National identity has not faded quietly with modernization; if anything, it tends to resurface precisely when societies undergo rapid economic and social reorganization. This article revisits that puzzle through a Marxist—more precisely, a historical-materialist—analytical stance. Rather than viewing national belonging as an inherited cultural “substance,” the study treats it as a durable yet revisable form of social imagination that takes shape where material change, stratification, and institutional narration intersect. Using a comparative historical design, the article examines three deliberately anonymized contexts: Case A, where a capable state coordinates integrative identity narratives during long-term market expansion; Case B, where a prior overarching identity weakens and a renewed national frame grows amid abrupt systemic transition; and Case C, where a supranational integration project advances economically yet struggles to cultivate deep everyday attachment. Across the three cases, national identity is shown to be neither purely cultural nor mechanically economic. It is better understood as a negotiated settlement—often unstable—between shifting life chances, evolving class positions, and the institutions that translate these shifts into shared stories. The analysis suggests that historical materialism remains useful for explaining why identity projects gain traction at certain moments, while also underscoring the contingent, path-dependent ways in which identity is narrated, contested, and normalized.

Abstract This paper attempts to understand the interconnections between capitalism and nihilism: How does capitalism both afford and deny certain possibilities of meaning in life? By building upon Marx and Nietzsche, it argues that capitalism provides possibilities for meaning in life on a horizontal plane, consisting of projects of personal growth. Simultaneously, however, capitalism is nihilistic in the sense that, by keeping us occupied on the horizontal, it denies the vertical dimension of meaningfulness, defined by the unexpected breaking asunder of one’s self-centred frame. In place of such qualitatively transformative possibilities, capitalism offers only quantitative growth, a transcendent goal that is empty of existential substance but which can nonetheless offer meaningful identity projects.

Purpose This study investigates ethically ambivalent consumers (EACs) – consumers who experience conflicting orientations towards ethical consumption due to structural marketplace contradictions, a substantial yet neglected segment. Drawing from the sociological ambivalence theory, it examines how EACs construct moral identity projects (MIPs) through artisan food consumption, challenging the ethical/mainstream consumer dichotomy that dominates current literature. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative study was conducted in the Irish artisan food sector. Screening surveys and 19 in-depth interviews with EACs were analysed using the Gioia method to develop a theoretical framework. Findings Three interconnected processes reveal how EACs construct MIPs: artisan producers enable identity development through values of care, responsibility, preservation and fairness; EACs express identity through health consumption, sociality, expertise sharing and waste reduction; while navigating tensions including marketplace accessibility, contradictory consumption, conspicuous signalling and consumer scepticism. Research limitations/implications This study broadens moral identity research beyond sustainability-focused frameworks and questions the ethical/mainstream consumer divide. Applying the sociological ambivalence theory to identity work, it shows how structural contradictions shape moral consumption and offers strategies for food marketers to engage EACs through broader moral appeals. Originality/value This research introduces the first empirical framework explaining how EACs construct MIPs, showing moral consumption operates through wider values than recognised in traditional discourse. Applying sociological ambivalence theory provides fresh insights into the structural nature of consumer moral contradictions.

ABSTRACT This study examines how mothers who engage in entrepreneurship negotiate their evolving identities, highlighting the role of multi-domain possible selves in shaping their experiences. We examine twenty-nine biographical narratives of entrepreneuring mothers, drawing on theories of gender and entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial identity and the concept of possible selves. Thematic categories of hoped, feared and ought selves are employed as an organizing frame, to examine the inter-relationships between gendered social expectations, individual self-conceptions and entrepreneurial motivations that enable motherhood to serve as both a catalyst and constraint to entrepreneurial endeavour. We introduce the concept of Reflexive Accommodation to explain how mothers reconcile identity dissonance, leveraging entrepreneurship as a flexible, values-aligned pathway that integrates professional aspirations with maternal responsibilities. We highlight the role of narrative in making sense of these transitions and illustrate how conflicting ought selves can amplify feared selves, exerting powerful motivational influence. Our study extends current understanding of the recursive relationship between identity multiplicity, identity dissonance and entrepreneurial activities, challenging dominant assumptions about entrepreneurial orientation. By situating EI within whole-life identity projects in a liquid-modern context, we contribute to scholarship on gender and entrepreneurship by offering insights into the social situatedness of identity while emphasizing individual agency in entrepreneurial decision-making.

