DEREE COLLEGE SYLLABUS FOR: SO3119 CONSUMER SOCIETY

UK LEVEL: 5
UK CREDITS: 15
(Updated Spring 2022) US CREDITS: 3/0/3

PREREQUISITES: SO 1000 Introduction to Sociology

OR
SO1001 Sociology of Modern Life
CATALOG Consumer society as an expression of material culture in the post-modern
DESCRIPTION: globalized world. Emphasis on collective trends (fashion), conspicuous
consumption (luxury), lifestyles (identity), class and gender divisions,
places of consumption (e.g., shopping malls), etc. The pathology of
consumption: alienation, objectification, pseudo-individualism, and the
romantic search for the “new.”

RATIONALE: The course introduces students to the study of consumer society, one of
the critical conceptual schemes that captures the complexity of global
reality in our post-modern times. Using key theoretical debates that have
contributed to the emergence of sociology of consumption, it intends to
explore various aspects of consumer society by emphasizing on a number
of issues from technology and aesthetics to commodification and subject-
object relation, class distinctions, gender preferences, taste, identity and
subjectivity. Special reference to topics such as conspicuous consumption,
consumer rites, spaces of consumption case studies (e.g. food, fashion),
consumer activism and ethical consumption, consumption problems, etc.
The course aims to attract the interest of students from all fields of social
sciences, humanities, and business.
LEARNING OUTCOMES: As a result of taking this course, the students could be able to:

1.Demonstrate critical understanding of major theoretical approaches to

consumer culture and society as well as of empirical research findings.

2. Apply the sociological analysis on consumption to case studies and

demonstrate ability to explain different types of consumer practices
and phenomena.

3.Explain and critically analyse the overall impact of consumer culture

and its implications for individuals and society at large

METHOD OFTEACHING AND In congruence with the teaching and learning strategy of the college, the
LEARNING: following tools are used:
 Classes consist of lectures, use of audio-visual material and class
discussions based on course readings, theories or studies presented
in class.
 Office hours: students are encouraged to make full use of the office
hours of their lecturer, where they can address issues pertinent to the
course material, ask questions and seek guidance on their paper.
  Use of a blackboard site, where instructors post lecture notes,
assignment instructions, timely announcements, as well as
additional resources.

ASSESSMENT: Summative:
First Assessment: Midterm Exam (essays) 40
Final Assessment: Term Paper 2,500 words
with a visual component. Critical, evaluative
presentation and analysis of a specific 60
“object”, consumption site, or phenomenon
of consumer culture

Formative:
0
In-class exercises, online assignments, blog, 0
application on case studies

The formative assessments aim to prepare students for the examination

and paper and test Learning Outcomes 1,2,3

The first assessment (midterm exam) tests Learning Outcomes 1,3

The final assessment (research paper) tests Learning Outcomes 1,2,3

The final grade for this module will be determined by averaging all summative
assessment grades, based on the predetermined weights for each assessment. If
students pass the comprehensive assessment that tests all Learning Outcomes
for this module and the average grade for the module is 40 or higher, students
are not required to resit any failed assessments.

INDICATIVE READING: REQUIRED READING:

Wiedenhoft-Murphy, W. (2017) Consumer Culture and Society, LA:

Sage.

Additional book chapters and journal articles will be reserved in the

JSB Library or will be available in electronic form (required)

Aldridge, A. (2003) Consumption, Cambridge: Polity.

Arnould, E.J. and Thompson, C.J (2019) Consumer Culture Theory,

London: Sage.

Chan, T.W. (2019) “Understanding Cultural Omnivores: Social and Political

Attitudes,” The British Journal of Sociology 70(3): 784-806.

Corrigan, P. (1997) The Sociology of Consumption, London: Sage.

Falk, P. & Campbell, C. (1997) The Shopping Experience, London:

Sage.
Glickman, L. B. (1999) Consumer Society in American History: A
Reader, Ithaca: Cornell University.

Gottdiener, M. (2000) New Forms of Consumption: Consumers, Culture,

and Commodification, Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.

Kravets, O. Maclaran, P. Miles, S. Venkatesh, A. eds (2018) The SAGE

Handbook of Consumer Culture, London: Sage.

