Jasmin R Heiderich

The Eurozone’s largest and strongest economy Germany (Eurostat European Commission, 2013) shows a continuing growth in the creative industries (Soendermann, 2012) with Berlin celebrated as a promising, up-and-coming major fashion capital (Horn, 2010; Barth, 2011). The majority of Europe’s fashion designers are trained in Germany (Schirrmacher, 2013); the country inhabits favorable resources and capabilities for the fashion industry and is the second largest employer in the fashion and textile industry next to Italy (Fashion United, 2014). However, Germany ‘has still not evolved into a classic fashion nation’ (Horn, 2010). German premium/ luxury designers and brands have little international significance (Weiss, 2011) and show very low economic performance (Soendermann, 2012).
The purpose of this study is to explore what constitutes the German industry’s competitiveness in order to provide insight into industry dynamics for policymakers to offer support at the right spot and to the right conditions; as well as for industry practitioners to aid business-related strategic decision-making. Hereby, the research takes a Porter’s (1998) diamond approach and analyses the industry’s factor conditions, demand conditions, relating and supporting industries, firm strategy, structure and rivalry as well as government and chance including specifics of the premium/ luxury fashion industry in general as well as those of the unit of analysis. The study employs a qualitative approach and is applying a mixed methods, cross-sectional, embedded case study design based on qualitative and quantitative secondary data and literature as well as qualitative primary data sources, which have been collected in form of two interviews with industry professionals.
The research reveals that Germany inhabits advantages in factor conditions and related and supporting industries; disadvantages and selective disadvantages in the determinants of demand conditions and firm strategy, structure and rivalry with the government having a depressing influence on all determinants.

Given the global ubiquity of the phenomenon of the selfie and the rise of the GoPro action camera, this paper argues that in today’s social conditions of high-modernity the selfie offers a way of bridging the ‘hinge between digital and physical modes of existence’ (Rubenstein & Fisher, 2013, p.13). Although perceived as more ‘intuitive and fun’ than simply texting (Lobinger & Brantner, 2015, p.1857), its material and social practice, however, does not stay unproblematic, but complex and with ambiguities itself. This paper’s discourse is embedded within a narrative and phenomenological theoretical accounts of identity and selfhood focused on the centrality of the human body such as those of Ricoeur (1992), Goffman (1959), Shilling (2005) and Heidegger (1953). The discussion further explores contemporary understandings of digital media, the role of the photographer and his/ her body beyond representation including accounts by Baudrillard (1994), Rubenstein & Fisher (2013) and recent scholarly appropriations on the phenomenon of the selfie published within the 2015 Featured issue (9) of the ‘International Journal of Communication’. Investigating into the lived experiences in the case of surf selfies with the GoPro action camera, it is then argued that the act of taking and sharing photographic records of one’s own body offers authenticity of one’s digital mode of existence but stands in conflict with one’s physical way of being with regards to perceived authenticity of others and one’s own experience of self. This study’s results illustrate the problematic relationship between on and offline identities, which are conclusively argued to be rooted within continuing fluctuating concepts of self between ‘the self as an image and as a body, as a constructed effect of representation and as an object and agent of representation’ (Frosh, p.1621).

This essay critically appropriates the question of what constitutes the relationship between digital media, identity and selfhood of the present zeitgeist. The analysis uses the case example of  the popular location-based mobile dating app 'Tinder' that offers the specific context in which internal view and group affiliation of on- and offline identity meet; where their relation and expression are of crucial importance: impression formation in the process of choosing a partner. The essay explores the topic through the lens of philosophical, sociological and psychological theories of identity and selfhood as well as theories on the digitally mediated message, impression management and the visual language.
Findings reveal that Tinder is not as 'superficial' as mainstream media suggest, yet not without limitations, which are connected to digital media in general. These allow an extension of self narrative and audience but with some ontological restrictions, which make a complete analogy of online and offline identity inconceivable at this moment of technological advance. In conclusion, the relationship between digital media identity and selfhood stay in interwoven yet inveterately separated spheres.

With a text based analysis of the photographic image Study in Contemporary Gesture II by Joshua Citarella this essay aims to explore the novelty of the medium through its digital extension. It focuses on how and what meaning is communicated through subject matter, form and authorship of conscious and unconscious intent.

This 10-week journal is critically investigating terms and concepts around internationalism and cultural diplomacy through scholarly and empirical research embracing both theory and practical examples. The written work is accompanied by visual material that functions as a blurred, layered and complex picture under construction mirroring each week’s theme.
This work intends to unravel underlying motives, instrumentalism and power structures when one culture approaches the other in line with contemporary contrasting definitions of the term 'cultural diplomacy'. It is argued that meaning-making processes are crucial sites of struggle and set in an inseparable relationship to the actor’s cultural identity, which becomes the major facilitator within these acts of cultural diplomacy.  Dominant cultures are able to influence these meaning-making processes through their favourable global media powers. With relation to these findings the factors of time and space can be considered as decisive within mediated meaning-making processes supported by Nixon’s (2011) concept of slow violence and its miss-representation in mainstream media, as well as the misuse of the term ‘trauma’ as a metaphor. Acts of cultural diplomacy in practice by the example of art exhibitions are aiming for intercultural mutual understanding but show complex socio-political dimensions and socio economic dynamics.