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This study illuminates the ways in which men and women consume soap operas as a means of reflecting on and discussing socio-cultural taboos. Through interpretive research we examine the ways in which religion, sexuality, and gender relations are depicted in popular Turkish soap operas and how these depictions are consumed in the Balkans and the Middle East. This study challenges the assumption that consumption of taboo discourses leads to active identity modification or public defiance. Instead, in-depth interviews and online ethnography reveal that consumption of soap operas that challenge local religious and gender norms provide a liminal space for discussing taboo topics. Firstly, the findings indicate that talking about taboo topics seen in soap operas enables consumers to speak about what they expect gender and religious norms to be. Secondly, consumers get their mediated understandings of what religion is through soap operas. Thus, rather than simply offering escape, soap opera consumption facilitates the discussion of taboo topics. Summary Statement of Contribution: Soap operas have previously been conceptualised as offering an escape from the troubles of everyday life. We show that they also provide a platform that allows consumers to confront prevalent socio-cultural taboos. Our work contributes to extant understandings by highlighting the ability of 'light' entertainment to smuggle in opportunities for engagement with 'heavy' topics. Further, we draw particular attention to consumption between countries in the Global South.

The objective of this note is to formulate conceptual links between nation brands, international relations, and politics through the development of research questions that are underpinned by a brand‐culture approach. The focus is on the export of Turkey's soap operas to diverse locations around the globe, but in particular to the Middle East and the Balkans. The note calls for: (1) forging a dialogue across international relations, political science, media, and management studies through a brand‐culture lens which allows for a historical understanding; (2) focusing on historical and political discourses as resources in interpreting nation brands and cultural and creative goods; and, (3) focusing on nation branding between countries in the Global South. Forging a dialogue across disciplines and focusing on how consumers make use of historical and political discourses informs both commercial and diplomatic co‐creators of nation brands.

Purpose: This study examines the factors affecting the labour market status of females in Greece and the UK respectively, and also attempts to explore what accounts for the differences in the employment status between males and females. In particular, the study assesses whether these differences can be explained by employees' endowments or by discrimination in the labour market.Methodology-Approach: Labour Force Survey (LFS) data are used to examine the impact of observable characteristics on female labour market participation, unemployment and self-employment through the use of logit models. An extension of the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition technique is used to estimate the gender employment discrimination gap.Findings: Clear evidence of gender differences was found in both countries, although differences are substantially larger in the case of Greece. Evidence of female employment discrimination was also found in both labour markets.Originality/Value: The paper explores the factors affecting the labour market situation of females, and for the first time, assesses the level of gender employment discrimination in Greece and the UK analysing the differences on the unemployment rates of males and females.