SOC3078b/ANT3078/ANT2078/SOC2078b

Eat:  The Social Self as Consumer 

Course Outline 

Matthias Varulroom A323tel. 01392 26 3283e-mail m.z.varul@ex.ac.ukoffice hours: Mondays 2pm-3pm, Fridays 9am-10am or by appointment

In this module you will look at how the contemporary social self is shaped by its involvement in economic interaction as consumer and how the changes in the world of shopping represent social change in general. Particular emphasis will be put on the way that the symbolic construction of subjectivities in consumption relate to the material existence of the self as body and its relation to the materiality of produced and consumed objects.

The module will introduce key theories of consumerism and consumer culture. We will look at characteristic features of consumerism such as advertising, examine different sites and spaces of consumption such as the mall, the corner shop and mail order catalogues, and study major fields of consumption, namely food, fashion, and the motor car.

The course combines sociological and anthropological perspectives (alongside some approaches from human geography, economics and

philosophy). While there are some alternative readings given, students are strongly encouraged to engage with both perspectives.

TeachingThe course will consist of 11 weekly two-hour lecture/seminars. Students are expected to bring in their own perspectives based on the course reading, further reading and applications to objects, spaces and practices of consumption. 

Assignments- weekly readings

As a minimum you need to read one of the two course texts ahead of the lecture seminar (except for week one/introduction). Ideally you should read both texts (so as to benefit from the interdisciplinary perspective) or one additional text of your choice

- one 2000 words essay

suggested topics can be found at the end of the outline, but you can also come up with a topic of your own (I'm happy to help with advice, further suggestions etc.)

AssessmentAssessment will be by the  2000 words essay (50 per cent of final mark), to be submitted through BART before 13th Nov 2pm and one one-hour exam (50 per cent of the final mark 

 

Course structure and readingscourse pack texts are in bold print – where there are alternative readings the discipline is identified.

week 1: the consumer revolutionAbercrombie, Nicholas (1990): ‘The Privilege of the Producer’, in: R. Keat et al. (eds): Enterprise Culture,London: Routledge, pp.171-85

Agnew, Jean-Christophe (1993): ‘Coming Up for Air: Consumer Culture in Historical Perspective’. In: J. Brewer/R.Porter (eds):Consumption and the World of Goods,London/New York: Routledge, pp.19-39

Cross,Gary(1993): Time and Money: The Making of Consumer Culture,London: Routledge

de Grazia, Victoria(2005): Irresistible Empire: America’s Advance through 20th-Century Europe,CambridgeMA: Harvard University Press

Douglas, Mary (1979): The World of Goods: Towards an Anthropology of Consumption, London: Allen Lane. (ANT)

Gabriel, Yannis/Lang, Tim (1995): The Unmanageable Consumer: Contemporary Consumption and its Fragmentations, London: SAGE.

Graeber, David (2011): ‘Consumption’, in: Current Anthropology, Vol.52, No.4, pp.489-511

McKendrick, Neil/Brewer, John (1983): The Birth of a Consumer Society: The Commercialisation of Eighteenth-Century England, London:Hutchinson.

Slater, Don (1997): Consumer Culture & Modernity, Cambridge: Polity Press (SOC)

 

week 2: positional goods, status symbol, class tasteBourdieu, Pierre (1986) : Distinction, London: Routledge

Campbell, Colin (1995): ‘Conspicuous Confusion? A Critique of Veblen’s Theory of Conspicuous Consumption’ in: Sociological Theory, Vol. 13, No. 1. pp. 37-47.

Fitzgerald, Scott (1950): The Great Gatsby, Harmondsworth: Penguin

Holt, Douglas B. (1998): ‘Does Cultural Capital Structure American Consumption?’, in: Journal of Consumer Research, Vol.25, pp.1-25

Lamont, Michele (1992): Money, Morals, and Manners: The Culture of the French and American Upper-Middle Class, Chicago:University ofChicago Press.

Lehtonen, Turo-Kimmo (1999): 'Any Room for Aesthetics? Shopping Practices of Heavily Indebted Consumers', in: Journal of Material Culture, Vol.4, No.3, pp.243-62. http://mcu.sagepub.com/content/4/3/243.abstract  

Majima, Shinobu/Warde, Alan (2008): 'Elite Consumption in Britain, 1961-2004: Results of a Preliminary Investigation', in: Mike Savage/Karel Williams (eds): Remebering Elites, Oxford: Blackwell, pp.210-39

McCracken, Grant (1989): ‘Who is the Celebrity Endorser? Cultural Foundations of the Endorsement Process’, in: Journal of Consumer Research, Vol.16, No.3, pp.310-21.

