Luxury Class Research Articles

Rear-axle air suspension system for light commercial vehicles

Air suspension systems have gained widespread acceptance, not only in heavy commercial vehicles. Ever more frequently, luxury class cars and Sport Utility Vehicles (SUV) gain a competitive edge with this technology — usually combined with electronically controlled adjusting dampers. Continental Automotive Systems is now introducing the air suspension system in light commercial vehicles as well. Fiat, Citroen and Peugeot equip their Ducato, Jumper and Boxer vans with a rear-axle air-suspension system that improves the ride comfort, practicality and, above all, driving safety.

Aristocracy and Modernism: Signs of Aristocracy in Marcel Proust's A la Recherche du temps perdu

The heir to Balzacian obsession, Proust, for whom every social invitation seems an "open Sesame" to restored life, escorts us into labyrinths where primeval gossip conveys to him the dark secrets of all splendour, until this becomes, under his too close and yearning gaze, dull and cracked. Yet the placet futile, the preoccupation with a historically-condemned luxury class whose superfluity any bourgeois could show by calculations, the absurd energy squandered on the squanderers, is more thoroughly rewarded than the unclouded eye for the relevant. —Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, § 1071 The Salon, Distinction, and Class Struggle It is undeniable that "class struggle" constitutes a central part of the world of Proust's novel, if we mean by this the major cultural battle fought out during the Third Republic between the ascendant bourgeoisie and the persistent ancien régime, to borrow Arno Mayer's [End Page 871] phrase.2 The dominance of the bourgeoisie, claims Mayer, has been grossly overstated in the historiography of the transition from feudalism to early and then industrial capitalism, and to Modernity. While that dominance economically, and in terms of financial and government posts, may or may not be overemphasized, certainly cultural hegemony was by no means secured overnight, as if the Revolution, in overturning a society of orders politically, had revolutionized the rules of society and art. The old order persisted until the final decimation of the vestiges of nobility in the Great War and the fundamental (technological) changes in art, pastimes, and public gatherings (for instance, through the moving picture) definitively modified the cultural landscape. This continuity in the social sphere can be observed clearly through a focus on the specific space of the salon. One can discern there how the cultural hegemony of the elite was cashed out in specific codes of comportment and conversation and how, through the ruses of distinction and the "laws of imitation," homo hierarchicus persisted even while the political basis of a society of orders was undermined by absolutist and republican evolutions. What are at stake in the salon are the forms of distinction that govern social interaction among the ruling classes in France during this period. Distinction, a term I borrow from Pierre Bourdieu,3 is most broadly an evaluative recognition of difference within a general economy of symbolic capital. More specifically, as I intend the term here, it means adherence to, or interpellation by, a set of rules governing the manifestation and discernment of elements of a differential, formal system of signs which bear the burden of expressing, legitimizing, and reproducing power, prestige, and ideological class domination. The salon is a theater of distinction, and, as a space dominated by the nobility, is a veritable workshop of the "signs of aristocracy." Perhaps more famously, the salon is also the center of the cultural and artistic life of France. The codes of distinction were modified but retained over the course of the Enlightenment period to such an extent—one need [End Page 872] only think of the contemporary stereotypes of France as the most cultivated and conversible of cultures—that they survived the upheaval of the Revolution, and were relatively easily resuscitated after the fall of the political society that gave rise to them, by the Empires and the Restorations of the nineteenth century.4 Several key figures, among them Balzac and Sainte-Beuve, served a reinvention of the tradition of the salon, which thus persisted as a social institution even as it became a lieu de mémoire, a culturally sustaining fantasy, for republican France. These salons continued to structure the social world of the Third Republic. Artistic salons grew in number and importance over the course of the nineteenth century, causing modifications in the constitutions of more social and aristocratic gatherings.5 Above all, the arts—music, painting, theater—reached their pinnacle as signs of cultural capital...