Despite indications of positive associations between ethnic‐racial identity and youth adjustment in ethno‐racially diverse European contexts, little is known about how to effectively support ethnic‐racial identity development through intervention to elicit such desirable outcomes. This longitudinal preregistered study examined whether a school‐based intervention, the Identity Project, impacted psychosocial and academic adjustment through the ethnic‐racial identity processes of exploration and resolution among adolescents in Sweden. The study included 509 adolescents attending the 10th grade (Mage = 16.28, SD = 0.80; 52% migration background; 65% self‐identified girls). Participants were randomized into an intervention or wait‐list control group. Data were collected and assessed at baseline and three times postintervention. Path analyses indicated a positive indirect intervention effect on psychosocial and academic adjustment through resolution, but not through exploration. However, the intervention did not moderate the associations between resolution and youth adjustment, and the intervention effects did not differ based on migration background, suggesting that the links between resolution and youth adjustment may be a normative part of adolescence. In sum, despite small intervention effects, the current study highlights the potential benefits of supporting youth toward ethnic‐racial identity resolution.

IDENTICAL project: Increasing distribution network hosting capacity by means of an innovative application of a smart transformer (with OLTC) combined with electric distribution digital twins

The growing presence of AI-powered virtual influencers (VIs) on social media has introduced new dynamics in digital marketing, yet little is known about how consumers in emerging markets perceive and respond to these synthetic personas. This study investigates the factors that shape consumer acceptance of virtual influencers in Indonesia, focusing on the interrelationship between social influence, performance expectancy, emotional resonance, and willingness to engage. Employing a qualitative research design, 25 in-depth semi-structured interviews with Indonesian consumers aged 18–35 were conducted, reaching thematic saturation. Thematic analysis was conducted using NVivo 14, integrating both deductive and inductive coding strategies. Findings reveal four major themes and twelve subthemes: (1) social influence functions as a cultural endorsement mechanism, shaping normative beliefs; (2) performance expectancy is driven by informational credibility, entertainment value, and behavioral consistency; (3) emotional resonance—expressed through perceived authenticity and psychological comfort—is central to consumer attachment; and (4) willingness to use VIs is closely linked to digital identity projection and contextual social legitimacy. A clear majority of participants (around four out of five) described positive evaluations of VIs, while a minority expressed skepticism and emotional discomfort, highlighting ethical and psychological boundaries in AI–human interaction. The study contributes to a deeper understanding of how social and emotional mechanisms converge in shaping digital consumer behavior, offering practical insights for marketers and advancing theory on technology acceptance in culturally nuanced settings.

This paper sought to understand how experiences of various levels of racism across multiple domains and geographical regions were associated with higher odds of hypertension among African American adults by sex. Data were from the African American Identity, Socialization, Discrimination, and Outcomes Project, collected January-February 2020. Participants self-identified as African American/Black individuals, were 18 + years of age, and completed a Qualtrics survey with items measuring perceived experiences of racism and health. Hypertension diagnosis served as the outcome variable. The Experience of Discrimination Questionnaire assessed racist experiences in six areas: personal (insults, slurs), education, employment, housing, law, and police interaction. We conducted bivariate analyses examining the distribution of experiences of discrimination by age, sex, and region using logistic regression to understand how racism patterned by these factors impacted odds of hypertension. In our sample (n = 1177), the distribution of racism experiences varied by sex and age. Additionally, reporting job discrimination and having a usual source of care were significantly associated with higher odds of hypertension in the overall sample (ORJob = 1.44, 95% CI: 1.04-1.99; ORcare = 1.73, 95% CI: 1.26-2.40). Females with a college or graduate degree reported slightly lower odds of hypertension (OREdu = 0.52, 95% CI: 0.32-0.89). People reported experiencing racism in different domains as they aged. Findings indicate sex-based differences in the experiences of racism and its association with hypertension. Our study underscores the importance of understanding which experiences of racism are more salient, for whom, when, and with what impact.

