BOOKS BY MAURO FERRARESI

The theme of this essay is the transformation of value produced by media processes in contemporary society. Media produce indeed a mediation and therefore a transformation in the processes of valorisation. Products, goods, merchandise, and services are converted into brands. As a result, the accumulation of valorisation of products is not only given by the amount of time spent to produce it; but to the time of exposure to brands, or rather to the advertising of brands to which individuals are exposed. The more time they are exposed to advertising (in all its forms), the more value is acquired by brands.

Consumption research in IULM University Italian sociology used to suffer both methodological and ethical critics. But this discipline has recently developed alliances with semiotics, anthropology, semantics, useful for gaining new methodological strengths and credibility One of the most important consequences is the growing importance of sociosemiotics that considers as not pertinent the distinction among social phenomena and textual phenomena. Therefore is possible to consider as a sort of text also the consumption. And this is important if one wish to put under an olistic view and on same level for example consumption behavior, lay outs, colors, lights, furniture of a shopping center. That is what is happening in IULM University as prove the following papers.