Calculating the price trajectory of adoption of fuel cell vehicles

How do you model consumer behaviour for disruptive technologies? Technologies that potentially have no antecedents and that, by their very definition, change consumer behaviour patterns? This paper outlines a methodology and results employed during a study to model the consumer willingness to pay for fuel cell vehicles, a potential disruptive innovation (DI). The first part of the study provides a short overview on DI highlighting why the fuel cell family of technologies may represent an upcoming DI. From the post ante study of successful historical disruptive innovations a number of initial `rules of adoption' can be sketched. Further narrowing of the focus on economic reasons for adoption provides a framework for which the willingness to pay for the new disruptive technology, such as, here, fuel cell vehicles, can be analysed during different phases of the market. This economic framework is then applied to the potential future market of fuel cell vehicles using information from a model that was built from vehicles during the build years 1994–2002 in the subcompact, compact and luxury class. The results presented in this paper concentrate on the subcompact and compact class of vehicle and supersede the initial results previously published. Finally, there is a short discussion on different pathways that this can be taken forward and used to help in policy decisions.

A Concept with a Promising Future

Manufacturers of luxury class vehicles naturally make especially high demands on the exhaust system. As an Audi partner, Boysen has developed a system for the new A8 that meets these demands in terms of performance, emission control, NVH comfort, acoustics and durability.

Latin American Ecotourism: What is it?

Defining – and agreeing upon a definition of – the word 'ecotourism' poses a challenge. This is especially true in Latin America where the buzzword remains a vague term used t o market anything related to nature or environmental tourism. 'Proyectos ecoturisticos' sell everything from community development projects to jet skis. There are pros and cons in using any specific viewpoint – if we insist on high environmental standards and minimal impacts, the costs skyrocket. This places the services and destinations into a 'luxury class' tourism – sometimes without the amenities to which those who pay high-end prices are accustomed. These five-star operations often run into conflict with more humble, grassroots operations. At risk are rural and/or indigenous guides who do not have the financial resources to take part in established guide training programmes – not offered in the field, but usually in the capital city. Good intentions lie behind guide training and accreditation, but if governments or agencies do not empower rural guides and tourism operations, the absence of 'local participation' betrays one of the main components of ecotourism.

Seaside Resort Development in the Dominican Republic

Within the informal sector, legitimate services are provided by itinerant and semi-stationary vendors peddling items ranging from traditionally prepared food and beverages to locally manufactured folk handicrafts and souvenirs. In contrast, officious services are often rendered by the ubiquitous guides, money changers, personal secretaries, “beach boys.“ and prostitutes who cruise the streets and pathways of coastal resorts. Undesirable goods, include items made from endangered or exotic marine life forms, natural karst formations, and the sale of illicit if not illegal narcotics and drugs. Formal tourist development lends to manifest itself in three distinct forms: l)self-contained enclaves: 2)semi-insular/interactive enclaves; and 3)integrated domestic-international resorts. The luxury class enclave resort is highly restrictive, tolerating practically no participation by the informal sector. In contrast, the semi-insular resort model promoted by the Dominican government advocates controlled access via small concessions on the resort fringe away from beaches and hotels, yet within the tourist's reach. Finally, integrated domestic-international destination seaside resorts are characterized by the colorful and increasingly competitive participation between and among formal and informal sectors. Integration in this dynamic resort type may range from co-existence and non-interference, to semi-formalization. control, and ultimately the eradication of the informal sector.

