Status Symbol Research Articles

The Japanese Anime One Piece Drives Chinese Teenagers to Engage in Cross-border Consumption of Its Anime Peripherals

As One Piece has evolved into a global cultural phenomenon, particularly resonating with a strong fan base in China, it has become increasingly essential to delve into the underlying factors driving Chinese teenagers’ cross-border consumption. This exploration is particularly relevant within the broader context of globalization and the rapid growth of digital commerce. This study investigates the impact of the Japanese anime One Piece on the cross-border consumption behavior of Chinese teenagers, with a particular focus on their purchase of anime peripheral products. Through a combination of questionnaires and interviews, this study employs thematic analysis to decipher the potential factors driving this behavior. The findings suggest that Chinese adolescents are motivated to purchase One Piece by several factors, including the convenience and accessibility of international shopping, the allure of unique, rare, and collectible merchandise, and the symbolic status conferred by the high prices of cross-border products. These insights contribute to a deeper understanding of the cross-cultural consumption patterns prevalent among Chinese adolescents.

Redefining Excellence: Exploring the Influence of Social Comparison on Green Product Evaluation

ABSTRACTIn recent decades, green consumption has gained considerable attention among academic and business circles. While previous research has shown that green products combine environmental value and status symbols, the role of micro‐social environments has been insufficiently examined in studies exploring the antecedents of green consumption. Social comparison, a central feature of human social life, has been overlooked. Therefore, this research conducted five empirical studies to investigate the impact of social comparison on green product evaluations. We find that upward and downward comparisons positively influence consumers' attitudes, purchase intentions, and actual choices of green products. Notably, feelings of self‐threat mediate this effect in upward comparison situations, while authentic pride mediates this effect in downward comparison situations. Furthermore, the impact of social comparison on green product evaluations is moderated by consumers' self‐monitoring. Specifically, this effect is strengthened for consumers with high self‐monitoring and attenuated for those with low self‐monitoring. These findings offer novel perspectives on green consumption and marketing implications for managers.

The Consumerism Culture of the Younger Generation in Fashion

Fashion is one of the most widely known phenomena of everyday life, inextricably linked with art, communication, and mass culture. The scope of fashion includes clothing, forms of everyday life, cars, aesthetic and artistic tastes, etc. In most cases, researchers understand fashion as clothing patterns that are most popular in a specific historical period. A person always searches for his belonging, tries to identify himself with a social group that is a reference for him. Habit, following a model and imitation are the basis of self-determination, which ensures the rituality of culture and the mechanisms of its development and reproduction. Fashion helps to preserve cultural tradition, is a symbol of social status, directs behavior and sets the boundaries of what is permitted and desired, and acts as a means of achieving social recognition. In modern world, fashion has received much attention from both ordinary people and scientists. Being an interdisciplinary object, fashion attracts the attention of researchers from different fields of knowledge. More precisely than others, the essence and concept of fashion are reflected by those who create it. Therefore, the article studies and analyzes the understanding of fashion by famous couturiers. In conclusion, the author, according to literature materials, and combining the approaches considered, explain main attributes of the consumption culture of young generation. Keywords: fashion, consumption culture, youth, fashion industry, social recognition

Negotiating with Colonial Modernity

The emergence of a new elite in Minangkabau, flourishing in the modern milieu of Bukittinggi city at the beginning of the 20th century, represents a pivotal case study in the dynamics of colonial modernity. These individuals distinguished themselves in the economic and intellectual domains, as well as in the authentication of symbolic status through lifestyle emulation of the Dutch. However, their integration into the social circles of both traditional and modern communities in Bukittinggi was met with limited acceptance. This phenomenon underscores a society that embraced novel perspectives on the colonial world without succumbing to colonialist ideologies. This raises pertinent inquiries: who were these new elites? Why did they seek recognition within their modern context in Bukittinggi despite existing within a reality of modernity? And what was the nature of the inclusivity process for these new elites as modernists, without becoming colonialists? This discourse elucidates the process by which the new Minangkabau elite negotiated colonial modernity in Bukittinggi between 1905 and 1942. The findings reveal that the successful negotiation of colonial modernity by the new Minangkabau elite served as a mode of restraint as well as alienation from the social realities of Bukittinggi. Firstly, the negotiation facilitated broader participatory avenues for the new elite of Minangkabau in early 20th-century Bukittinggi. Secondly, it paved the way for them to independently craft mediums of intellectual and inclusive modernity. Thirdly, this negotiation led to the creation of new cultural forms that amalgamated three essential values of early 20th century Bukittinggi: tradition, colonialism, and Islam.