ABSTRACT This article develops the concept of digital necromancy to describe the use of artificial intelligence to animate the dead and extend the scope of life narrative. It also introduces the term speculative automediality to name the projection of autobiographical identity into possible futures through generative systems. Speculative automediality moves beyond preservation: posthumous entities do not simply store a life, they co-author it, adapting voice, memory, and presence in relation to the living. Through case studies of historical reenactment, interactive virtual assistants, cultural preservation projects, and AI-generated clones, we trace how these practices reconfigure authorship, agency, and memory, producing a paradox of presence without fidelity. In some contexts, they safeguard cultural memory and sustain access to voices that might otherwise be lost, while in others they raise questions of consent, posthumous privacy, dignity, commodification, provenance, and governance. By distinguishing between death tech concerned with legacy and cultural uses, and grief tech oriented to mourning and continuing bonds, we show how digital necromancy unsettles the boundaries of life writing, carrying both radical possibilities and significant risks.

El proyecto Haptic / Visual Identities es una combinación de práctica artística con medios y teorías críticas y desarrollo de herramientas propias (tecnología DIY), por lo que también es un intento de combinar conocimiento práctico y teórico en un proceso más amplio. Las preguntas e intereses que nos conducen, así como los diferentes antecedentes que aportamos a nuestra colaboración crean una situación de búsqueda sincrónica a la que llegamos a partir de diferentes aproximaciones a la producción, difusión y presentación del trabajo. Esto significa que no existe un contexto institucional claro, pero que al mismo tiempo está libre de la necesidad de adaptarse o incluso de producir para un entorno específico, como podría ser un artículo académico, una galería de arte, la exhibición de películas. Nuestro trabajo no tiene límites claros en cuanto a lo académico, lo visual, lo performativo, lo tecnológico ni lo critico, por lo tanto, necesitamos un marco que incorpore siempre a más de una de estas partes.

While the processes of singularization spread out the school, teaching takes on different postures. These, dictated by different orientations to value (old and new school), are characterized by practices and objectives diametrically opposed each other, articulated between the resistance of general and the innovation of particular. How is it possible despite this polarization that the outcome – in terms of which student’s behaviours are positively recognized – is unambiguously singularization? The biographical agency represents the activation of identity, caused by the compulsion to reflect (Rosa 2017) and the existential need to “be someone” (Martuccelli 2017b), and becomes progressively the objective of formal socialization. Although the criteria for evaluating life (and identity) project respond to the orientation of the teacher’s value – which are diversified – the rhetoric of sacrifice and merit permeates both declensions of recognition. On the one hand, old school tries to consecrate the standard of excellence; on the other hand, new school contributes to the construction of a unique biographical mechanism, the self-made-talent. Both are results of more or less explicit processes of inclusion/exclusion. Formal socialization – historically structured around the logic of the general – meets and clashes with the logic of the particular, affecting significantly the biographical and identity composition of the pupils.

Abstract While cosmopolitanism is often celebrated for its contemporary ideals of openness toward people from different cultural backgrounds, this paper reveals how and why these same ideals can generate tensions and identity struggles when rigidly applied in everyday cross-cultural encounters. Based on 32 life story interviews with globally mobile professionals who have worked and lived extensively across different countries, we observed and analyzed how these professionals pursued aspirational identity projects aligned with normative ideals of cosmopolitan ‘being’ (‘thinking globally’), ‘doing’ (‘integrating locally’), and ‘becoming’ (‘transforming the self’), when interacting with people from different cultural backgrounds than their own. In their everyday local encounters, this pursuit of cosmopolitan ideals also produced adverse effects: participants experienced resistance to their global mindset, rejections of their integration attempts, and deflections on their path toward self-improvement. These adverse effects created tensions which we theorize as three types of identity struggles: (a) showing tolerance toward intolerance; (b) enduring discrimination in order to fit in; and (c) denying one’s aspired self-image to match the perception of others. We argue that these identity struggles reveal the limitations of aspirational cosmopolitan identity projects that adhere too strictly to normative ideals, as rigid moral scripts around ‘openness toward the other’ can (somewhat paradoxically) restrict the agency of global professionals in their everyday encounters with cultural others. By drawing attention to this limited agency—and the vulnerability it can produce—this paper contributes a new perspective to the literatures on aspirational identities, cosmopolitan identities, and everyday cosmopolitanism, aiming to help bridge the gap in theory and practice between moral principles and lived cross-cultural encounters.

