Abstract: The subject of this research is the social content of the national brand of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Research methodology is based on interpretation of marketing as a new general social theory. In this context, the author examines branding and brand management technologies as social technologies of formation of the identity, integration, and social behavior management overall. Applicable to the national brand, the aforementioned provision is valid for both, domestic (citizens of the country) and external (citizens of other countries) target audiences. Structural components of the national brand include: ) the main message of the brand; 2) the components that form national identity (values shared by majority of the citizens); 3) national products; 4) gallery of the visual images, which on the one hand represent national values, while on the other – the unique visual “keys” for understanding the character, history and future of the nation; 5) brand discourse – a set of textual verbal forms of the national brand; 6) heroic spirit of the brand (persons who have the brand-building capacity); 7) audio discourse – a combination of audio brand-building characteristics; 8) event driven brand-building communications. The conclusion is made that the national brand of Azerbaijan is currently at the turn changing concepts, which indicates the transition of the country towards a new stage of development. The author highlights the four concepts of the national brand of Azerbaijan. The first is historical, which resembles the concept of “petroleum” and characterizes the industrial period of development. The second is ornamental, attributed to the archetypal branding (Azerbaijani rug ornaments). The third is “the Land of Fire”, similar to the ornamental by the nature of used symbols and the mechanism of influence. The fourth concept is referred to the postindustrial images. It is assumed that the national brands can be an interesting and heuristic object of analysis of the social processes of represented territories.

Abstract: The subject of this research is the socioeconomic content of the phenomenon of social marketing. The object is the scientific texts dedicated to the topic of social marketing, which explicate the social content of the studied practices (mostly sociological works), as well as their economic components (marketing sources). Another object of this work became the implemented campaigns of social marketing, which analysis allowed determining the vectors of technologies, subject matter, instruments, target audience and the development trends. The goal lies in identification of the content, structure and functions of social marketing, as well as analysis of the explanatory schemes of its occurrence and functioning. The research is conducted within the methodology of economic sociology and reveals the content of social marketing. The author differentiates the concepts of “social marketing” and “societal marketing”. The criteria for comparative analysis are the following: purpose of practices, effects, type of communication, competitive environment, mechanism, target audience, structure of marketing, character of basic demand, and motivation. The author also describes the economic (marketing) and social content of technology.

Abstract: In his article Ovrutsky describes and analyses two approaches to compulsive consumption: psychological and economical (marketing-based). The researcher compares these two approaches based on the following parameters: description of the phenomenon, the nature of impulse, determinants, effects, consumption actors, evaluation, consequence, correlation, specific phenomena and corrective measures. The determinants of impulsive consumption within the framework of the psychological approach are as follows: 1. the consumer's personal dispositions, 2. affective patterns and 3. cognitive conditions that promote or inhibit the manifestation of impulsive behavior. The second feature of the psychological approach is the nosological context of the perception of the phenomenon (explicit or latent). Psychological scale of impulsive consumption: impulsive purchases - compulsive purchases - oniomania. The marketing approach is based on three axioms: 1. Compulsive buying is an unplanned purchase; 2. Compulsive consumption is largely determined by external factors and acts as a product of management of the marketing communications system; 3. Compulsive consumption is a positive form of social activity. The specific phenomena of compulsive consumption in marketing concepts are: label switching, lifestyle, and creative consumption. It is shown that the psychological approach focuses on the internal determinants of behavior, while the economical approach is based on the external determinants. In psychology, compulsive consumption is regarded as irrational, in marketing it is interpreted as rational. Thus, the researcher has considered the economical and psychological approach to compulsive consumption as integrative. Such integration should follow the path of disclosing the mechanisms of interaction between psychological and economical factors in describing and explaining compulsive consumption.