Lang, T. and Gabriel (2005) “A brief History of Consumer Activism”, in

Harrison, R, Newholm, T. Sahw, D. eds The Ethical Consumer, London:
Sage.

Lee, M. ed. (2000) The Consumer Society Reader, Oxford: Blackwell.

Lury, C. (2015) Consumer Culture, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers

University Press

Mathur, N. ed. (2019) Consumer Culture, Modernity and Identity,

London: Sage.

Miles, S. (2010) Spaces for Consumption, London: Sage.

Miles, S. (2020) The Experience Society: Consumer Capitalism

Rebooted, London: Pluto Press.

Nava, M. ed. (1997) Buy this Book: Studies in Advertising and

Consumption, New York: Routledge.

Peterson, R.A. & Kern, R. M. (1996) “Changing Highbrow Taste: From Snob
to Omnivore”, American Sociological Review, 6(5): 900

Ritzer, G. (2010) Enchanting a Disenchanted World: Continuity and

Change in the Cathedrals of Consumption, Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge
Press.

Sassatelli, R. (2007) Consumer Culture: History, Theory and Politics,

London: Sage.

Schor, J. and Holt, B. D. eds (2000) The Consumer Society Reader, New
York; The New Press.

Simmel, G. (1957) “On Fashion,” American Journal of Sociology 62:54-

58.

Slater, D. (1997) Consumer Culture and Modernity, Cambridge: Polity.

Smart, B. (2010) Consumer Society: Critical Issues and Environmental

Consequences, London: Sage.

Τepperman, L. and Meredith, N. (2021) Consumer Society, Oakville,

Ontario: Rock’s Mills Press.
Wherry,F. F,and Woodward,I. eds (2019) The Oxford Handbook of
Consumption, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

RECOMMENDED READING:
Baudrilliard, J. (2016) The Consumer Society, (rev. ed), Sage.

Bauman, Z. (2007) Consuming Life, Cambridge: Polity.

Berger, A.A. (2010) The Objects of Affection: Semiotics and Consumer

Culture, NY: Palgrave.

Berger, A, A. (2015) Ads, Fads, and Consumer Culture: Advertising’s

Impact on American Character and Society, Lanham, Maryland:
Rowman& Littlefield.

Bourdieu, P. (1984) Distinction, New York: Routledge.

Brewer, J and Trentmann, F. (2006) Consuming Cultures, Global

Perspectives, Oxford: Berg.

Campbell, C. (1987) The Romantic Ethic and the Spirit of Consumerism,

Oxford: Blackwell.
Elgin, D. (2010) Voluntary Simplicity, NY: Harper & Collins.

Encyclopedia of Consumer Culture (2013) Sage

Featherstone, M. (1991) Consumer Culture and Postmodernism,

London: Sage.

Fiske, J. (2000) Reading the Popular, New York: Routledge (ch2)

Harrison, R.T., Nweholm, T. and Shaw, D. (eds) The Ethical Consumer,

London: Sage.

Hebdidge, D. (1979) Subculture: The Meaning of Style, London:

Methuen

Kellner, D. (1983) “Critical Theory, Commodities and Consumer

Society”, Theory, Culture and Society, 3: 66-84.

Klein, N. (2001) NoLogo, London: Flamingo.

Lasch, C. (1979) The Culture of Narcissism, London: Abacus.

Lee, M.J. ed. (2000), The Consumer Society Reader, London; Blackwell.

McCracken, G. (1990) Culture and Consumption, Bloomington: Indiana

University Press.

Miller, D. Jackson, P. Thrift, N. Holbrook, B. and Rowlands, M. (1998)

Shopping Place and Identity, London: Routledge.
 Miller, D. (1987) Material Culture and Mass Consumption, London:
Blackwell.

Miller, D. (2001) Consumption: Critical Concept in Social Sciences,

New York: Routledge. (4 vols)
Otnes, C.C &TuncayZayer, L. eds (2012) Gender, Culture, and
Consumer Behavior, NY: Routledge.

Rappaport, E. (2000) Shopping for Pleasure: Women in the making of

London’s West End, Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Ritzer, G. (2001) Explorations in the Sociology of Consumption,

Routledge.

