current indicators of the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) market in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The results of changes in the economic profile of consumers are given based on the interpretation of the survey data. The article aims to study the impact of consumer behavior transformation on Kazakhstan's consumer goods (FMCG) market. The following research methods were used in the study: statistical analysis, survey, and in-depth interview. As a result of the study, the economic characteristics of the market were reflected based on the results of a statistical cross-section of 2022 the three quarters. The forecast of further transformation of the market and the explanation of individual trends was formed based on the data from the conducted expert interview. Accordingly, in a three-stage study, up-to-date data on the volume and structure of the FMCG market were obtained, a modern economic portrait of the consumer was derived, and the possibilities for improving consumer loyalty in the Republic of Kazakhstan were assessed. Local FMCG and retail companies can use final data in the processes of building sales strategies and studying the behavior of a modern consumer, as well as in the formation of sales policy and tactical decisions. These studies may be relevant for companies that still need their analytical tools.

Interview with Martin Jay

Letter from the Editors: Contemporary Popular Culture and Social Criticism

The globalization of economic processes significantly affects the main trajectory of Ukraine's economy, in particular, determines the current characteristics of the national market of consumer goods. Increasing interdependence of national economies, increasing economic turbulence, increasing the role of informatization and digitalization lead to the emergence of new, previously unknown phenomena in the economic sphere, which initiate the transformation of the architecture of the consumer goods market. The current state of functioning of the consumer goods market is under the influence of inflation and is characterized by imbalance as a result of imperfections of market mechanisms and the lack of a comprehensive state policy on its development. In recent years, key levers of real influence on consumer goods market indicators have been lost, attention to the settlement of systemic development problems has weakened, which has led to deepening structural deformations, significant shadowing of the market, reduced quality and safety of goods. Theoretical studies of the need and essence of regulation make it possible to form a system of regulation of the consumer goods market. In practice, such a system accumulates three basic blocks: formation, implementation and adjustment. They are interconnected and are aimed at achieving certain criteria for regulating the consumer goods market and achieving its development goals. Changes in the socio-economic environment, the need to accelerate the decentralization of management, strengthening the regulatory functions of market mechanisms and public regulation necessitate the development of new strategic measures to regulate the consumer market in globalization, which will ensure balanced, sustainable and safe development and expansion. a full-fledged socially oriented market environment, satisfying the population's demand for consumer goods at affordable prices and a guaranteed level of quality and safety of goods. To solve such problems, we have proposed strategic directions and organizational and economic mechanisms for their implementation. The mechanism for ensuring the implementation of strategic objectives includes: improving institutional support; identification of sources of funding for regulatory measures; formation of information support system; organization of scientific support; increasing the level of staffing in the field of consumer goods market regulation; ensuring interaction and organization of cooperation with public and non-governmental structures. Key words: mechanism, state regulation, consumer market, functions, methods.

The topicality of the topic lies in determining the perspective of adaptation of enterprises to the challenges dictated by military actions, including the annexation of business territories, destruction of fixed assets, migration of workers, constant risk to life and health. The main idea of the work is to develop recommendations for the private sector to continue working in Ukraine after a full-scale invasion, in order to provide the population with jobs, high-quality goods and services, and faith in the bright future of the state. The war caused troubles and cataclysms in the domestic economy as a whole and in the market of consumer goods, in particular, because a large part of trading points, shops, pavilions was destroyed and cannot be restored. Significant minus factors of the profitable activity of the private sector are the annexation of territories led to the usurpation of the fixed assets of trade enterprises, including; decrease in the number of the workforce – personnel of organizations; decrease in demand for clothes and accessories of popular brands, due to changes in values and financial capabilities; mass migration of potential consumers of the sports goods and services market; the lack of profits causes the predominance of the expense part of the balance sheet and, accordingly, the unprofitability of the activity; withdrawal from the consumer goods market of companies with a higher level of prices and product quality. The war also necessitated the reorientation of production to military lines, and therefore goods and services for civilians are not a priority; forced closure of shops, warehouses, sales points in the aggressor country; growing consumer sensitivity to the enterprise's business policy, the level of its assistance in achieving victory; and increased the global need to help the population, even in the face of the prospect of bankruptcy and withdrawal from the country's consumer market and increased tax pressure. And, in the end, it led to a decrease in the possibilities of receiving state orders, grants, subsidies, quotas.