Prestige and punishment: Status symbols and the danger of white elephants

This article identifies and unpacks the intrinsic potential for backlash in the pursuit of status symbols. While status loss has been associated with domestic pushback and reduced legitimacy for ruling governments, the literature on status is yet to examine how status-seeking can backfire even when a state can successfully claim to have acquired a status symbol. We contend that status backlashes are an inherent risk of status-seeking due to the multivocality of costly status symbols. Our heuristic framework for studying status backlashes proposes examining modes of critique that construe status symbols as irrational or unjustified costly endeavours, undermining their legitimating capacity and potentially even transforming them into a marker of stigma. Empirically, we identify three modes of critique present in reactions to Brazil’s hosting of the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016. There, despite recognizing the symbolic value of hosting these mega-events, Brazilian audiences also criticized the government for the opportunity costs, vested interests and subservience that it entailed. Undertaking two shadow case studies – on the backlash against the United Kingdom’s renewal of its Trident nuclear weapons system and Norway’s engagement in military interventions between 1999 and 2012 – we document how these modes of critique associated with status symbols can travel across contexts.

ABOUT THE PROTOTYPOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE EVOLUTION OF THE DWELLING

Throughout human history, housing has been crucial for human existence, serving as shelter, a symbol of social status, economic prosperity, and cultural identity. Studying archaeological data from different times and peoples has enabled the analysis of the main stages of the development of one of the fundamental values of human material culture - housing. Housing stands as concrete evidence supporting hypotheses and scientific discoveries, offering insights into the life, culture, and traditions of specific epochs. Its extensive evolutionary journey has been shaped significantly by advancements aimed at optimizing living conditions, influenced by societal norms, domestic practices, and scientific advancements. This ongoing evolution has defined housing's architectural characteristics, including differentiation of family, household, functional planning, work, and communal spaces, alongside spatial and expressive architectural elements. It encompasses the development of individual housing units within broader building and settlement frameworks, encompassing diverse housing types and their typological classifications, as well as applying construction and technical methods. This study examines the distinctive typological groups of housing, characterized by their structural underpinnings. These groups are delineated by key factors influencing the inception of formative architectural techniques, such as the early development of functional-planning solutions rooted in familial and regional contexts, and cultural traditions. Additionally, the article explores the architectural evolution of housing, analyzing how prototype components have shaped the phased development of residential functional-planning structures over time. This research contributes to a broader series of investigations into typological evolution of housing, aiming to deepen our understanding of its transformative journey across different historical periods.

Betel Eating Culture on Periodontal Health Batak Karo Women

The culture of eating betel has become a strong tradition in Batak Karo society, especially among women. This tradition is not only an ordinary habit, but also has important social, spiritual and identity meaning. However, on the other hand, the ingredients used in eating betel, such as betel leaves, areca nut, lime, and tobacco, are known to have potential risks to oral health, especially periodontal health. This study aims to explore the relationship between betel eating culture and periodontal health status in Batak Karo women. A literature study was carried out to look for previous research and review the results of previous research. The research results show that the practice of eating betel has a very important cultural value in the lives of the Batak Karo people, especially as a symbol of social status, respect and beauty for women. However, it was found that the majority of Karo Batak women experienced poor periodontal conditions, such as gingivitis, periodontitis and premature tooth loss.