Ramstad, Yngve (1998): ‘Veblen’s Propensity for Emulation: Is It Passé?’ in: Doug Brown (ed.): Thorstein Veblen in the Twenty-First Century,Cheltenham: Edward Elger

Riesman, David (1953): Thorstein Veblen: A Critical Interpretation, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons

Rojek, Chris (1995): ‘Veblen, Leisure and Human Need’, in: Leisure Studies, Vol.14, No.2, pp.73-86.

Rojek, Chris (2000): ‘Leisure and the Rich Today: Veblen’s Thesis after a Century’, in: Leisure Studies, Vol.19, No.1, pp.1-15.

Skeggs, Beverley (2005) ‘Exchange, Value and Affect: Bourdieu and “the Self”’, in: Lisa Adkins, Beverly Skeggs (eds.) Feminism After Bourdieu,Oxford: Blackwell, pp.75-95

Snyder, Sally (1975): 'Quest for the Sacred in Northern Puget Sound: An Interpretation of the Potlatch', in: Ethnology, Vol.14, pp.149-61. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3773086

Sullivan, Oriel/Gershuny, Jonathan (2004): ‘Inconspicuous Consumption: Work-Rich, Time-Poor in the Liberal Market Economy’, in:Journal of Consumer Culture, Vol.4, No.1, pp.79-100

Trigg, Andrew B. (2001): ‘Veblen, Bourdieu and Conspicuous Consumption’ in: Journal of Economic Issues, Vol.35, No.1, pp.99-115.

Turner, Brian S./Edmunds, June (2002): 'The Distaste of Taste: Bourdieu, Cultural Capitals and the Australian Postwar Elite', in:Journal of Consumer Culture, Vol.2, No.2, pp.219-40.

Üstüner, Tuba/Holt, Douglas B. (2009): ‘Toward a Theory of Status Consumption in Less Industrialized Countries’, in: Journal of Consumer Research, Vol.37, pp.37-56.

Varul, Matthias Zick (2011): ‘Veblen in the (Inner) City: On the Normality of Looting’, in: Sociological Research Online, Vol.16, No.4, Art.22,

Varul, Matthias Zick (2006): ‘Waste, Industry and Romantic Leisure: Veblen’s Theory of Recognition’, in: European Journal of Social Theory, Vol.9, No.1, pp.115-7

Veblen, Thorstein (1934): The Theory of the Leisure Class, New York : Modern Library, 1934 (SOC/ECON)

Werbner, Pnina (1996): ‘The Enigma of Christmas: Symbolic Violence, Compliant Subjects and the Flow of English Kinship’, in: Stephen Edgell/Kevin Hetherington/Alan Warde (eds.): Consumption Matters, Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp.135-62. (ANT)

Wright, David (2005): ‘Commodifying Respectability: Distinctions at Work in the Bookshop’, in: Journal of Consumer Culture, Vol.5, No.3, pp.295-314.

The Great Gatsby [DVD recording] / directed by Jack Clayton; starring Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, Karen Black, Scott Wilson, Sam Waterston, Lois Chiles, and Bruce Dern. Paramount 2007

 

week 3: from use value to sign value?Arjun Appadurai (ed.): The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Baudrillard, Jean (1997): Consumer Society: Myths and Structures, London: SAGE

Cameron, Emilie (2007): ‘Exhibit and Point of Sale: Negotiating Commerce and Culture at the VancouverArtGallery’, in: Social & Cultural Geography, Vol.8, No.4, pp.551-73

Featherstone, Mike (1991a): Consumer Culture and Postmodernism,London: SAGE

Firat, A Fuat/Venkatesh, Alladi (1995): ‘Liberatory Postmodernism and the Reenchantment of Consumption’, in:  Journal of Consumer Research, Vol.22, No.3, pp.239-67.

Dant, Tim (2006): ‘Material Civilization: Things and Society’, in: British Journal of Sociology, Vol.57, No.2, pp.289-308.

Fine, Ben (2002): The World of Consumption,London: Routledge.

Graeber, David (2001): Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value: The False Coin of Our Own Dreams, Basingstoke: Palgrave

Haug, Wolfgang Fritz (1986): Critique of Commodity Æsthetics: Appearance, Sexuality, and Advertising in Capitalist Society,Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press (SOC/PHL)

Ilmonen, Kaj (2004): ‘The Use and Commitment to Goods’, in: Journal of Consumer Culture, Vol.4, No.1, pp.27-50

Jameson, Frederic (1985): ‘Postmodernism and Consumer Culture’, in: Hal Foster (ed.): The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays in Postmodern Culture,London: Pluto Press, pp.111-25.