Uncorking an Old Bottle Found in the Atlantic Sea—What Does Critical Theory Want from Film? Gertrud Koch (bio) On several occasions, Theodor W. Adorno compared the work of art to the monad. Like Leibniz's monad, the work of art lacks windows that open onto the world, while at the same time confining the whole world inside of itself. The work of art contains a blueprint of the world and was not made to bring it outside. On another occasion, Adorno found a nautical metaphor for the negative dialectic of art: the work of art is a message in a bottle, which floats in the ocean with no guarantee if or when the bottle may be uncorked and the message may find an addressee. During the last decades, one sometimes gets the impression that Critical Theory, especially the writings on mass culture, was doomed to share the fate of art: caught in between two continents. And it was Miriam Hansen's courageous task to start to decipher the message in the bottle as a tale of two continents. Starting in Frankfurt with American Studies and closing her final book on the Frankfurt School in Chicago, she shipped the transatlantic messages in both directions. Miriam Hansen's posthumously published book on the positions in and the implications of the thinkers and thoughts of the so-called "Frankfurter Schule" on film and mass culture was the sum of a lifelong dialogue with a paradigm that never was placed in the center of academic philosophy or cultural theory, nor did it enter into the [End Page 654] mainstream of film or media studies.1 Why, then, does the "Critical Theory" of the Frankfurt School still haunt our concepts and understanding of mass culture? As we know, the so-called Frankfurt School only became a brand long after its foundations were built in the city of Frankfurt. Even during its best times, the members of the club lived in different cities and parts of the world—the center was a group of persons and a growing number of texts and commentaries. Its history was linked to the practices that were inspired by those texts and performed on the part of students from around the globe and members of civil rights movements from Berlin to Berkeley and Tokyo. Do these practices extend to the present field of media studies? I would venture to say yes: we encounter a continuing preoccupation with Walter Benjamin and a growing serious interest in the rediscovery of Siegfried Kracauer, and last year has seen celebrations of the fiftieth anniversary of Marcuse's book, One Dimensional Man, which took place at least at Columbia University and Brandeis University. If I am reading the signs correctly, there is also a return to one of the most strictly banned text in media studies, the chapter on the "Culture Industry" in the Dialectic of Enlightenment. This text assembles the most radical aspects and positions of the Frankfurt School: a nearby pre-Foucauldian perspective on Freud's psychoanalysis, reflecting the tension between a social technology of the self and a redemptive reading as Nietzschean culture critique; a Marxist analysis of the economy of distribution or, to quote more frequently used Marxist terminology, an analysis of the circulation and fetishization that comes with the commodity form. It addresses a fate that is at stake for all culture in capitalism—not only popular culture, but all mediated art that is sold and distributed on the market. The questioning of abandoned Marxist approaches touches upon the scars that were left after the expulsion of Marx from the Western philosophical and sociological canon, an expulsion that started early and has never fully ceased. The nostalgia that whispers its sorrows in the question, "Where Is the Frankfurt School Now?" also conjures the specter of Marx. Let me take us back to the terms themselves. When did theory become critical? When the term "Critical Theory" was first introduced as proper name for the project of the Frankfurt School, it was a replacement for the Marxist notion of "materialism" that had to be banned under [End Page 655] the conditions of the American exile. "Critical Theory" still refers to Marx's...

Subject and purpose of work: The main purpose of the article is to assess the functioning of the domestic market for consumer products and to characterise its development. Trends in the development of the domestic consumer goods market are analysed in the following areas: consumption of main product groups; food supply through consumption funds; agricultural production in the context of crop and livestock production; the ratio of exports to imports of agricultural and food products; and economic accessibility of the population to foodstuffs. The paper also analyses the problems of developing trade infrastructure facilities. Materials and methods: The methods of scientific abstraction, systemic, structural and functional, synergetic approaches was statistical and comparative analysis to assess the state of development of the domestic market for consumer goods and the determinants of regulation of the internal consumer market were implemented. The open resources of the State Statistics Service of Ukraine were the main sources of data. Results: It has been proved that trade infrastructure currently plays an important role at the present stage of development of the internal market for consumer goods in Ukraine. Certain trends are primarily due to the reduction in the total number of markets as a result of prohibition of informal markets, where food products were mainly traded, as well as the active development of supermarket chains, which today occupies an important place in the trade infrastructure. Conclusions: The analysis revealed insufficient levels of actual and projected consumption of most basic types of food, compared to the recommended norms.