Abstract: The subject of this research is the pragmatic characteristics of scientific ideas on revolution, as well as attributes and consequences of the revolutionary changes. The object of theoretical discussion became directly the scientific perceptions of revolution recorded in the selected reviews of the Russian and foreign political scientists and sociologists, which attempted to pursue correlation between the various periods of development of the society, and determine the common and different in the content of revolutionary process. The author highlights the three approaches differentiated in accordance with the criteria of pragmatic importance of revolution for social development. The article reviews certain aspects of “color revolutions”, particularly their distinct characteristics from the classical revolutions based on the parameters of cause, specificity, and content of the process. Relevance of this research is substantiated by the “revolutionary renaissance”, presented in the rapid increase of revolutionary activeness over the recent decades, as well as growth, as a response to the latter, of interests of the social studies experts towards the new revolutionary phenomena, variety of scientific approaches to the analysis of causes and attributes of the revolution, which requires the additional and interdisciplinary generalizations of theoretical materials. The goal of the article consists in examination and generalization of the content of scientific representations on revolution from the perspective of pragmatic attributes of the authors (assessment, attributes, and consequences of revolution). Theoretical study demonstrates that revolution is viewed as a specific stage of evolution of social matter (positive approach), or as a social disaster, rudiment of the past, or barbarian way of social transformations (negative approach). There has also emerged a post-revolutionary approach, which implies the description and explanation of the new revolutionary phenomena that do not fit the classical framework. The generalized attributes of revolution include the following: forcible character of changes (non-forcible in case of “color revolutions”); revolution is a manifestation of social progress, extensive and active participation of civil society institutions; phasing of revolution, fragmentation and polarization of the society and social consciousness during the pre-revolutionary and post-revolutionary periods; charismatic leader in classical revolutions (absence of such leader in “color revolutions); presence of revolutionary ideology in classical revolutions (absence in “color revolutions”); civil participation and mobilization.

Abstract: The subject of this research is the content of anti-consumerist protest movements in the context of global socioeconomic crisis. The object of this research is the practices of anti-consumerist movements of the modern Western countries. The author describes and analyzes the socioeconomic reasons of the emergence of anti-consumerism, ideological foundations, and key actors of the anti-consumerist movements. Examples are provided of the anti-consumerist organizations along with the variety of their protest practices. The article reveals the notions of “overconsumption”, “anti-consumerism”, and “commodification”, as well as secures the dysfunctions of overconsumption on the macroeconomic, microeconomic, and social levels. The author presents an analysis of the current state of anti-consumerist movements in North America, as well as describes certain media factors of organization and mounting of the protest action “Occupy Wall Street”. Consumption is viewed as a specific type of activity within the consumer society and a mechanism of social management. Consumption attains the characteristics of substantive activity, and the coarse consumer mechanism of social management results in the protest reaction of part of the society – the anti-consumerist movements. The accumulated data clarifies and circumstantiates the dysfunctions of consumer society, and in a forecasting regime can be applied for the analysis of development of the Russian society. The growth of the anti-consumerist protest movements is considered an indicator of the crisis state of the Western socioeconomic system, when the object of a protest lies in the fundamental values and achievements of the modern Western society. Integral analysis of the anti-consumerist movements allows pursuing correlation between the extensive development of the Western economy, multiple dysfunctions of the socioeconomic system, and growing protest activity aimed at destruction of the consumer system.

Abstract:  
The goals of this theoretical work is the analysis of the urban consumption practices that are an intrinsic part of the urban style, as well as other phenomena of urbanization associated with the consumption processes. Thus, the subject of the research is the “consumption” content of the urban style. In general, the urban style is understood  as the combination of external manifestations in the livelihood of a city dweller determined by his affiliation to the urban civilization (territorial, value, communicational, cultural) or affiliation to a specific economic structure, organization of daily life, etc. The author applies the principle of spatial-timely structure of the phenomenon, which suggests the analysis of the urban style in unity of the spatial and timely localization with determination of the functionally different urban spaces, as well as capture of the specific “urban time”. The work gives definition to the urban style and the historical insight regarding the autonomization of the urban style, as well as analyzes the “consumer” reasons of the process of urbanization. The following specific characteristics of the urban style associated with the consumption processes are highlighted: emergence of the overconsumption, variety of the forms of urban existences and its polymotivation, separation from the natural cyclicality, increasing and artificially set tempo-rhythm, unification, preciseness, good manners, individuality, distance, emergence of the new urban socialness, strong structuring of time and space, mediation of the work and communications, high social mobility, spatial transformation of the city (shift of the historical center, assimilation of nearby territories), “privatization” of public space, city as the territorial brand, transformation of the psychological type of a city dweller, and shopping as the specific urban genre of recreation.
 