Ritzer, G. (1993) The McDonaldization of Society, Thousand Oaks: Pine

Forge Press.

Schor, J. B (2005) Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New
Consumer Culture, NY: Scribner.

Smart, B. (2010) Consumer Society: Critical Issues and Environmental

Consequences, London: Sage.

Strasser, S. (2003). “The Alien Past: Consumer Culture in Historical

Perspective” Journal of Consumer Policy, 26(4), pp. 375-393.

Trentmann, F. (2005) The Making of the Consumer, London: Berg.

Veblen, T. (1925) The Theory of the Leisure Class, London: Allen and
Unwin.
INDICATIVE MATERIAL: REQUIRED MATERIAL:
(e.g. audiovisual, digital material, etc.)
Ppts and specific videos/ reports posted on BB each time

RECOMMENDED MATERIAL:
videos/ reports posted on BB each time

COMMUNICATION Verbal skills using academic / professional English.

REQUIREMENTS:

SOFTWARE Word, ppt

REQUIREMENTS:

WWW RESOURCES: www.homepages.gold.ac.uk/slater/comsumer

www.ingenta.com/journals/browsw/sage/joc
www. sage pub.com/journalaspx?pid=265
www. popcultures.come/article/consumer.htm
www. albany.edu/jmmh/vol!no!/peiss.htm
www.questia.com/index.jsp?CRID=consumer_culture&OFFID=se1
www.theory.org.uk
www.culturemachine.net/research
 Useful specialized Journals:
 Journal of Consumer Culture
 Theory, Culture and Society
 Journal of Consumer Research
INDICATIVE CONTENT: 1.Why Consumption matters: Consumption as a subject of study
2.Consumption, material culture, consumerism and the consumer
3.Consumer Culture and Modernity: The Genesis of Consumer
Capitalism
- The rise of mass consumer culture and society
-Capitalism and the Consumer Revolution

4.Production and Consumption

Historical changes in the economy; consumption and social
stratification; lifestyles & identity in the era of post-Fordism; global
capitalism and consumption

5.Theorizing Consumption: Overview of the Classical and

Contemporary Sociological and Anthropological Approaches
- Marx, Weber and the sociology of consumption
- Material culture and the social life of things: The Anthropological
contribution

5.Commodification, Objects and their Meanings: The social

construction of desire
The fetishism of commodities (Marx); the value of commodities; the
meaning of commodities

6.The subjects of consumption: Passive dupes or Active Agents?

-Emulation, Distinction, or Rebellion? (Veblen, Simmel, Bourdieu, the
Birmingham School)
-Passive Dupes? (The Frankfurt School.)
-Utility or hedonism? Sovereignty and choice; desire and difference
(Campbell, and postmodernism)
-Class practices and lifestyles (examples: food, music)

7.The Case of Fashion

- The sociology of fashion (Simmel and beyond); the fashion
industry; fashion and the desire for the new
- Fashion and Identity
o gender, race/ethnicity and consumption (shopping for identity)
o subcultures, countercultures and the meaning of style; the
commodification of rebellion

8.Consumption and Identity: Consumer Ethic and the Self

9.Enchanting the Disenchanted World: The spaces of consumption

and the consumption of space
-From the Arcades (Benjamin) to e-commerce:
o The Department Store: Women and the City
o The “Cathedrals of Consumption
o Online shopping
 o The privatization of the public sphere

10.Case Studies: Tourism, Higher Education, Food, etc. (The topics

will vary from semester to semester)
 Tourism: The consumption of objects and the consumption of
space; cultural commodification; in search of authenticity or fun?
 Food: Industrial food chains, organic food, local food; class and
status relations; places of consumption (e.g., supermarkets,
dining out)
 Higher Education as a place and an object of consumption
(MOOCs, credentialism, students as consumers, etc.)

11. The Commodification of Everything? Consumerism goes global

o From McDonaldization and Beyond (Starbuckization.
Disneyization, e-Bayzation,)
o Consumerism as global ideology; globalization and localization;
global brands

12.Ethical Concerns and Consumer Activism

o The Consumer movement & anti-corporate activism; fair Trade;
alternative forms of consumption
o Towards a post-consumer society?