Written with verve and a mordant wit, 'The Wheels of Society' is a vivid, cogent, ground-breaking proposal for us to re-think ourselves in order to steer civilisation back to safety. As a species we seem to cling on to the power and influence of 'the old normal'. Forests and valleys are decimated so that businessmen can be in Manchester 30 minutes faster; thousands of airline seats are sold for the price of a free-range chicken so that hundreds of short-haul planes can devastate the atmosphere and enable drunken escapades in Barcelona rather than Soho; the rich get even richer and the poor get Covid 19. Bankers conspire in the fraudulent abuse of people's savings, yet can keep their loot, saved by governments supposed to protect their citizens but who fail to hold a single perpetrator to account. Is this how we are supposed to be? The biology of society becomes visible when hubris is side-stepped. First, natural selfishness must be overcome before individuals can assemble altruistically into a working group - a rather wonderful achievement. Our cooperating groups, which make up the hierarchy of society, are living things in their own right. Then, once assembled, the group must perform trial-and-error cycles to do life's vital functions. Wilson's 'assembly-and-performance thinking' combines these two mechanisms into a simple scientific theory of society which applies, with variations, to all cooperating creatures - not just to humans.

Practice theories of our equipped and situated tacit construction of participatory narrative meaning are evident in multiple disciplines from architectural to communication study, consumer, marketing and media research, organisational, psychological and social insight. Their hermeneutic focus is on customarily little reflected upon, recurrent but required, practices of embodied, habituated knowing how-from choosing 'flaw-free' fruit in a market to celebrating Chinese New Year Reunion Dining, caring for patients to social media 'voice'. In ready-to-hand practices, we attend to the purpose and not to the process, to the goal rather than its generating. Yet familiar practices both presume and put in place fundamental understanding. Listening to Asian and Western consumers reflecting-not only subsequent to but also within practices-this book considers activity emplacing core perceptions from a liminal moment in a massive mall to health psychology research. Institutions configure practices-in-practices cohering or conflicting within their material horizons and space accessible to social analysis. Practices theory construes routine as minimally self-monitored, nonetheless considering it as being embodied narrative. In research output, such generic 'storied' activity is seen as (in)formed, shaped from a shifting hierarchy of 'horizons' or perspectives-from habituated to reflective-rather than a single seamless unfolding. Taking a communication practices route disentangles and avoids conflating tacit and transformative construction of identities in qualitative research. Practices research crosses discipline. Ubiquitous media use by managers and visitors throughout a shopping mall responds to investigating not only with digital tracking expertise but also from an interpretive marketing viewpoint. Visiting a practice perspective's hermeneutic underwriting, spatio-temporal metaphorical concepts become available and appropriate to the analysis of communication as a process across disciplines. In repeated practices, 'horizons of understanding' are solidified. Emphasising our understanding of a material environment as 'equipment', practices theory enables correlation of use and demographic variable in quantitative study extending interpretive behavioural and haptic qualitative research. Consumption, Psychology and Practice Theories: A Hermeneutic Perspective addresses academics and researchers in communication studies, marketing, psychology and social theory, as well as university methodology courses, recognising philosophy guides a discipline's investigative insight.

Practice theories of our equipped and situated tacit construction of participatory narrative meaning are evident in multiple disciplines from architectural to communication study, consumer, marketing and media research, organisational, psychological and social insight. Their hermeneutic focus is on customarily little reflected upon, recurrent but required, practices of embodied, habituated knowing how-from choosing 'flaw-free' fruit in a market to celebrating Chinese New Year Reunion Dining, caring for patients to social media 'voice'. In ready-to-hand practices, we attend to the purpose and not to the process, to the goal rather than its generating. Yet familiar practices both presume and put in place fundamental understanding. Listening to Asian and Western consumers reflecting-not only subsequent to but also within practices-this book considers activity emplacing core perceptions from a liminal moment in a massive mall to health psychology research. Institutions configure practices-in-practices cohering or conflicting within their material horizons and space accessible to social analysis. Practices theory construes routine as minimally self-monitored, nonetheless considering it as being embodied narrative. In research output, such generic 'storied' activity is seen as (in)formed, shaped from a shifting hierarchy of 'horizons' or perspectives-from habituated to reflective-rather than a single seamless unfolding. Taking a communication practices route disentangles and avoids conflating tacit and transformative construction of identities in qualitative research. Practices research crosses discipline. Ubiquitous media use by managers and visitors throughout a shopping mall responds to investigating not only with digital tracking expertise but also from an interpretive marketing viewpoint. Visiting a practice perspective's hermeneutic underwriting, spatio-temporal metaphorical concepts become available and appropriate to the analysis of communication as a process across disciplines. In repeated practices, 'horizons of understanding' are solidified. Emphasising our understanding of a material environment as 'equipment', practices theory enables correlation of use and demographic variable in quantitative study extending interpretive behavioural and haptic qualitative research. Consumption, Psychology and Practice Theories: A Hermeneutic Perspective addresses academics and researchers in communication studies, marketing, psychology and social theory, as well as university methodology courses, recognising philosophy guides a discipline's investigative insight.