Jansson, Andre (2002): ‘The Mediatization of Consumption: Towards an Analytical Framework of Image Culture’, in: Journal of Consumer Culture, Vol.2, No.1, pp.5-31

Kopytoff, Igor (1986): ‘The Cultural Biography of Things: Commoditization as Process’, in: Arjun Appadurai (ed.): The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.64-91. (ANT)

Langman, Lauren (1992) ‘Neon Cages: Shopping for Subjectivity’, in: Rob Shields (ed.) Lifestyle Shopping: The Subject of Consumption,London: Routledge, pp.40-82

Lash, Scott/Urry, John (1994): Economies of Signs and Space,London: Sage.

Marx, Karl (1930): Capital,London: Dent

Poster, Mark (2004): ‘Consumption and Digital Commodities in the Everyday’, in: Cultural Studies, Vol.18, No.2, pp.409-423.

Sahlins, Marshall (1977): Culture and Practical Reason, Chicago: University of Chicago Press

 

week 4: consumption as expression and extension of the selfBoden, Sharon/Williams, Simon J. (2002): ‘Consumption and Emotion: The Romantic Ethic Revisited.’ In: Sociology, Vol.36, No.3, pp.493-512.

Campbell, Colin (1987): The Romantic Ethic and the Spirit of Modern Consumerism. Oxford: Blackwell (SOC)

Campbell, Colin (2003): ‘On Understanding Modern Consumerism and Misunderstanding the Romantic Ethic Thesis: A Reply to Boden and Williams’, Sociology 37 (4): 791-7

Holbrook, Morris B. and Hirschman, Elizabeth C. (1993) The Semiotics of Consumption: Interpreting Consumer Behavior in Popular Culture and Works of Art,New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

Belk, Russell W. (1988): ‘Possessions and the Extended Self’, in: Journal of Consumer Research, Vol.15, No.2, pp.139-68.

McCracken, Grant (1988): Culture and Consumption. New Approaches to the Symbolic Character of Consumer Goods and Activities, Bloomington/Indianapolis:IndianaUniversityPress

Meskell, Lynn(1998): ‘Consuming Bodies: Cultural Fantasies of Ancient Egypt’, in: Body and Society, Vol.4, No.1, pp.63-76

Nutt, Diane/Railton, Diane (2003) ‘The Sims: Real Life as Genre’ Information, Communication & Society 6 (4): 577-92.

Saglia, Diego (2002): ‘Consuming Egypt: Appropriation of the Cultural Modalities of Romantic Luxury’, in: Nineteenth-Century Contexts, Vol.24, No.3, pp.317-32.

Terego, Al/Denim, Sue (2006): ‘Riddikulus!: Consumer Reflection on the Harry Potter Phenomenon’, in: Stephen Brown (ed.):Consuming Books: The Marketing and Consumption of Literature,London: Routledge, pp.146-59.

Varul, Matthias Zick (2009): ‘The Eccentricity of the Romantic Consumer: Campbell, Simmel and Plessner’, paper presented at the 4th International Plessner Conference, 16th to 18th September 2009, Erasmus University, Rotterdam,      

Warde, Alan (1994): ‘Consumption, Identity-Formation and Uncertainty’, in: Sociology, Vol.28, No.4, pp.877-98

Woodward, Ian (2006): ‘Investigating Consumption Anxiety Thesis: Aesthetic Choice, Narrativisation and Social Performance’, in :Sociological Review, Vol.54, No.2, pp.263-82

Zboray, Ronald J./Zboray, Mary Saracino (1996): ‘Books, Reading, and the World of Goods in Antebellum New England’, in: American Quarterly, Vol.48, No.4, pp.587-622.

 

week 5: the moral order of consumptionAppadurai, Arjun (1986): ‘Introduction: Commodities and the Politics of Value’, in: Arjun Appadurai (ed.): The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective,Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.3-63

Bauman, Zygmunt (1988): Freedom,Milton Keynes: Open University Press

Belk, Russell (2001): 'Materialism and You', in: Journal of Research for Consumers, No.1,  

Chevalier, Sophie (2014): 'Turning Commodities into Presents', in: Journal of Classical Sociology, Vol.14, No.1, pp.54-64  

Dant, Tim (2000): ‘Consumption Caught in the “Cash Nexus”, in: Sociology, Vol.34, No.4, pp.655-70

Douglas, Mary (1992): ‘In Defence of Shopping’. In: Pasi Falk/Colin Campbell (eds): The Shopping Experience,London: SAGE, pp.15-30

Foucault, Michel (1987): ‘The Ethic of Care for the Self as a Practice of Freedom – An Interview with Michel Foucault on January 20, 1984; conducted by Raúl Fornet-Betancourt, Helmut Becker, Alfredo Gomez-Müller, translated by J. D. Gautier, S.J.’, in: Philosophy & Social Criticism, Vol.12, pp.112-32

Hilton, Matthew (2003): Consumerism in Twentieth-Century Britain: The Search for a Historical Movement,Cambridge:CambridgeUniversity Press

Hilton, Matthew (2002): ‘The Fable of the Sheep, or, Private Virtues, Public Vices: The Consumer Revolution of the Twentieth Century’, in: Past and Present, No.174, pp.222-56

Hilton, Matthew (2001): ‘Consumer Politics in Post-war Britain’, in: Martin Daunton/Matthew Hilton (eds.): The Politics of Consumption: Material Culture and Citizenship in Europe and America,Oxford: Berg, pp.241-59.