Abstract: This article analyzes the technology of public communications practice known as provocative conflict. Provocative conflict is defined as media-based (media-presented) conflict that aims to provoke the opposing faction into actions that are against its best interests. The author condenses the specific targets of the conflict - radical change of recieved social norms, or the formation of new social practices, reputation harm to the opponent to win an advantageous position, and the formation of a publicity capital.
Characteristics of this technology include media focus and provocative nature of the conflict. It is shown that media orientation of this conflict may considerably transform its flow, the mechanisms of its functioning and the outcomes of conflict interaction.
The author studied and analyzed the three cases of provocative conflicts in the USA and Russia. The first conflict ("The Torch of Freedom") may be classified as commercial PR, the second one ("Punk prayer" by Pussy Riot) represents a case of political PR, while the third one ("Plagiarism conflict") maybe classified as show business PR (personal PR).
The methodology of the study includes:
-the activity approach which views PR as professional practices, aimed at establishing interaction between social subjects, as well as a method for controlling them.
-the communicative approach which defines the mechanism of public communication practice functioning, subservient to the mechanism of mass media functioning and permitting to view this sort of conflict as a mass communication phenomenon.
-a positive approach to conflict, which views conflict interaction not only as acceptable from the PR practices point of view, but also as one of an integral professional technology.
The author reaches the conclusions that provocative conflict as a part of PR practice represents a neutral social communication technology. Conditions for its development and media integration are also outlined. In order to understand the mechanisms of provocative conflict development the author examines the model of contrast-assimilation illusion of perception, which explains the polarized opinions and the escalation of conflict.
The author shows that, within the provocative conflict, mass-media starts to play the role of the third side of the conflict, its interests not always aligning with the conflicting parties.
 
 

Abstract: The article is devoted to the psychological aspects of consumer addiction. The author outlines psychoanalytical, behavioral and cognitive approaches to analyzing consumer behavior. According to the author, the general feature of the psychological approach to consumption is the analysis of consumer process as being predetermined by personal and socio-psychological phenomena. The importance of the topic is conditioned by the growing number of so-called consumer neuroses as a result of the development of the new consumder society and transformations of modern personality. In particular, the latter includes the systemic fragmentation of consciousness, new 'mosaic' and clip-like perception and worldview and multiple personality disorder (MPD) as a new nosological entity. The researcher analyzes a psychological-evolutionary classification of consumption types including introjection, assimilation and projection. Ovrutsky considers the following to be consumer additictions: oniomania, 'collectors' fanaticism', drug abuse, alcohol abuse, tobacco addiction, Internet addiction, gambling, cleptomania, and pathological collecting. In his research Ovrutsky provides a general description of the consumer society and modern consumer. The researcher has used psychological methods to analyze consumer addictions. The results of the research demonstate that effective application of psychological methods to the analysis and treatment of consumer neuroses implies consideration of a wider socio-economic environment of personality disorders. Meanwhile, descriptive and explanatory schemes used in psychology give us a hope that they can be successfully applied to the process of humanization of personality and society in general. The main conclusions are the following. 1. Psychological studies of consumer addictions go beyound methodological borders of behaviorism and today's 'psychology of consumption' exists within the frameworks of neopsychoanalysis and cognitivism. 2. The psychological-evolutionary classification of consumption types based on the neocognitivist model has a high level of heuristicity and can be applied to diagnostics and treatment. 3. The general vector of the ontogenetic development of consumption goes from the introjective type of consumption to assimilative and projective types of consumption, thus following the general pattern of the development of consumption in phylogenesis.