The article is devoted to enhancing the wellbeing of older adults in Russia and abroad. The current trend of rapid growth in the number of the elderly worldwide is considered. The social and economic impacts of modern demographic shift changes are analysed: the structures of market demand, savings patterns, labour supply, budgeted resource requirements, flow of financial resources and obligations. It is proposed to revise the existing economic model of modern society based on a new concept of continuous wellbeing of older adults. A new platform of wellbeing of older adults through their active involvement in the economic life of society is suggested. The option of creating a new concept of wellbeing on the basis of the revival of mentoring is considered. In the framework of a study examines the changes in the market of consumer goods and services; labour market; a system of accumulation and savings; transformation of financial resources.

This research aims at a statement of sensitive marketing role in the perceived image of the customer. and given the importance of these two variables in the marketing of consumer goods and services. especially in the field of nutrition. Sample views were taken from the pioneers of first-class restaurants in Baghdad. The processing and analysis of data obtained through the questionnaire prepared for this purpose is used using two SPSS and AMOS statistics. 134 respondents were polled. as well as personal interviews. The search reached a range of conclusions. most notably that all the dimensions of sensory marketing had had an effective and fundamental link in customer behavior. the research then concluded a number of recommendations. most notably the company's focus on sensory marketing. as well as the opening of many communication channels with customers and considered active partners at all stages of service.

Introduction. The article is relevant because an adequate assessment of purchasing power allows us to better understand the state of the economy, inflation, and the population’s living standards. For companies and individual entrepreneurs, knowledge of the ruble’s purchasing power helps plan prices, costs, and income. The article aims to assess the ruble’s purchasing power as a tool for analyzing and forecasting economic processes. Materials and methods. Publications in university journals, dissertations, and peer-reviewed articles on purchasing power, inflation, and economic indicators. Official statistical data: Data from the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat), the Central Bank of Russia. Research findings. According to experts, actual inflation for 2021 in Russia exceeded 25% (and food inflation exceeded 42%). There is every reason to believe that the official inflation rate is only a part of the whole, the actual inflation rate, which is a posteriori for the mass consumer and causes intuitive doubt about its reliability, since the actual situation in the market of consumer goods and services, well, in no way corresponds to the data of ‘collusive statistics’. Conclusion. Whether the inflation rate is calculated correctly or incorrectly by the statistical agency (and the purchasing power index of Russian citizens’ money is not calculated at all), it actually converts into a decrease in the real income of the population and an increase in the scale of the poor population.

This introductory chapter presents the major themes of study and narrows the scope of research to the European Union (EU). It briefly examines developing trends in the market for consumer goods and services as well as the legal systems which changed to accommodate these trends. In particular, the chapter focuses on the platform economy. It discusses issues arising from these developments, especially as they apply to private law. Private law concerns the contractual rights that suppliers and customers have vis-à-vis each other and their potential liability. However, whereas the rights and duties of these parties would normally be governed by rules of national contract and consumer law, or perhaps also by rules of European origin if the parties are in the EU, the platform economy has created a private sphere that operates largely through other mechanisms. From here, the chapter introduces research questions as well as a new approach to lawmaking in European law.