Jennings, Laura/Brace-Govan, Jan (2014): 'Maternal Visibility at the Commodity Frontier: Weaving Love into Birthday Party Consumption', in: Journal of Consumer Culture, Vol.12, No.1, pp.88-112

Jubas, Keela (2007): ‘Conceptual Con/fusion in Democratic Societies: Understandings and Limitations of Consumer Citizenship’, in: in:Journal of Consumer Culture, Vol.7, No.2, pp.231-54.

Lichtenberg, Judith (1998): ‘Consuming Because Others Consume’, in: David A. Crocker/Toby Linden (eds.): Ethics of Consumption: The Good Life, Justice and Global Stewardship, Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, pp.155-75

Miller, Daniel (2001): The Poverty of Morality’, in: Journal of Consumer Culture, Vol.1, No.2, pp.225-43

Miller, Daniel (1998): A Theory of Shopping, Cambridge: Polity (ANT)

Miller, Peter/Rose, Nikolas (1997): ‘Mobilizing the Consumer: Assembling the Subject of Consumption

Radin, Margaret Jane (1996): Contested Commodities,Cambridge,Mass.:HarvardUniversity Press

Rose, Nikolas (1999): Governing the Soul,London: Free Association

Simmel, G. (1990) The Philosophy of Money.London: Routledge

Soper, Kate (2006): ‘Conceptualizing Needs in the Context of Consumer Politics’, in: Journal of Consumer Policy, Vol.29, pp.355-72

Trentmann, Frank (2007): ‘Citizenship and Consumption’ in: Journal of Consumer Culture, Vol.7, No.2, pp.147-58.

Varul, Matthias Zick (2013): ‘Towards a Consumerist Critique of Capitalism (Also a Socialist Defence of Consumer Culture)’, in:ephemera

Walzer, Michael (1983): Spheres of Justice,Oxford: Robertson, (ch.4: Money and Commodities)

Wilk, Richard (2001): ‘Consuming Morality’, in: Journal of Consumer Culture, Vol.1, No.2, pp.245-60.

Zelizer, Viviana A. (1994) The Social Meaning of Money.New York: Basic Books

Zelizer, Viviana A. (1989): ‘The Social Meaning of Money: “Special Monies”’, in: American Journal of Sociology, Vol.95, No.2, pp.342-77.

 

week 6: advertisingAuerbach, Jeffrey (2002): ‘Art, Advertising, and the Legacy of Empire’, in: Journal of Popular Culture, Vol.35, No.4, pp.1-23 (ANT)

Campbell, Colin (1997): ‘When Meaning is Not a Message. A Critique of the Consumption as Communication Thesis’. In: M. Nava, A. Blake, I.MacRury, B. Richards (eds.): Buy this Book. Studies in Advertising and Consumption, London: Routledge, pp.340-51.

Crockett, David (2008): ‘Marketing Blackness: How Advertisers Use Race to Sell Products’, in: Journal of Consumer Culture, Vol.8, No.2, pp.245-68.

Cronin, Anne M. (2004): Advertising Myths: The Strange Half-Life of Images and Commodities,London: Routledge

Ewen, Stuart (1976): Captains of Consciousness. Advertising and the Social Roots of Consumer Culture,New York: McGraw-Hill

Falk, Pasi (1997): 'The Benetton-Toscani Effect: Testing the Limits of Conventional Advertising', in: M. Nava, A. Blake, I.MacRury, B. Richards (eds.): Buy this Book. Studies in Advertising and Consumption, London: Routledge, pp.64-83

Giroux, Henry A. (1993): ‘Consuming Social Change: The “United Colors of Benetton”’, in: Cultural Critique, No.26, pp.5-32

Lears, T. J. J. (1983) ‘From Salvation to Self-Realization: Advertising and the Therapeutic Roots of the Consumer Culture, 1880-1930’, in R. W. Fox and T. J. Jackson Lears The Culture of Consumption: Critical Essays in American History, 1880-1980, pp.1-38.New York: Pantheon Books

Leiss, William/Kline, Stephen/Jhally, Sut (1997): Social Communication in Advertising: Persons, Products and Images of Well-Being,London: Routledge.

