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The purpose of this paper is to examine the role that fashion played in the Cold War competition between the USA and the Soviet Union during the period from 1945 to 1959.

This paper begins by situating fashion within the larger American efforts of cultural diplomacy. It then examines the American and Soviet approaches to fashion. Finally, it focuses on the fashion show at the 1959 American National Exhibition in Moscow. This paper utilizes primary sources, including archival sources and period newspapers and magazines.

Both American and Soviet leaders tried to use fashion to embody the ideological values of each political and economic system. Both also acknowledged a “fashion gap”, whereby Americans enjoyed clear superiority thanks to a well-developed mass production system of ready-made, stylish clothing, that some termed the American Look. Americans hoped the fashion gap would demonstrate that only capitalism could provide women with an abundance of the necessary – but also desirable – consumer goods that enhanced their feminine beauty. Thus, fashion played an important part in the Cold War cultural struggle, in which American and Soviet women were key participants.

Much has been written about the Cold War cultural diplomacy, especially the Moscow exhibition, but fashion is often left out of the analyses. Meanwhile, both the American Look and Soviet efforts to create socialist fashion have been examined, but no work has been done to look at the two together to understand fashion’s larger implications for the Cold War.

This paper aims to study the Soviet state-owned enterprises that were producing ready to wear clothes, engaged in activities that are traditionally associated with “capitalist” marketing and public relations. Particularly, they responded to consumer complaints, monitored customer satisfaction and changed their product features and offer in response to customer feedback. This claim is illustrated using the example of the garment industry in the city Perm.

The data comes from archival research of a range of sector-wide documents of the Soviet period available in the State Archive of Perm Region and from in-depth interviews with ex-employees of Perm Clothing Design House.

The paper demonstrates the emergence of a marketing system not only in Eastern European countries and in major Soviet cities but also in a provincial closed city of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. The findings of the research highlight that the level of sales was important for all the participants in the focal marketing system. Late Soviet marketing had the social function of supporting cooperative relationships between citizens and the state by channeling dissatisfaction and anger through surveys and consumer conferences.

Previous studies undertaken at the top level of the Soviet managerial pyramid have not represented a detailed picture of routine marketing activities during Late Socialism.

This paper aims to examine the contents of the special issue, situating the material in appropriate historical context.

The account is based on a close reading of each manuscript. Links to the wider academic literature are created, and a narrative thread is provided to introduce readers to the imbrication of marketing with the Cold War geopolitical climate.

The debates surrounding the Cold War, marketing theory and marketing practice have been reviewed.

In The Americans, Philip and Elizabeth Jennings are undercover operatives for the Soviet Union. In that capacity, they are responsible for crimes including murder and espionage. Yet they also pose as a law-abiding family, running a small business, raising children, and making friends with their neighbours. By ‘practicing’ American life, Philip becomes more American, forging an identity more receptive to American values and attitudes. This chapter draws on concepts from the literature on legal consciousness to examine the relationship between identity and hegemony. Studies of legal consciousness emphasise that consciousness is not simply legal attitudes or even ideology; rather legal consciousness is reflected in the way that people enact their legal beliefs and values. Those enactments help individuals form identities, but those identities are constrained by the hegemonic ideologies that are prevalent in the culture. Law and legal consciousness are important to both processes.

The purpose of this paper is to expose librarians, scholars and other interested parties to the numerous films available concerning the 1989 and 1991 European revolutions. The films that are discussed can potentially be used as ancillary sources that will lead to a more in-depth understanding of these topics.

This paper is a literature review examining films relating to the 1989 and 1991 revolutions in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The findings are presented in the form of an annotated bibliography.

A total of 24 films from eight countries are presented in this annotated bibliography.

In researching this paper, the authors have been unable to find any similar works, which makes this work of particular value to those wanting to learn more about this period of change in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

To provide a brief illustration of how the circumstances of economic underdevelopment and ecological decline are reciprocally linked, we can begin by tracing the post‐World War II history of Africa. Political histories of the post‐war period abound for almost all parts of the continent, since it was during this era that many African colonies struggled for and won political independence. Detailed ecological histories of colonialism and the post‐colonial states, however, are just beginning to be researched and written. Nevertheless, several broad patterns and general trends of this history are now becoming apparent, and they can be set forth in rough narrative form even though detailed histories have yet to be compiled.

American radical economists in the 1960s perceived China under Maoism as an important experiment in creating a new society, aspects of which they hoped could serve as a model for the developing world. But the knowledge of “actually existing Maoism” was very limited due to the mutual isolation between China and the US. This chapter analyses the First Friendship Delegation of American Radical Political Economists (FFDARPE) to the People’s Republic of China in 1972, consisting mainly of Union for Radical Political Economics (URPE) members, which was the first visit of a group of American economists to China since 1949. Based on interviews with trip participants as well as archival and published material, this chapter studies what we can learn about the engagement with Maoism by American radical economists from their dialogues with Chinese hosts, from their on-the-ground observations, and their reflection upon return. We show how the visitors’ own ideas conflicted and intersected with their perception of the Maoist practice on gender relations, workers’ management, and life in the communes. We also shed light on the diverging conceptions of the role for economic expertise between URPE and late Maoism. As the first in-depth study on the FFDARPE, we provide rich empirical insights into an ice-breaking event in the larger process of normalization in the Sino-US relations, which ultimately led to the disillusionment of the Left with China.

This paper aims to review contributions made to the strategic question about the main trends, opportunities, challenges and success factors in the Russian hospitality and tourism market in the experience economy era.

Based on the strategic question, a critical analysis of each contribution was carried out to identify the key themes and the issues, impacts and findings related to each theme.

The findings show nine key themes related to the sustainable development of the Russian hospitality and tourism market.

The findings create a framework to boost discussion between all stakeholders in the tourism and hospitality industry in Russia. There are ways to improve the competitiveness of the country as a tourist destination in spite of a number of impediments, both internal and external. Overall, this theme issue provides a useful framework for discussions with a wider range of stakeholders as the implications arising are of importance to all stakeholder groups.

All nine articles have contributed different perspectives to the topic, and all confirm that networking is critical in the experience economy era to ensure that aspirations and concerns of all key stakeholders are taken into account.

For 40 years, it has been widely believed in the West that learning organisations would be healthier, flexible and more competitive than other organisations. By now, one might expect them to be widespread. However, fully developed learning organisations are rare in the West. In contrast, Chinese organisations seem naturally to be learning organisations. The paper aims to explore the impact of Eastern (largely Chinese) and Western (largely US) philosophies upon the development of learning organisations and suggests that for learning organisations to develop in the West a different philosophical approach may be needed.

The Chinese worldview, and Chinese pragmatism in particular, are discussed in the context of learning organisations. A link is made with the American pragmatism of Dewey. These philosophical traditions are compared to the prevailing worldview and philosophical tradition in the West, which may help explain the rarity of the learning organisation in the West.

A pragmatic philosophy and a relational worldview allow the development of natural learning organisations in China. The recovery in the west of pragmatism and a relational worldview might allow Western organisations to move towards becoming learning organisations. Without this philosophical underpinning, it is unlikely that there will be more than visionary glimpses of utopian ideas for learning organisations.

The significance of pragmatism in the development of learning organisations needs to be considered as a factor in the failure to develop widespread learning organisations in the West.