Observation of the Art and Ideology of the Architectural Gate of the Great Mosque of Jami' Singaraja: Involvement of Hinduism, Islam, and the Kingdom of Buleleng

This research aims to uncover the complex process of integration and collaboration between the Kingdom of Buleleng, Hinduism and Islam, which is evident in the gate design of the Jami' Singaraja Grand Mosque. The paper uses a logical and concise structure that includes common academic sections, ensuring a clear and necessary flow of information and causal relationships between statements. It uses appropriate vocabulary for the particular subject and adheres to grammatical correctness, conventional structure, clear and logical structure, and balanced judgment. The objective was achieved by using three methods, namely Aditya Wardana's gate architecture method examines the aesthetic nuances and significance of the extrinsic layers associated with the construction of the gate under study, the semiotic method proposed by Riffaterre establishes the implied meaning of the physical form of the gate in question and the ideological method is used to analyze the results of the first two methods to provide a more comprehensive interpretation of the explicit and implied meanings. This study concludes that the gate architecture of the Jami' Singaraja Grand Mosque contributes to the negotiation between environmental sensitivity and the ethics of cultural beauty. This can be observed through three findings a symbol of social status that values responsible pluralism, the obligation to bring joy, maintain expressive values, and dissolve negative elements, a reminder of the guidelines of social life, inner purity, and psychological wisdom; and an ideology of togetherness for the Muslim profile that must pay attention to inclusive personality, mass mobilization for social care, and reproduction of individual piety.

Causal relationship between educational attainment and chronic pain: A Mendelian randomization study.

Educational attainment (EA) is often used as a symbol of socioeconomic status and is associated with several diseases. However, uncertainty remains regarding the potential relationship between EA and chronic pain. This study aimed to evaluate the potential causal association between EA and chronic pain. The primary method employed in Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was inverse-variance weighted method. Additionally, MR-Egger intercept, Cochran Q, and MR-PRESSO statistical analyses were conducted to assess potential pleiotropy and heterogeneity. The MR analysis provided evidence that genetically predicted additional education significantly reduced the risk of chronic pain. Specifically, this genetic factor may reduce multisite chronic pain by 27.6%, and chronic widespread pain by 3.8%. The results of sensitivity analysis indicated the reliability of our causal estimates. Higher levels of EA may provide protection against chronic pain risk. Enhancing education, narrowing social and economic disparities may help alleviate the burden of chronic pain.

Dress as the Agency of Power: Ozioma Onuzulike’s Ceramic Art

This study examines the ceramic works of a Nigerian artist, Ozioma Onuzulike, which vividly illustrate dress as an agency of power. His oeuvre features among other things the agbada, an extra-large clothing style prevalent in contemporary Nigeria, especially in elitist socio-political and cultural contexts. Over 25 years of Onuzulike’s ceramic art practice have consistently showcased modernist works that challenged conventional ceramic art and socio-political norms. His innovative use of clay and palm kernels to depict power dynamics in Nigeria has attracted some scholarly attention. This study employs compositional interpretation and contextual analysis to explore the visual, sociocultural, and political impact of Onuzulike’s hybrid ceramic art that depicts agbada. An iconological approach reveals the formal elements, historical, political, and social nuances embedded in the works. The concept of dress of power is used to unravel the multifaceted political significance of Onuzulike’s representations. Unpacking the visual vocabulary and metaphor of power in the works provides insights into the agbada as a status symbol in modern Nigeria. This artistic representation typifies a trend in contemporary African and diasporic art, where textile materials, forms, and ideas are central.

The rise and fall of the Ottoman Empire’s religiously inspired status symbols

How do status symbols rise and fall? Or better said, how does a status symbol become a status symbol and then cease to be one? We examine the rise and the fall of the Ottoman Empire’s two socialization practices with the international society as status symbols: sending and receiving envoys/establishing permanent representation abroad and granting capitulations/extraterritoriality—economic and legal privileges to primarily European countries. We argue and illustrate that status symbols are products of hegemons of the time that dictate the status symbols of the international order at that particular point in time, with little or no recognition. These symbols emanating from the position that the states occupy in the hierarchy can be status-enhancing rather than status-achieving if these states perceive and locate themselves in the higher echelons of the hierarchy in the international order. We contribute to status-seeking literature by examining the rise and fall of status symbols in a non-Western setting and merging ideational and material factors in status-seeking literature.