McFall, Liz (2002): ‘Advertising, Persuasion and the Culture/Economy Dualism’. In: Paul du Gay/Michael Pryke (eds): Cultural Economy. Cultural Analysis and Commercial Life,London: SAGE, pp.148-165

Mehaffy, M. M. (1997) ‘Advertising Race/Raceing Advertising: The Feminine Consumer(-Nation), 1876-1900’. Signs, 23 (1) 131-74

Nava, Mica (1997): ‘Framing Advertising. Cultural Analysis and the Incrimination of Visual Texts’. In: M. Nava, A. Blake, I. MacRury, B. Richards (eds): Buy this Book. Studies in Advertising and Consumption,London: Routledge, pp.34-50

Packard, Vance (1960): The Hidden Persuaders,London: Penguin.

Ramamurthy, Anand (2003): Imperial Persuaders. Images of Africa and Asia in British Advertising,Manchester:ManchesterUniversity Press

Tinic, Serra A. (1997): ‘United Colors and United Meanings: Benetton and the Commodification of Social Issues’, in: Journal of Communication, Vol.47, No.3, pp.3-25.                                                                                 

Wernick, Andrew (1991): Promotional Culture. Advertising, Ideology and Symbolic Expression.London: SAGE

Wernick, Andrew (1983): Advertising and Ideology: An Interpretative Framework’, in: Theory, Culture and Society, Vol.2, No.1, pp.16-33 (SOC)

Williamson, Judith (1991): Decoding Advertisement. Ideology and Meaning in Advertising,London/New York: Boyars

 

week 7: malls, mail-order, market squares: sites of consumptionBackes, Nancy (1997) ‘Reading the Shopping Mall’, in: Journal of Popular Culture, Vol.31, No.3, pp.1-17. (SOC)

Ballard, JG (2006): Kingdom Come (novel – don’t use as academic literature)

Bowlby, Rachel (2001): Carried Away: The Invention of Modern Shopping, New York: ColumbiaUniversity Press.

Brody, Alyson (2006): ‘The Cleaners You Aren’t Meant to See: Order, Hygiene and Everyday Politics in a Bangkok Shopping Mall’, in: Antipode, Vol.38, No.3, pp.534-56 (ANT)

Clarke, Alison J. (2001): 'The Aesthetics of Social Aspiration', in: Daniel Miller (ed.): Home Possessions: Material Culture behind Closed Doors, Oxford: Berg, pp.23-45

Clarke, Alison J. (2004): ‘Window Shopping at Home: Classifieds, Catalogues and New Consumer Skills’, in: Ash Amin/Nigel Thrift (eds.): The Blackwell Cultural Economy Reader,Oxford: Blackwell, pp.266-88

Conroy, Marianne (1998): ‘Discount Dreams: Factory Outlet Malls, Consumption, and the Performance of Middle-Class Identity’, in:Social Text, Vol.16, No.1, pp.63-83

Coopey, Richard (2005): Mail Order Retailing in Britain: A Business and Social History,Oxford:OxfordUniversity Press.

Crewe, Louise/Gregson, Nick (1998): ‘Tales of the Unexpected: Exploring Car Boot Sales as Marginal Spaces of Contemporary Consumption’, in: Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Vol.23, pp.39-53.

Currah, Andrew (2003): ‘The Virtual Geographies of Retail Display’, in: Journal of Consumer Culture, Vol.3, No.1, pp.5-37.

du Gay, Paul (1996): Consumption and Identity at Work,London: Sage.

Gregson, Nicky/Crewe, Louise/Brooks, Kate (2006): ‘Shopping, Space, and Practice’, in: Environment and Planning D, Vol.20, pp.597-617

Harper, Steven (2002): 'Zombies, Malls, and the Consumerism Debate', in: Americana, Vol.1, no.2  

Humphrey, Kim (1998): Shelf Life: Supermarkets and the Changing Cultures of Consumption,Cambridge:CambridgeUniversity Press.

Kelly, Marjorie (2003): ‘Seeking Authenticity in the Marketplace’, in: Journal of Popular Culture, , Vol.37, No.2, p.220-43

Matthews, Hugh (2000): ‘The Unacceptable Flaneur: The Shopping Mall as a Teenage Hangout’, in: Childhood, Vol.7, pp.279-94

Miller, Daniel (1998): Shopping, Place and Identity,London: Routledge

O’Guinn, Thomas/Belk, Russell W. (1989): ‘Heaven on Earth: Consumption at Heritage Village, USA’. In: Journal of Consumer Research, Vol.16, No.2, pp.227-38

Orwell, George (1936): Keep the Aspidistra Flying,London: Victor Gollancz (chapter one, Gordon Comstock in the bookstore)

Ritzer, George (1999): Enchanting a Disenchanted World: Revolutionizing the Means of Consumption,Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge

Shields, Rob (1992): ‘Spaces for the Subject of Consumption’, in: Rob Shields (ed): Lifestyle Shopping: The Subject of Consumption, London: Routledge, pp.1-20

Williams, Colin C. (2002): ‘Why Do People Use Alternative Retail Channels? Some Case-study Evidence from Two English Cities,’ in:Urban Studies, Vol.39, No.10, pp.1897-1910

Woodward, Ian/Emmison, Michael/Smith, Philip (2000): ‘Consumerism, Disorientation and Postmodern Space: A Modest Test of an Immodest Theory’, in: British Journal of Sociology, Vol.51, No.2, pp.339-54.