How do visitors immersing themselves in material places such as shopping malls or video sites online make sense of the experience, enabling criticizing - or consenting to content? How is this evident in behaviour? Reflecting on accounts by Chinese, Indian, Malay and Indigenous members of Malaysian society, this book addresses these questions from a practices perspective increasingly adopted by scholars in marketing and media studies. The volume provides an account of practices theory from its origins in critical hermeneutics (such as Heidegger, Gadamer and Ricoeur), as reflecting on the processes of embodied understanding, developing alongside interpretive and reception theory. Part I draws upon authors as diverse as Heidegger and Henry Jenkins, with a practices perspective on media and mall consuming shown as developing from forty years of theorizing about audience activity. An empirical study of Malaysian blogging and branding on YouTube exemplifies this approach. Part II considers Malaysians absorbed in social media sites, as everyday visitors and the subjects of consumer research. The book then returns to the material world, exploring the horizons of understanding from which Malaysians enter their mediated malls, and concludes by positioning media practices theory within a spectrum of philosophical ideas. Recognizing the current (re)turn in Consumer and Media Studies to employing hermeneutics as an account of our embodied human understanding, this book presents its major philosophical proponents, showing how close attention to their writing can now inform and shape research on ubiquitous screen users. As such, it will be of particular interest to students and scholars of Media Studies, Asian Studies and Marketing Studies.

How do visitors immersing themselves in material places such as shopping malls or video sites online make sense of the experience, enabling criticizing - or consenting to content? How is this evident in behaviour? Reflecting on accounts by Chinese, Indian, Malay and Indigenous members of Malaysian society, this book addresses these questions from a practices perspective increasingly adopted by scholars in marketing and media studies. The volume provides an account of practices theory from its origins in critical hermeneutics (such as Heidegger, Gadamer and Ricoeur), as reflecting on the processes of embodied understanding, developing alongside interpretive and reception theory. Part I draws upon authors as diverse as Heidegger and Henry Jenkins, with a practices perspective on media and mall consuming shown as developing from forty years of theorizing about audience activity. An empirical study of Malaysian blogging and branding on YouTube exemplifies this approach. Part II considers Malaysians absorbed in social media sites, as everyday visitors and the subjects of consumer research. The book then returns to the material world, exploring the horizons of understanding from which Malaysians enter their mediated malls, and concludes by positioning media practices theory within a spectrum of philosophical ideas. Recognizing the current (re)turn in Consumer and Media Studies to employing hermeneutics as an account of our embodied human understanding, this book presents its major philosophical proponents, showing how close attention to their writing can now inform and shape research on ubiquitous screen users. As such, it will be of particular interest to students and scholars of Media Studies, Asian Studies and Marketing Studies.

Global Advertising, Attitudes and Audiences is a post-Mcdonaldization view of marketing power, consumer pleasure, and audience protest. The psychological process wherein consumers actively make sense of advertising and branding and integrate them with living is fundamentally important in thinking about their responses to product sold on screen. This wide-ranging book draws on forty years of media and marketing theory to present a precise perception of that process, a seven stage model of 'moments' in media marketing reception. Local understandings of global branding and marketing content traveling-often from West to East-is the main focus of Global Advertising, Attitudes and Audiences. Drawing from diverse reception studies of creative consumption, Tony Wilson develops a philosophical psychology of purchasing, testing theory against shared consumer responses in online blogospheres and offline interviews. Successive chapters interpret reception of banking, fast food, national, telecommunications and university global branding by Chinese, Indian and Islamic Malay consumers in multi-cultural Malaysia, an Anglophone gateway to S.E. Asia. These studies are used to illustrate how people view the 'worlds' constructed by product branding.

Global Advertising, Attitudes and Audiences is a post-Mcdonaldization view of marketing power, consumer pleasure, and audience protest. The psychological process wherein consumers actively make sense of advertising and branding and integrate them with living is fundamentally important in thinking about their responses to product sold on screen. This wide-ranging book draws on forty years of media and marketing theory to present a precise perception of that process, a seven stage model of 'moments' in media marketing reception.