World War II as an Identity Project: Historicism, Legitimacy Contests, and the (Re-)Construction of Political Communities in Ukraine, 1939–1946

Background This study examines the role of multisensory design in shaping the spatial atmosphere of batik boutiques and its impact on consumer experience and purchasing behavior. Unlike conventional retail spaces, batik boutiques offer culture-based products for a specialized consumer segment, where shopping involves a highly immersive sensory experience. By analyzing sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste, this research explores how sensory stimuli influence emotional engagement, consumer perception, and decision-making within experiential boutique environments. Methods This research adopts a qualitative case study approach to analyze experiential retailing in batik boutiques as a brand differentiation strategy. Using an intersubjective paradigm, the study explores sociocultural consumer engagement through semi-structured interviews, direct observations, and photo-elicitation techniques. Data were collected over six months in a batik boutique in East Java, Indonesia, involving purposively selected participants to capture long-term consumer interactions with the store atmosphere and sensory elements influencing their shopping experiences. Result and Conclusions The findings indicate that batik boutiques serve beyond commercial spaces, offering culturally rich, multisensory experiences that enhance consumer attachment, emotional connection, and brand loyalty. Sensory engagement through lighting, music, scent, and tactile interactions significantly impacts consumer perception and purchase behavior. Additionally, nostalgia, identity projection, and social interaction reinforce prolonged engagement, with retail spaces functioning as cultural hubs for heritage appreciation. This study highlights the importance of sensory-driven retail design, demonstrating how store atmosphere influences consumer emotions, cognitive responses, and purchasing intentions within experiential fashion retailing.

With the widespread dissemination of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) in digital social spaces, interest-based communities formed around personality type labels have gradually evolved into a significant form of youth online subculture. This paper employs the "looking-glass self" theory, proposed by Charles Horton Cooley, as the core analytical framework to delve into how individuals within MBTI interest communities construct their identities through interactions both within and outside the group. The study finds that individuals undergo processes such as "identity projection," "community tracking," and "comparing and awareness" to acquire a "social mirror" projected through MBTI labels. Through repeated cycles of interaction, they construct, revise, and solidify their self-identity and sense of belonging, ultimately achieving "identity recognition." However, this process of identity construction also carries the risk of rigid labeling. This paper aims to enrich academic understanding of identity construction mechanisms in the context of digital socialization and offers reflective suggestions on the social impact and future development of MBTI culture.

Abstract Literature on party nationalization suggests that political parties in highly nationalized systems tend to concentrate control over candidate selection to preserve a unified national image. However, nationalized parties may also delegate selection to regional leaders or broader selectorates to leverage local knowledge or enhance legitimacy. Despite these contrasting expectations, empirical evidence remains scarce. This research note aims to provide empirical evidence on nationalized parties’ candidate selection methods. Using data from the Varieties of Party Identity and Organization (V-Party) Project and the Constituency-Level Elections Archive (CLEA), this note shows evidence that nationalized parties more often rely on delegated procedures, involving local actors or inclusive selectorates. These results challenge the assumption that party nationalization necessarily leads to centralized or exclusive control and instead point to a pattern of power-sharing in candidate selection.

The article analyzes the role of music as a strategic tool in Peru's cultural diplomacy, particularly in the digital age. It emphasizes that culture and its products, such as music, are essential for building a country's identity and international projection. Based on the concept of soft power, it argues that music can be a means of influence, aligning other international actors with the values and culture of the state. Through an interdisciplinary approach, a strategy is proposed to strengthen Peru's global presence, utilizing digital platforms and drawing on successful experiences from countries like South Korea, which has integrated its music into cultural diplomacy through the Hallyu phenomenon. The article suggests promoting Peruvian artists, such as Tony Succar, who manage to blend traditional and contemporary musical elements with a significant international impact. Furthermore, it underscores the need to coherently align cultural and foreign relations policies in order to develop an integrated and effective cultural diplomacy that enhances the impact of Peru's cultural diversity globally and contributes to the construction of national soft power.

