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School for Cross-faculty Studies Liberal Arts

IP205 Consuming Cultures

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Module Overview

On this Year 2 core module, we explore a key context of contemporary life: consumer capitalist culture. From the food we eat to the clothes we wear, the things we consumer shape our identities, relationships, and experiences in a wide range of different ways.

Drawing on interdisciplinary approaches, we examine consumer cultures and societies, practices of consumption, and what it means to be a consumer.

Module aims:

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

  • demonstrate an in-depth understanding of interdisciplinary theorisations of consumption
  • critically assess a range of frameworks and methodologies for interpreting consumer cultures
  • analyse the language, practice, and representation of consumption and consumerism across different times, cultures, and media
  • work collaboratively with colleagues to design and develop resources
  • explore problems and generate well-informed responses to a wide range of issues relating to consumption
  • critically consider notions of use, value, and waste in relation to consumption
  • demonstrate advanced advanced cognitive skills, such as critical analysis, text analysis, and independent research

Module Leader:

Dr Kim Lockwood Clough

Core module

Terms 1-2 | 20 weeks

30 CATS

2 hour workshop per week


Not available to students outside the School for Cross-Faculty Studies

Please note: Module availability and staffing may change year on year depending on availability and other operational factors. The School for Cross-Faculty Studies makes no guarantee that any modules will be offered in a particular year, or that they will necessarily be taught by the staff listed on these pages

Example syllabus:

Please note that this syllabus is purely indicative, and actual module content may differ.

Term 1:
  1. Introduction to Consuming Cultures
  2. Commodification and Value
  3. Taste and Status
  4. World of Signs
  5. Assessment Support
  6. Are We What We Eat?
  7. Consuming the Other
  8. Fashion and Subcultures
  9. Consuming Music
  10. Assessment Support
Term 2:
  1. Museums and Decolonisation
  2. Spaces of Escapism
  3. Consuming Nature
  4. Travel
  5. Assessment Support
  6. Intoxicants
  7. Twentieth Century Consumer Cultures
  8. Consuming Realities
  9. Twenty-first Century Consumer Cultures
  10. Assessment Support
Assessments:

There are four assessments on this module:

Assessment Weighting Description
Group Media Project 15% activity pack, blog, magazine article, or podcast
Case Study Analysis 20% analytical essay
Site Analysis 20% analytical essay, visual essay, or site plan
Research Project 45% 3000 words or agreed equivalent for creative work

These assessments are designed to develop key academic and transferable skills, such as: independent research, critical analysis, persuasive argumentation, creative thinking, problem-solving, and communicating with a range of different audiences.

Illustrative reading list:

  • Baudrillard, Jean. 2019/1981. For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign. Translated by Charles Levin. London and New York: Verso.
  • Berger, Arthur Asa. 2010. The Objects of Affection: Semiotics and Consumer Culture. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Bourdieu, Pierre. 2010/1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Translated by Richard Nice. London and New York: Routledge.
  • Featherstone, Mike. 2007. Consumer Culture and Postmodernism, 2nd edition. London: SAGE Publications.
  • Gwynne, Joel, ed. 2022. The Cultural Politics of Femvertising: Selling Empowerment. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Hackley, Christopher E. 2005. Advertising and Promotion: Communicating Brands. London: SAGE.
  • Jhally, Sut. 1990. The Codes of Advertising: Fetishism and the Political Economy of Meaning in the Consumer Society. New York: Routledge.
  • Kravets, Olga, Pauline Maclaran, Steven Miles, and Alladi Venkatesh, eds. 2018. The SAGE Handbook of Consumer Culture. London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi, and Singapore: SAGE Publications Ltd.
  • Llamas, Rosa, and Russell W. Belk, eds. 2023. The Routledge Handbook of Digital Consumption, 2nd edition. Abingdon, Oxon, and New York: Routledge.
  • Marx, Karl. 2015/1867. Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Vol. I. Translated by Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling. Edited by Frederick Engels. Moscow: Progress Publishers.
  • Navas, Eduardo, Owen Gallagher, and Xtine Burrough, eds. 2017. The Routledge Companion to Remix Studies. New York: Routledge.
  • Okazaki, Shintaro, ed. 2012. Handbook of Research on International Advertising. Cheltenham and Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar.
  • Parkin, Katherine J. 2007. Food is Love: Advertising and Gender Roles in Modern America. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
  • Reichert, Tom, and Jacqueline Lambiase. 2005. Sex in Consumer Culture: The Erotic Content of Media and Marketing. London and New York: Taylor & Francis.
  • Rogers, Anna S., and Mathieu Deflem. 2022. Doing Gender in Heavy Metal: Perceptions of Women in a Hypermasculine Subculture. London: Anthem Press.
  • Sassatelli, Roberta. 2007. Consumer Culture: History, Theory and Politics. London and Los Angeles: SAGE.
  • Veblen, Thorstein. 2016. The Theory of the Leisure Class. New York: Open Road Integrated Media.
  • Vodanovic, Lucía, ed. 2020. Lifestyle Journalism: Social Media, Consumption and Experience. London and New York: Routledge.
  • Wharton, Chris, and Jonathan Hardy. 2015. Advertising: Critical Approaches. London and New York: Routledge.
  • Wherry, Frederick F., and Ian Woodward, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Consumption. Oxford: Oxford University Press.