Williams, Peter/Hubbard, Phil/Clark, David/Berkley, Nigel (2001): ‘Consumption, Exclusion and Emotion: The Social Geographies of Shopping,’ in: Social and Cultural Geography, Vol.2, No.2, pp.203-20

Wright, David (2005): ‘Commodifying Respectability: Distinctions at Work in the Bookshop’, in : Journal of Consumer Culture, Vol.5, No.3, pp.295-314.

Zepp Jr., Ira G. (1997): The New Religious Image ofAmerica. The Shopping Mall asCeremonialCenter, Niwot: University Press ofColorado

 

week 8: foodAtkinson, Paul (1983): ‘Eating Virtue’. In: Anne Murcott (ed.): The Sociology of Food and Eating. Essays on the Sociological Significance of Food,Aldershot: Gower, pp.9-17

Beardsworth, Alan (1995): 'The Management of Food Ambivalence: Erosion or Reconstruction?'. In: D. Maurer/J.Sobal (eds):Eating Agendas. Food and Nutrition as Social Problems,New York: Aldine de Gruyter, pp.117-42.

Beardsworth, Alan/Keil, Theresa (1997): Society on the Menu. An Invitation to the Study of Food and Society,London: Routledge

Bell, David/Valentine, Gill (1997) Consuming Geographies: We Are Where We Eat,London: Routledge

Bestor, Theodore C. (2005): ‘How Sushi Went Global’, in: James L. Watson/Melissa L. Caldwell (eds): The Cultural Politics of Food and Eating,Oxford: Blackwell,pp.13-20

Caldwell, Melissa L. (2005): ‘Domesticating the French Fry: McDonald’s and Consumerism in Moscow’, in: James L. Watson/Melissa L. Caldwell (eds): The Cultural Politics of Food and Eating,Oxford: Blackwell,pp.180-96.

Domosh, Mona (2003): 'Pickles and Purity: Discourses of Food, Empire and Work in Turn-of-the-century USA' in: Social & Cultural Geography, Vol.4, No.1, pp.726

Douglas, Mary (1975): ‘Deciphering a Meal.’ In: Implicit Meanings. Essays in Anthropology, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, pp.249-75.

Falk, Pasi (1991): ‘Homo culinarius: Towards an Historical Anthropology of Taste’, in: Social Sciences Information, Vol.30, No.4, pp.757-90.

Falk, Pasi (1996): ‘Expelling Future Threats: Some Observations on the Magical World of Vitamins’. In: Stephen Edgell/Kevin Hetherington/Alan Woode (eds): Consumption Matters,Oxford: Blackwell, pp.183-203

Fiddes, Nick (1991): Meat: A Natural Symbol,London: Routledge

Finkelstein, Joanne (1989): Dining Out. A Sociology of Modern Manners,Cambridge: Polity Press

Fischler, Claude (1988): ‘Food, Self and Identity’, in: Social Science Information, Vol.27, pp.275-92

Gaudio, Rudolf P. (2003): ‘Coffeetalk: Starbucks™ and the Commercialization of Casual Conversation’, in: Language and Society, Vol.32, No.5, pp.659-91

Gusfield, Joseph R. (1992): ‘Nature’s Body and the Metaphors of Food’. In: Michèle Lamont/Marcel Fournier (eds): Cultivating Differences. Symbolic Boundaries and the Making of Inequality, Chicago/London:University ofChicago Press, pp.75-103

Guthman, Julie (2003): 'Fast Food/Organic Food: Reflexive Tastes and the Making of "Yuppie Chow"', in: Social & Cultural Geography, Vol.4, No.1, pp.45-58

Halkier, Bente (2001): ‘Consuming Ambivalences: Consumer Handling of Environmentally Related Risks in Food’, Journal of Consumer Culture, Vol.1, No.2, pp.205-224.

Harbottle, Lynn(1996): ‘Bastard Chicken or ghormeh-sabzi? Iranian Women Guarding the Health of the Migrant Family.’ In: Stephen Edgell/Kevin Hetherington/Alan Woode (eds): Consumption Matters,Oxford: Blackwell, pp.204-26

James, Allison (1996): 'Cooking the Books: Global or Local Identities in Contemporary British Food Cultures?', in: David Howes (ed.): Cross-Cultural Consumption, London: Routledge, pp.77-92

Lupton, Deborah (1996): Food, the Body and the Self, London: SAGE (SOC)

Lyons, James (2005): ‘ “Think Seattle, Act Globally”: Specialty Coffee, Commodity Biographies and the Promotion of Place’, in:Cultural Studies,Vol.19, No.1, pp.14-34.