When design meets material to transform public transport into a status symbol. Experimental study on bus seat design

When design meets material to transform public transport into a status symbol. Experimental study on bus seat design

The Art of Kain Tenun Tais: A Gender Differentiation and Social Status Symbol of Bunaq Ethnic Group in West Timor Indonesia

The Art of Kain Tenun Tais: A Gender Differentiation and Social Status Symbol of Bunaq Ethnic Group in West Timor Indonesia

Vernacular Landscapes in the Carpathians: Materialized Imaginaries in Post-Soviet Ukraine

Diverse landscapes and eclectic architecture emerged in the Carpathians after the collapse of the Soviet Union. This paper examines what imaginaries materialized about urbanity/urbanness, modernity, and people’s relationships to place and authenticity in vernacular landscapes and architecture in the Boikivshchyna region in Ukraine. Landscape visual/textual analysis shows from the perspective of semiotics that local residents now relate more closely to modernity and progress, but have cut their rustic roots by disregarding both place identity and building traditions. Conspicuous consumption with urban and social status symbols is evident in affluent residents’ houses and utilitarianism in the homes of the less wealthy.

The importance of being civilized: Opera houses as status symbols in International Relations

The importance of being civilized: Opera houses as status symbols in International Relations

Analysis of Forms on Pediments of Domestic Buildings in Osogbo, South-Western Nigeria

Pediments of domestic building are spaces for ornamentation inspired by the modern Yoruba culture of sealing up domestic buildings with gated fences. The erected fences often conceal ornamented buildings, thus preventing the showcasing of the beautiful embellishments on lower walls, in line with the institutionalized ostentation in Yoruba culture. The embellishment of pediments in Yorubaland, has not been treated with deserved importance despite the uniqueness of the forms, which leaves a gap in literature on this topic. This discourse examines and analyses the images on the pediments of domestic buildings, with the view to documenting the artistic embellishments and revealing the social-cultural significances of the presented forms. The study carried out in Osogbo metropolis, South-western Nigeria, utilized the ethnographic approach, with data derived mostly from primary sources. The paper submits that images on pediments send out information about the philosophies, religious and the socio-cultural affiliations of the owners of these sealed-up buildings to passers-by. It is also observed that although ornamented pediments beautify buildings, they are more of status symbols and are better appreciated from afar, thus enhancing the urban fabric in general.

The Overarching Cost of Beauty in Mauritania

This research paper outlines the risks women in Mauritania - including girls at the extremely young age of five years old - take to secure marriage and appear attractive to those who are male-identifying. Over time, the United States has become more inclusive with a broader spectrum of sizes that they carry in stores. However, not much long ago, the beauty standard in American society was to look as thin as possible (Wiseman et al., 1992). Girls in the United States would undergo dangerous diets, supplements, and bizarre exercises to stay thin, where in Mauritania, their beauty standard revolved around the complete opposite (Wiseman et al., 1992). Instead, girls in Mauritania grew up in environments where the standards of beauty perpetuated obesity. Mauritanian men claimed that skinny women looked like skeletons and they’d prefer not to sleep with “a bag of bones” (Esposito, 2022). Obesity in Mauritania was seen as a status symbol as many people believed larger women were wealthy because their husband had the financial means to gorge her on copious amounts of food. Therefore, women who were looking for potential suitors would try to become as large as possible to appear desirable to other men.

Enhanced choroid plexus segmentation with 3D UX-Net and its association with disease progression in multiple sclerosis