Local understandings of global branding and marketing content traveling-often from West to East-is the main focus of Global Advertising, Attitudes and Audiences. Drawing from diverse reception studies of creative consumption, Tony Wilson develops a philosophical psychology of purchasing, testing theory against shared consumer responses in online blogospheres and offline interviews. Successive chapters interpret reception of banking, fast food, national, telecommunications and university global branding by Chinese, Indian and Islamic Malay consumers in multi-cultural Malaysia, an Anglophone gateway to S.E. Asia. These studies are used to illustrate how people view the 'worlds' constructed by product branding.

Breaking the Cycle is a series of fictional poems and short stories derived from true accounts of tragedy, loss and pain combined with stories of finding inner strength and conquering adversity. Breaking the Cycle graphically addresses issues of abuse, substance abuse, heart break, death and conversely love, hope, strength, spiritual and emotional growth. Breaking the Cycle will give perspective to individuals who do not understand the plight of people growing up in impoverished communities and will give a constructive voice to those who identify but do not have an outlet to express their story. All of this in hopes of one day completely Breaking the Cycle of poverty.

Breaking the Cycle is a series of fictional poems and short stories derived from true accounts of tragedy, loss and pain combined with stories of finding inner strength and conquering adversity. Breaking the Cycle graphically addresses issues of abuse, substance abuse, heart break, death and conversely love, hope, strength, spiritual and emotional growth. Breaking the Cycle will give perspective to individuals who do not understand the plight of people growing up in impoverished communities and will give a constructive voice to those who identify but do not have an outlet to express their story. All of this in hopes of one day completely Breaking the Cycle of poverty.

It's Christmas Eve and three men are struggling: Martin Downing, unemployed and racked by grief, lies motionless as the storm water rises around him; Stanley Barwell, a rich industrialist of the 1930s, works late and alone, neither a care nor a friend in the world; Sergeant Craig, scarred by the carnage of Ypres, sits in a trench, boiling with anger and whisky. Their lives are worlds apart, yet inextricably linked. In this captivating twist on a seasonal tale, the three men are brought together on the last train home and given their chance at redemption. But will they take it? Always gripping, sometimes sad, yet ultimately uplifting, don't miss your place on THE LAST TRAIN HOME.

''The musicians own everything. The company owns nothing. All our bands have the freedom to f**k off'' Written in blood, The Factory non-contract set out the manifesto for one of the most influential and progressive record labels of our time... Manchester, 1976: Anthony Wilson, Granada TV presenter, is at an early Sex Pistols gig. Inspired by this pivotal moment in music history, he and his friends set up Factory Records. They go on to conquer the world with Joy Division (who become New Order) then again with the Happy Mondays. Riding high on their success and just about keeping the business afloat, the Factory directors decide to give something back to their city, to open a club - The Hacienda. Packed on opening night but losing money hand over fist for the first five years, The Hacienda and the Happy Mondays take their unique brand of hedonism to breaking point. From the dawn of punk to the death of acid house, Anthony Wilson was at the centre of it all. Love him or hate him, you can't possibly ignore him.

This text follows a series of experiential and theoretical routes toward understanding audience use of television and the Internet. The essence of play is explored, with a focus across cultures, predominantly the East's consumption of television and the Internet produced and presented by the West. Part One discusses recent work on television audiences considering local viewers' responses to globally circulating programmes. Part Two discusses the position of talk shows as a media format central not only to understanding television's development into narrowcasting, but also the theoretical study of the Internet. The concluding hypertext shows how media and their audience-users are converging in practice and theory.

At 10.55 am, the time is noted in my sketchbook, we have a dog attack. We are cycling along quietly when suddenly we are nearly savaged. It's a tiny little beast about ten inches long. One of those Yorkshire Terrier type dogs, all fluff and teeth...You can see it think it's the Red Baron; diving out of the sun, straight for our ankles...We imagine it swaggering back to its look - out point thinking, 'Frightened those dozy bastards...Pair of scruffy looking, bare legged, silly old farts in daft helmets.' Two old friends from Trinity College, Dublin - one a retired accountant living in Wiltshire, the other a professor of salmon biology in Newfoundland - decide to ride their bikes round the coast of Ireland. Fifty years before, they had rowed together in the university crew; now, more decrepit, they spend their days meandering through the Irish countryside. As they travel they talk, and as they talk like only old friends can, their conversations reflect their own unique experience - the distillation of two lives, spent in separate continents, concerned with different priorities, yet unified by their past. Their saga, with many picaresque adventures along the way, evolves into something much more. Talking together about what they find - the plight of the salmon, the troubles in Ulster, their growing sense of the natural world being destroyed by the inability of philosophy to keep abreast with the constant flux of scientific discovery - they stumble upon a theory which could solve what has baffled everybody since Darwin: How morality evolved? Dual Nature Theory explains just that! It also accounts for evil and if properly understood, might allow human beings, finally, to cooperate in solving many of the ecological, political and economic problems which challenge the human race.