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Mass customization presents a paradox to traditional manufacturing practices. Historically, companies chose to produce either customized, crafted products or mass‐produced, standardized products. Thus, mass customization presents a paradox by combining customization and mass production, offering unique products in a mass‐produced, low cost, high volume production environment. If mass customization is truly a combination of mass production and craft manufacturer, how does a manufacturer become a mass customizer? Are the key principles of mass customization rooted in customized product knowledge or mass production techniques? Does the path to mass customization impact financial performances? This paper begins to answer these questions by exploring the total product mix of mass customizing plants using data gathered from 126 mass customizers. This study shows plants that choose mass customization approaches that match the non‐mass customized product line characteristics have higher financial performance than those firms without a matched product line.

The topic of this scientific work is social masses and the mass society. The subject of research will be reduced to the definition of the notions of "social mass" and "mass society" and finding similarities and differences between them. The author starts from the initial assumption that social masses and mass societies are two similar, but also quite different notions. The following methods were used in the paper: observation, content analysis, developmental method, structural approach, comparative method, analytical approach etc. The scientific justification of the research derives from the establishment of similarities and differences between these two notions, which makes a significant contribution to the construction of the Sociology of the Masses as one of the scientific disciplines of Sociology. The social reach of the research is founded on questioning social masses and the power of the impact of the mass society on contemporary social trends.

This article compares a variety of modes of quantifying individuals to govern them. The analytical grid issues from a former research program on the Politics of Statistics that focused on one of these modes of governing by numbers, the statistical nation state, which is here included in an array of more recently developed governing numbers based on benchmarking, digital tracking, or self-quantifying. Three main operations differentiate modes of governing by numbers: measuring individuals for quantification, taking political measures accordingly to guide their behaviors, and an intermediate operation that is often less visible although situated between the two previous ones and needed to link them: evaluating the situation through a measured judgment that justifies the monitoring based on numbers. This analysis breaks down data into the sequential steps of the transformations chain of information formats needed to pass from an individual person to a governing figure. The plurality of modes of evaluation, and its reduction by quantification, is given high significance, as well as the way each mode of governing affects individuals, their identity and their possibility to critically reflect and question.

- Die materiellen, demographischen, sozialen und psychologischen Bedingungen für die Entstehung eines Massenmenschen + - Die Erscheinungsformen der Masse im 20.Jh. + Behandelte Aspekte selektiv: + Die Masse, ihre geschichtliche Herausbildung, ihre Beschaffenheiten und ihr Stellenwert im zeitgeschichtlichen Kontext sowie die Gefahren, die mit dem von ihr erhobenen Anspruch auf selbständiges Handeln verbunden sind

Sociology was the first social science to investigate communication empirically. A review is offered of sociological research into the mass media, which is often multidisciplinary in approach. Concepts important in this area are those of medium, communicator, content, & audience. Investigation of mass media action & influence leads to study of the functions of these institutions in society & culture. Recent trends in this field have led to dissatisfaction with the present position; without loss of accumulated knowledge, a shift is needed both toward interpretation of the past & concern for the evolution & future changes of society. W. H. Stoddard.

Long-time experience with the Belgian Radio & TV indicates that the reaction of the audience to the pressure of the MM is a sociol'al phenomenon of which as yet little is known. The problem must be re-examined from its most generally accepted data & bases up. 2 interrelated subjects are dealt with broadly: (a) the basic typology of the mass public, & (b) the variations in the effect of MM messages. The mass public which the sociol'ts are studying is a 'monstrous sociol'al grouping gradually crystallizing,' which receives a high intensity-level of intellectual COMM's & is exposed to multiple, diverse, incoherent as well as coherent, ephemeral as well as sustained pressures. It has no community bonds, community intimacy or primary connections. It adheres to a standardized, superficial, psychol'al penetrating & homogenizing culture, exhibits a certain facelessness & dehumanization, & has lost traditional ideologies which are replaced by concrete offers of service. It is depolitized, worships functional efficiencies, & respects things rather than persons. It is facing a growing excess of leisure & the democratization of educ as a result of demographic pressure. Among this mass public, the information media will seek their own mass public, which, however, is diff from the mass public of the sociol'ts. Under the relentless pressure of the messages emitted by the MM, this fundamentally heterogeneous audience becomes organized-at certain times & under certain circumstances-into a bona fide sociol'al category or even SC. Thus heterogeneous groups become for certain periods of time a homogeneous agglomeration. The quantitative aspect of the MM messages is one of shameless extravagance with material effort disproportionate to the results, a 'shocking waste of substance & energy.' The qualitative aspect is yet little known. It is known, however, that the characteristics observable at emission level-mass orientation, standardization, vulgarization, distortion of cultural values, etc-are not necessarily found at the registering & internalizing levels, thanks to the triple filter of external constraints, unconscious selectivity, & the defense mechanism. The resistance of the public to attempts at mass conditioning is greater than is commonly believed. A 2-dimensional schema (conjunctural & structural levels) of the effects of the MM on society is introduced which can be used as a mental frame of reference in the analysis of MM effects. It is concluded: (a) The relationship between the MM & its public must be broken down into 'sociol'al observation perimeters, which in turn must be separated into sociol'al observation units, eg, information on current events from the daily papers. (b) The largest possible number of survey techniques must be used on a continuous basis & results appraised & systematically cross-checked. A policy of multiple surveys should be adopted. 5 Figures, 1 Table. M. Maxfield.