| Description: | The course will focus on the rise and development of consumer cultures. The aim is to study and to apply interdisciplinary theoretical approaches to the study of consumer society now and in the past. The course will explore key substantive themes in the history and sociology of consumption, including the following: 1) an overview of developments in the different theories of consumer culture; 2) the rise of commercial society, the relation between freedom of choice and the power of commercial systems, models of consumer psychology and behavior, the nature of selves and identities in a post-traditional world, prosperity and progress; 3) the way class, gender, ethnicity and age affect the nature of our participation in consumer culture; 4) the evolution of capitalism to the present day, as well as the history of commodities in a number of different settings (advertising, food and drink, fashion and clothes); 5) the social, cultural and economic context of specific consumer groups, as well as case studies of specific commodities. |