Maurer, Donna (1995): ‘Meat as a Social Problem: Rhetorical Strategies in the Contemporary Vegetarian Literature’. In: D. Maurer/J. Sobal (eds): Eating Agendas. Food and Nutrition as Social Problems,New York: Aldine de Gruyter, pp.143-63.

Mennell, Stephen (1985): All Manners of Food. Eating and Taste in England and France from the Middle Ages to the Present,Oxford: Blackwell

Mennell, Stephen (1991): ‘On the Civilizing of Appetite’. In: Mike Featherstone/Mike Hepworth/Bryan S. Turner (eds): The Body. Social Process and Cultural Theory,London: SAGE, pp.126-56

Mintz, Sidney W. (1996): Tasting Food, Tasting Freedom. Excursions into Eating, Culture and the Past,Boston: Beacon.

Mintz, Sidney W. (1993): ‘The Changing Roles of Food in the Study of Consumption.’ In: John Brewer/Roy Porter (eds): Consumption and the World of Goods,London/New York: routledge, pp.261-73

Murcott, Anne (1983): ‘Cooking and the Cooked: a Note on the Domestic Preparation of Meals’. In: Anne Murcott (ed.): The Sociology of Food and Eating. Essays on the Sociological Significance of Food,Aldershot: Gower, pp.178-85

Opel, Andy (1999): ‘Constructing Purity: Bottled Water and the Commodification of Nature’, in: Journal of American Culture, Vol.22, No.4, pp.67-76

Rosebury, William (2005): ‘The Rise of Yuppie Coffees and the Reimagination of Class in the United States’, in: James L. Watson/Melissa L. Caldwell (eds): The Cultural Politics of Food and Eating,Oxford: Blackwell,pp.122-143

Turner, Bryan S. (1991): ‘The Discourse of Diet’. In: M. Featherstone, M. Hepworth, B.S. Turner (eds): The Body. Social Process and Cultural Theory,London: SAGE 1991, pp.157-69.

Valentine, Gill (1999): ‘Eating In: Home, Consumption and Identity’, in: Sociological Review, Vol.47, No.3, pp.491-524

Warde, Alan (1997): Consumption, Food and Taste. Culinary Antinomies and Commodity Culture,London: SAGE

Warde, Alan/Martens, Lydia(2000): Eating Out: Social Differentiation, Consumption, and Pleasure,Cambridge:CambridgeUniversity Press.

Watson, James L. (2005): ‘China’s Big Mac Attack’ in: James L. Watson/Melissa L. Caldwell (eds): The Cultural Politics of Food and Eating,Oxford: Blackwell,pp.70-79

Whit, William C. (1995): Food and Society. A Sociological Approach,New York: General Hall.

Whorton, James C. (1989): ‘Eating to Win. Popular Concepts of Diet, Strength, and Energy in the Early Twentieth Century’. In: Kathryn Grover (ed.): Fitness in American Culture. Images of Healt, Sport, and the Body,Amherst:University ofMassachusetts Press, pp.86-122

Wilk, Richard (2006): 'Bottled Water: The Pure Commodity in the Age of Branding', in: Journal of Consumer Culture, Vol.6, No.3, pp.303-25

Yan, Yunxiang (2005): ‘Of Hamburger and Social Space: Consuming McDonald’s in Beijing’, in: James L. Watson/Melissa L. Caldwell (eds): The Cultural Politics of Food and Eating,Oxford: Blackwell,pp.80-103

week 9: fashionArcher, Louise/Hollingwood, Sumi/Halsall, Anna (2007): ‘“University’s Not for Me – I’m a Nike Person”: Urban, Working-Class Young People’s Negotiations of “Style”, Identity and Educational Engagement’, in: Sociology, Vol.41, No.2, pp.219-38.

Barthes, Roland (1990): The Fashion System, Berkley: University of California Press

Başçı, Pelin (2004): ‘Advertising Modernity in Women’s World: Women’s Lifestyle and Leisure in Late-Ottoman Istanbul’, in: HAWWA, Vol.2, No.1, pp.34-63.

Brydon, Anne/Niessen, Sandra (eds.) (1998) Consuming Fashion: Adorning the Transnational Body, Oxford: Berg.

Comaroff, Jean (1996): ‘’The Empire’s Old Clothes: Fashioning the Colonial Subjects’, in: David Howes (ed.): Cross-Cultural Consumption, London: Routledge, pp.19-36.

