مطالب

The renaissance and the postmodern era provide two interesting periods for discussion. The renaissance can be viewed as the early modern period prefiguring the contemporary world. Thus, the two aforesaid periods can be connected to one another. This comparative study discusses two works: one from the early modern period and the other from the postmodern world. Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1603) and Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis (2000) provide the material for a discussion on the treatment of the Other as conceived by the philosophy of Levinas in his Otherwise than Being or Beyond Essence (1978). In the spirit of brevity, the central events of the plays and the most suggestive dialogue are discussed. One of the most pertinent concepts in Levinas’ ideology is responsibility which is required for the transcendence leading to subjectivity. It is concluded that while in Shakespeare the unethical mostly die, thus ending their torment, the fate that awaits Kane’s characters is much more dire; they are left battered and bruised, corporeal shells of Beings, paralyzed in time and unable to transcend Being towards the Other. As such, it is seen that the postmodern treats unethical Beings much harsher compared to the early modern.

Emphasizing the significance of students' attitudes and emotions in the learning process, this study utilized Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to investigate the roles of sapio-emotionality, angloemotionality, and sensory motivation in learners' academic accomplishments. The key aim was to devise a scale for measuring students' anglo-emotionality (a blend of native speakers' characteristics and emotionality) using SEM, while also scrutinizing the relationships between sapio-emotionality (intelligence entwined with emotionality), angloemotionality, and sensory motivation. Data was collected from 292 EFL students (156 males and 136 females) across both social and non-social sciences fields who filled in three questionnaires, namely sapio-emotionality, anglo-emotionality, and sensory motivation scales. The SEM analysis indicated that the anglo-emotionality scale has robust psychometric properties. Furthermore, it facilitated the revelation that sapio-emotionality is positively correlated with sensory motivation. However, no significant statistical correlations were discerned between anglo-emotionality and sensory motivation via SEM. Intriguingly, when mediated by angloemotionality, SEM revealed that sapio-emotionality cannot predict sensory motivation and English Language Acquisition (ELA). Also, none of the dependent variables emerged as predictors of ELA. The study concludes with a discussion of the results and their implications for future research, underscoring the utility of SEM in elucidating these intricate relationships.

Big-tech corporations like Google, Meta, Microsoft etc. extensively utilize customization to collect and analyze user data, a practice integral to their business models. Google leverages user data to personalize services across its platforms, notably in its search engine and YouTube, to enhance user experience and bolster its targeted advertising strategies. Similarly, Meta uses algorithmic content curation on Facebook and Instagram, tailoring user feeds to individual preferences and behaviors, thereby generating detailed user profiles for marketing purposes. Microsoft's approach, particularly with Office 365 and LinkedIn, focuses on productivity enhancements while also gathering user data for feature refinement and targeted advertising. These practices, I argue, while improving user engagement, raise significant privacy concerns. The extensive data collection often occurs without full transparency or user consent, leading to debates about ethical implications, digital surveillance, and societal impacts. In response, there is a growing demand for stricter data governance and privacy regulations, as seen in initiatives like the GDPR and CCPA, aiming to balance the benefits of personalization with the rights and privacy of users.

Objective:Examining brand experience, value congruence,and customer engagement for tourism brand productivity.Given the significant effects that brand productivity in the tourism industry can have on a country's prosperity and economic progress, the primary objective of this research is to develop and empirically examine a conceptual model that elucidates the complex relationships among brand experience dimensions,brand value congruence, customer-brand identification, and brand productivity.Furthermore, the study investigates the moderating role of customer-brand engagement within this framework.Methods:The statistical population for this research comprises the tourists visiting the city of Isfahan.Given that the population is unlimited, a sample size of 400 participants was selected based on Cochran's formula, and the sampling method used was convenience sampling.The data was collected through a structured questionnaire.First, the validity and reliability of the measurement scales were assessed. Content validity and convergent validity were established, and the reliability was confirmed through Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability calculations. The results of these assessments were satisfactory. For data analysis, the researchers employed structural equation modeling techniques, utilizing SPSS25 and SmartPLS3.0 software.Results: Sensory experience, effective experience, behavioral experience, intellectual experience and brand value congruence have a positive and significant effect on customer-brand identification.Customer-brand identification has a positive and significant effect on brand productivity.customer-rand engagement can moderate the effect of brand-customer value congruence on customer-brand identification.Conclusions:The results of this research will help the authorities to promote and improve brand productivity in the tourism industry by focusing on customer-brand engagement, brand value congruence and customer-brand identification,and considering different dimensions of customer experiences.