Future pest status of an insect pest in museums,Attagenus smirnovi: Distribution and food consumption in relation to climate change

The brown carpet beetle Attagenus smirnovi, Zhantiev 1973 (Coleoptera: Dermestidae) is an important pest of objects of organic origin in museums of cultural and natural history in Europe. Future climate changes are expected to lead to increasing temperatures, which will affect the pest status of this species. In the present study a laboratory investigation was conducted to elucidate the effect of temperature and humidity on the amounts of organic material consumed by larvae of A. smirnovi. In the case of new and old skin, consumption was approximately twice as high at 28 °C compared to 20 °C. Wool was consumed in the greatest amounts: 169 mg of wool was consumed in three months by 30 A. smirnovi larvae. The expected future climate changes in Scandinavia are assumed to lead to higher temperatures in museums and stores where climate is not regulated. Updated data on the present distribution of A. smirnovi in Europe show that it is widespread and common, also in regions with a climate that does not support its survival out of doors. Thus, dispersal of this pest probably only rarely occurs by flight, but usually with human activity. Due to the widespread distribution of A. smirnovi, it is likely that damages in museums and collections in Scandinavia due to this pest will increase as climate changes come into effect.     

Digitalizing consumer society: equipment and devices of digital consumption

ABSTRACT

This special issue of the Journal of Cultural Economy focuses on the digitalization of consumption and its social, cultural, ethical, political, and gendered implications. It thus answers the call for more research on how digital devices spread from the purely personal domain to multiple sociocultural domains. Through their use, new cultural practices have emerged between consumers and these devices, and devices and markets, that lead to change, in terms of consumer demand, consumption norms, and issues of ethics, culture, and power. Closely examining the role that devices play in consumption behavior enables us to address the supposed manipulative power of hi-tech companies, infrastructures, and systems at the global level, and the view ordinary market actors hold of digital appliances as empowering tools at the local level. The papers in this volume bridge ‘actor network theory' and ‘consumer culture theory' from the perspective of market ‘agencements.’ Ruckenstein-Granroth and Beauvisage-Mellet, and Arriagada-Concha focus on the device-mediated relationship between large digital market infrastructures and consumer behavior; Petersson McIntyre and Licoppe unveil the societal and cultural underpinnings of digitalized markets. Last but not least, Sörum and Soujtis address the political dimensions and implications of our new digital consumer equipment and society.     

From ethnocentrism to policy-centrism

This article is a response to the methodological problems I experienced during fieldwork. It follows that the article is an experiment of creating alternative possibilities for thinking about ethnocentrism as a phenomenon in transformation in a contemporary, innovative, higher educational setting. Throughout the article, I argue for the acknowledgement of policy-centrism as a phenomenon that has transformed out of classic ethnocentrism. The first part provides a reflective ethnographic background, while the second part focuses on sociologist William Graham Sumner’s classical work in order to disclose the constitutive principles of ethnocentrism as a phenomenon. The three following parts will, thus, discuss the transformation of the phenomenon’s four overlapping principles: conceptual, political, relational and expressional. The concluding remarks problematise policy-centrism as an emerging phenomenon in the new innovation policy research context.     

Online Emotion Regulation in Digitally Mediated Bereavement. Why Age and Kind of Loss Matter in Grieving Online

The study by media psychologists of emotional communication in online bereavement still leaves many questions unanswered. Previous research has identified similarities as well as differences in emotion regulation patterns of children, adolescents, and adults (Döveling 2015a). Extending that research, this investigation of digitally mediated bereavement goes one step further by exploring additional types of mechanisms within the emotion regulatory processes of coping online. A total of 4 different bereavement platforms, used by mourners of differing ages and kinds of losses, from young children to widowers, were examined in a quantitative content analysis of online postings (N = 1036), generating insights into shared emotion regulation patterns and intimacy online. The findings highlight interpersonal empathy, irrespective of age of the bereaved or type of loss, but also disclose age-based differences in emotion regulatory processes. Implications for further media psychological analysis are laid out.