BackgroundThe choroid plexus (CP) is suggested to be closely associated with the neuroinflammation of multiple sclerosis (MS). Segmentation based on deep learning (DL) could facilitate rapid and reproducible volume assessment of the CP, which is crucial for elucidating its role in MS. PurposeTo develop a reliable DL model for the automatic segmentation of CP, and further validate its clinical significance in MS. MethodsThe 3D UX-Net model (3D U-Net used for comparison) was trained and validated on T1-weighted MRI from a cohort of 216 relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) patients and 75 healthy subjects. Among these, 53 RRMS with baseline and 2-year follow-up scans formed an internal test set (dataset1b). Another 58 RRMS from multi-center data served as an external test set (dataset2). Dice coefficient was computed to assess segmentation performance. Compare the correlation of CP volume obtained through automatic and manual segmentation with clinical outcomes in MS. Disability and cognitive function of patients were assessed using the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) and Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT). ResultsThe 3D UX-Net model achieved Dice coefficients of 0.875 ± 0.030 and 0.870 ± 0.044 for CP segmentation on dataset1b and dataset2, respectively, outperforming 3D U-Net's scores of 0.809 ± 0.098 and 0.601 ± 0.226. Furthermore, CP volumes segmented by the 3D UX-Net model aligned consistently with clinical outcomes compared to manual segmentation. In dataset1b, both manual and automatic segmentation revealed a significant positive correlation between normalized CP volume (nCPV) and EDSS scores at baseline (manual: r = 0.285, p = 0.045; automatic: r = 0.287, p = 0.044) and a negative correlation with SDMT scores (manual: r = -0.331, p = 0.020; automatic: r = -0.329, p = 0.021). In dataset2, similar correlations were found with EDSS scores (manual: r = 0.337, p = 0.021; automatic: r = 0.346, p = 0.017). Meanwhile, in dataset1b, both manual and automatic segmentation revealed a significant increase in nCPV from baseline to follow-up (p < 0.05). The increase of nCPV was more pronounced in patients with disability worsened than stable patients (manual: p = 0.023; automatic: p = 0.018). Patients receiving disease-modifying therapy (DMT) exhibited a significantly lower nCPV increase than untreated patients (manual: p = 0.004; automatic: p = 0.004). ConclusionThe 3D UX-Net model demonstrated strong segmentation performance for the CP, and the automatic segmented CP can be directly used in MS clinical practice. CP volume can serve as a surrogate imaging biomarker for monitoring disease progression and DMT response in MS patients.

The production and performance of status: Behind the scenes of an international summit

This article examines how international summits are produced as status symbols, arguing that a host’s successful management of the event maintains summitry as a high-status practice, while hosting itself serves as a means to acquire status, owing to the complexity and risk involved. Drawing on elements of practice and performance theories, it articulates how and why status symbols can be understood as performative practices, reworking how Veblen is predominantly used in International Relations (IR), shifting from a focus on conspicuous consumption to conspicuous performance, while adopting a more expansive conceptualisation of status symbols, as one finds in Goffman. Exploring the manipulability of summitry as a status symbol, the article draws on an ethnography of the 2018 Charlevoix G7 summit, offering a ‘behind the scenes’ look at how a host produces a summit’s constitutive ‘showpiece moments’, zeroing-in on three key elements: a host’s scenario handbook, command centre and media centre. In addition to proposing theoretical and conceptual innovation in the study of international status, the article expands the scope of summit studies beyond a traditional focus on statespeople negotiating agreements, inviting exploration of summitry’s performative and symbolic dimensions.

Semiotic Analysis of Gorga in House of Parsaktian Omp Raja Sorta Uluan

This article is entitled Semiotic Analysis of Gorga at Ruma Parsaktian Ompu Raja Sorta Uluan. This object is a traditional house cultural site located in Sibandang Village, Muara District, North Tapanuli Regency. This traditional house is the residence of a king on Sibandang Island, namely Raja Sorta Uluan. This research aims to describe the form of the gorga, the function of the gorga, and the meaning of the gorga found in Ruma Parsaktian Ompu Raja Sorta Uluan. The theory used in analyzing data is the semiotic theory put forward by Charles Sanders Peirce. The method used in this research is descriptive qualitative. The results of the research show that the forms of gorga found in Ruma Parsaktian Ompu Raja Sorta Uluan are: ulu paung, simeol-eol, jenggar-jenggar, ipon-ipon, andor mangalata, simanuk-manuk, mariran-iran, marjamban-jambang, and gaja dompak.The function of the gorga at Ruma Parsaktian Ompu Raja Sorta Uluan includes the following: (1) as a symbol of the beauty of the house; (2) as a symbol of social status; and (3) as a repellent. The meaning of gorga at Ruma Parsaktian Ompu Raja Sorta Uluan is: brotherhood, magic, unity, joy, authority and might. Keywords: ruma, parsaktian, raja, semiotics