Workers' Arrivals and Departures: An Informal Look

Wieland and Uhich (1976, pp. 57-58) suggest that employees tend to arrive at work just before the scheduled starting time. Further, the arrival array approximates Allport's (1934) J-shaped distribution. Tate, et al. (1978, pp. 25-37) imply that owner-managers, too, arrive before the starting time. However, their arrivals are normally earlier and their departures later. To examine these thoughts, the arrival and departure of cars at a parking area in a surburban industrial site were noted. Sampling observations were made of two time intervals: 30 min. before through 30 min. after the common starting and quitting times for the plants using the space. Further, note was made as to whether the residual cars (those there at the beginning or remaining at the end) were luxury or economy class. Cadillacs, Lincolns, and Chrys1e.r~ were considered luxury; Chevrolets, Fords, and Plymouths economy. Generally, 30 min. before the starting time about 6% of the arriving cars were in place; 25 rnin., 11%; 20 min., 20%; 15 min., 34%; 10 min., 62%; and 5 rnin., 96%. At the starting time, 97% were there. Five min. later the number increased by 1%, with the remaining 2% arriving during the last 25 min. As for departures, normally about 1% of the cars left during the first 15 min. By 10 min. prior to quitting time, 2% of the cars were gone; and 5 min., 3%. At quitting time, 5% had departed. Five min. later, 36% were gone; 10 min., 63%; 15 min., 79%; 20 rnin., 87%; 25 rnin., 91%; and 30 rnin., 93%. The pattern of arrivals tends to support both parts of the Wieland and Ullrich contention. Further, the distribution of the departures suggests that the involved frequency pattern is an approximate mirror-image of the arrival display. The average ratio of luxury to economy cars at the beginning of the arrival and the end of the departure intervals was about 2 to 1, as contrasted with approximately a 1 to 20 ratio at the end of the arrival and the beginning of the departure intervals. Assuming that most of the luxury class cars belonged to the owner-managers, the economy cars to the employees, the findings sugge& support of the thinking of Tate, et al. ( 1978).

A Survey of Post-War Levels of Business Activity

BEFORE we consider the varying advances achieved by various classes of industry since I9I9, it is useful and interesting to review the broad economic aspects of the period through which we have been passing. From our study of the cyclical fluctuations during the past sixty years, we have learned that economic data for that time can not be analyzed as a homogeneous whole. We find that there are certain periods which have been characterized by cyclical swings of great amplitude and much irregularity. There are other periods in which the ups and downs of business have been moderate, but, nevertheless, well defined. This distinction is clearly apparent in the fluctuations of the rates on prime commercial paper from i866 to I9271. During the reconstruction period from i866 to I873, the far reaching after-effects of the Civil War brought about extreme fluctuations in the rates on commercial paper. After a period of relatively narrow fluctuations, there emerged between I890 and I899 another interval characterized by wider variations, when the usual cyclical movements were greatly intensified by the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, by the menace of the free silver episode, and by the outbreak of the Spanish-American War. On the other hand, there were two long intervals in the sixty years under examination when money rates were virtually free from such extreme movements. From I875 to I890 and again from I900 to I9I3, there were periods during which the economic mechanism, having outgrown the influence of the tremendous disturbing forces which immediately preceded, and not being subjected for any considerable interval to the pressure of unusual new elements, settled down to a more stable and regular type of oscillation. The outbreak of the war in I9I4, however, ushered in another period featured by wide movements. Indeed, the war years were so dominated by military demands that critical economic analysis of this period is hindered by many obstacles. It will be noted, however, that during the war ancl post-war years, money rates have not exhibited the same degree of irregular month to month fluctuation which had characterized previous comparable periods. This reflects the influence of the federal reserve system. During I9I9-27, there are new and important elements in the economic situation, for which allowance must be made before one applies the methods of analysis suitable for such a period as I903-I3. The business situation in the United States has been profoundly influenced by the march of post-war developments in Europe, which brought financial upheaval and demoralization of markets. It has become increasingly evident that the United States is not an isolated self-sufficient nation, but, on the contrary, is affected materially by international developments. The fact that our country now has the greatest accumulation of gold in modern times serves to explain certain unusual phases in postwar business conditions. Furthermore, there have been substantial changes in the standard of living in this country, as well as in buying habits. These changes in the standard of living have been of such order as to have important effects on the usefulness of indexes of prices. Available wholesale price indexes are heavily weighted with data for staple basic commodities, and fail to measure the price movements of many of those things which people want to buy. People will deprive themselves in a variety of ways so that they may have automobiles, radios, fur coats, ultra-modern apartments, and other goods of the luxury class. This, then, means that price indexes fail to register adequately the price changes for articles people most desire to buy. It would be possible to cite many additional reasons to show why the period I9I9-27 has been an unusual one, but such enumeration is unnecessary to indicate that the injection of new elements into the compound we call the business situation has necessitated a revised point of