apparent impossibility of their solution. This paper looks at the particular policy problem of inflation in the consumer goods market, in the context of the Polish economy, where inflation has grown from insignificance in the early 1970s to become comparable with rates experienced in such inflation-stricken economies as Britain, Italy and Yugoslavia, by the early 1980s, and to rival Israel by 1982. The aim of the paper is to survey Polish inflationary experience of the period 1971-82, and to discuss some possible causes. In an earlier work (Wanless, 1980, passim) the author suggested that the economic reforms of 1973 had contributed to inflationary pressure. In this paper the causes of inflationary pressure are discussed in more detail and the discussion is brought up to date to 1982. (At the time of writing, 1982 is the latest year for which comprehensive data are available.) Particular attention is paid to the money supply, and to monetary indicators of inflationary pressure. The overall approach is based on descriptive economics, and uses some standard indicators of the extent of the inflation problem. The author has been able to draw extensively on Polish statistical sources, not all of which are available to non-Polish speakers. By collecting a variety of indicators of inflation, and presenting them in this paper, the author hopes to make some modest contribution to knowledge of inflation in centrally planned economies. The data and discussion in this paper contradict two stereotyped views of inflation in CPEs which have now become fairly well-established, even though they are mutually contradictory. The first, or traditional, view is that inflationary pressure is endemic in CPEs, but results in suppressed, rather than open inflation, because of the stringency of central price control. The second or 'new view' is that centralised financial planning results in such stringent monetary control that problems of general excess demand for consumer goods and services generally do not exist in CPEs. Section I of this paper looks at these views in a little more detail and compares them with inflationary experience revealed in Polish price statistics. Section II discusses the money supply and monetary indicators of inflationary pressure. Section III sums up the lessons of recent Polish experience.

The U.S. consumer goods market is characterized by the coexistence of business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-tobusiness(B2B) exchange systems that differ substantially in structure, behavior, and strategic orientation. Despite theirinterdependence, these market types are often examined separately, resulting in limited understanding of their comparativedynamics within a single industry context. This study presents a comprehensive analysis of B2C and B2B dynamics in theU.S. consumer goods market by examining buying behavior, value creation mechanisms, distribution channel structures,relationship management practices, and the role of digital transformation. The analysis demonstrates that B2C marketsare primarily driven by consumer perceptions of value, brand equity, service quality, and emotional engagement, whereasB2B markets emphasize organizational buying processes, efficiency, risk mitigation, and long-term relational exchanges.Differences in channel governance and supply chain coordination further distinguish the two market structures, influencingperformance outcomes and competitive positioning. The study also highlights the increasing importance of e-commerceand integrated supply chain systems in reshaping both B2C and B2B interactions. The findings suggest that firms operatingacross both market domains must adopt integrated strategic approaches that align marketing, channel management, andrelationship development to sustain competitive advantage. By clarifying the structural and strategic distinctions betweenconsumer and organizational markets, this research contributes to marketing theory and provides actionable insights formanagers navigating hybrid market environments within the U.S. consumer goods sector.

Companies in food, oil, automobiles, household electrical and other endurable consumer goods developed dramatically in the post-war period. There were only two concerns in oil, one in automobiles, and one in household electricals among the largest 121 firms in 1935, and only one of them remained in the ranks of the largest firms of the post-war era. By 1970 the number of the concerns had increased to eight in oil, 11 in automobiles, and five in household electrical equipment. In food, the large pre-war firms, which had mostly supplied semi-finished materials, were overtaken by new firms which produced finished consumer goods. These companies supplied new products to the Japanese market and developed rapidly along with their major product lines. A market for consumer goods appeared and developed rapidly after 1960, and the growth rate of these companies was generally high, probably the highest among all the industrial branches in the 1960–80 period.

The aim of the study is to analyze the state of industrial production in the Sverdlovsk region in the 1990s and its impact on the provision of population with consumer goods. The topic is relevant in the context of studying the impact of the crisis on the financial situation of population. The study was conducted on the materials provided by the Territorial body of the Federal State Statistics Service, with the involvement of scientific and journalistic literature on this issue. It is argued that the fall in production in the 1990s was caused by the collapse of the decades-old system of economic relations within the USSR and the Council of economic mutual assistance, as well as the reduction of purchases of materials and components from Western countries. It is declared that the decline in production in all industries of the Sverdlovsk region without exception continued until 1999. It is noted that after 1998 the industry of the region began to rise in all its branches, except for fuel. It is proved that the state of the consumer market in the segment of industrial goods for population did not correlate with the dynamics of their production in the region. It is concluded that the deep crisis of industrial production, which lasted until the end of the 1990s, in the market of consumer goods was largely compensated by imports of foreign consumer goods.