This research examines identity-congruence of servicescapes—commercial built environments—with men’s gender identity. Building on literatures on servicescapes, emplacement, and masculinity, this paper develops a novel conceptualization of how emplacement fosters servicescapes’ identity congruence. Findings from the study of male patrons of martial arts gyms detail how servicescapes emplace fighter masculinity, an identity project challenging to pursue elsewhere. This work advances the notion that servicescapes vary in their gender identity-congruence as a property of the identity emplaced therein. It also highlights the importance of servicescape-bound, identity-defining relationships among both customers and service providers grounded in the pursuit of an identity project. Finally, martial arts gyms’ servicescape is meaningful because it harbors a critical rite of passage that affords men a chance to affirm fighter masculinity. Collectively, these findings speak to the situated nature of men’s gendered consumption.

Emerging economies of India and South Africa, among other member countries, endorsed the Data for Development agenda in the New Delhi leaders’ declaration during the G20 Summit in September 2023. With a focus on Sustainable Development Goal 16.9 of compulsory legal identity for all, this effort seeks to use data as a vital resource for sustainable development. The purpose of this study is to research how privacy in general and data privacy in particular have become crucial concerns for netizens, companies, and governments in the new digital public sphere. This article examines the significance of citizens’ digital identity and its implications for personal data privacy. Methodologically, this research uses a comparative analysis of digital identity projects undertaken in India and South Africa, namely the Aadhaar card and the Smart ID, respectively. The finding reveals the complexities of laws and challenges faced by both nations in providing their citizens with the Right to Privacy and the Right to Identity. This paper studies how India and South Africa perceive an individual’s Right to Privacy and the legal safeguards established in their respective legal systems, with a particular focus on the Protection of Personal Information Act 2013, the Home Affairs National Identification System, India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023, and the Aadhaar Act. This research aims to gain insights into how both nations strike a balance between providing legal digital identity to all their citizens without compromising their privacy.

This article explores the formative role of political rhetoric in constructing and contesting national identity in Ukraine during the post-Soviet period of 1991-2004. In a transitional context marked by institutional fragility, historical ambivalence, and regional polarization, political elites deployed rhetoric not only to reflect societal change but to actively shape collective imaginaries. Situated between the ideological legacy of the Soviet Union and the aspirational pull of European integration, Ukrainian political actors used discourse to navigate competing visions of sovereignty, identity, and geopolitical orientation. The study draws upon a broad empirical base, including presidential speeches, opposition discourse, party manifestos, electoral rhetoric, and symbolic statements. Using a combined methodology of political discourse analysis, content analysis, and sociological interpretation, the article traces identity narratives across four dimensions: memory politics (e.g., Holodomor, WWII), foreign policy alignment (Europe vs. Russia), language and cultural policy, and regional fragmentation. Special attention is given to the contrasting rhetorical strategies of Presidents Leonid Kravchuk and Leonid Kuchma, alongside opposition figures such as Vyacheslav Chornovil, Viktor Yushchenko, Yulia Tymoshenko, and Petro Symonenko. The findings show that rhetoric served as a key mechanism of political legitimation and socialization, reinforcing generational and regional cleavages while laying the semantic groundwork for Ukraine’s emerging European orientation. Kravchuk’s discourse affirmed independence while maintaining symbolic continuity, relying on notions of unity, legality, and cultural inclusiveness to stabilise the early post-Soviet state. In contrast, Kuchma institutionalised a rhetoric of strategic ambiguity: balancing Soviet nostalgia and economic reliance on Russia with growing appeals to European integration and democratic modernity. Oppositional rhetoric challenged this ambivalence by articulating alternative identity projects. Figures such as Vyacheslav Chornovil, Viktor Yushchenko, and Yulia Tymoshenko offered competing narratives grounded in civic nationalism, European orientation, and historical justice. Their discourses mobilised younger generations and regional communities in Western and Central Ukraine, particularly through the reframing of the Holodomor, advocacy for Ukrainian as the sole state language, and emphasis on democratic reform. These rhetorical strategies laid the semantic groundwork for subsequent pro-European mobilisations, including the Orange Revolution. Meanwhile, leftist and pro-Soviet actors, especially the Communist Party of Ukraine, preserved a counter-narrative centred on Soviet achievements, Russian cultural affinity, and economic stability.