Davis, Fred (1992): Fashion, Culture, and Identity, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Dwyer, C. and Jackson, P. (2003) ‘Commodifying Difference: Selling EASTern Fashion’. Environment and Planning D, 21 269-291.

Elliott, Richard/Davies, Andrea (2006): ‘Symbolic Brands and Authenticity of Identity Performance’, in: Jonathan Schroeder/Miriam Salzer-Mörling (eds.): Brand Culture, London: Routledge, pp.155-70.

Entwistle, Joanne/Mears, Ashley (2013): 'Gender on Display: Performativity in Fashion Modelling', in: Cultural Sociology, vol.7, No.3, pp.320-35

Entwistle, Joanne (2006): ‘The Field of Fashion Materialized: A Study of London Fashion Week’, in: Sociology, Vol.40, No.4, pp.735-51

Finkelstein, Joanne (1991): The Fashioned Self, Oxford: Polity Press.

Fung, Anthony (2002): ‘Women’s Magazines: Construction of Identities and Cultural Consumption in Hong Kong’, in: Consumption, Markets and Culture, Vol.5, No.2, pp.321-26

Galilee, John (2002): ‘Class Consumption: Understanding Middle-Class Young Men and Their Fashion Choices’, in: Men and Masculinities, Vol.5, No.1, pp.32-52

Gronow, Jukka (1993): ‘Taste and Fashion: The Social Function of Fashion and Style’ in: Acta Sociologica, Vol.36, pp.89-100.

Halnon, Karen Bettez (2002): ‘Poor Chic: The Rational Consumption of Poverty’, in: Current Sociology, Vol.50, No.4, pp.501-16.

Henkel, Heiko (2009): ‘Are Muslim Women in EuropeThreatening the Secular Public Sphere?’ (with responses from Thijl Sunier), in:Social Anthropology Vol.17, No.4, pp.471-9

Hewitt, Paolo (2008): The Soul Stylists: Six Decades of Modernism – From Mods to Casuals, Edinburgh: Mainstream.

Honeyman, Katrina (2003): ‘Style Monotony and the Business of Fashion: The Marketing of Menswear in Inter-war England’, in:Textile History, Vol.34, No.2, pp.171-91

McRobbie, Angela (ed.) (1988): Zoot Suits and Second Hand Fashion: An Anthology of Fashion and Music, Basingstoke: Macmillan.

Moors, Annelies (2009): ‘“Islamic Fashion” in Europe: Religious Conviction, Aesthetic Style, and Creative Consumption’, inencounters, No.1, pp.175-201

Miller, Daniel (2010): Stuff, Cambridge: Polity (chapter one: ‘Why Clothing is not Superficial’)

Rocamora, Agnes (2002): ‘Fields of Fashion: Critical Insights into Bourdieu’s Sociology of Culture’, in: Journal of Consumer Culture, Vol.2, No.3, pp.341-62

Sandıkçı, Özlem/Ger, Güliz (2006): ‘Aesthetics, Ethics and Politics of the Turkish Headscarf’ in: Susanne Küchler/Daniel Miller (eds):Clothing as Material Culture, Oxford: Berg, pp.61-82.

Simmel, Georg (1957): ‘Fashion’, in: American Journal of Sociology, Vol.62, No.6, pp.541-58. (SOC)

Tarlo, Emma (2007a): ‘Hijab in London: Metamorphosis, Resonance, and Effects’, in: Journal of Material Culture, Vol.12, No.2, pp.131-56.

Tarlo, Emma (2007b): ‘Islamic Cosmopolitanism: The Sartorial Biographies of Three Muslim Women in London’, in: Fashion Theory,Vol.11, No.2/3, pp.143-72.

Wissinger, Elizabeth (2009): ‘Modelling Consumption: Fashion Modelling Work in Contemporary Society’, in: Journal of Consumer Culture, Vol.9, No.2, pp.273-96.

Woodward, Sophie (2009): ‘The Myth of Street Style’, in: Fashion Theory, Vol.13, No.1, pp.83-102.

Woodward, Sophie (2005): ‘Looking Good: Feeling Right – Aesthetics of the Self’, in: Susanne Küchler/Daniel Miller (eds):Clothing as Material Culture, Oxford: Berg, pp.21-39 (ANT)

week 10: carsBarthes,  Roland (1993): MythologiesLondon: Vintage (chapter on the Citroën DS)

Böhm, Steffen (ed.) (2006): Against Automobility,Oxford: Blackwell.

Carrabine, Eamonn/Longhurst, Brian (2002): ‘Consuming the Car: Anticipation, Use and Meaning in Contemporary Youth Culture’, in:Sociological Review, Vol.50, No.2, pp.181-96

Dant, Tim (2004): ‘The Driver-Car’, in: Theory, Culture and Society, Vol.21, No.44/5, pp.61-79

Edensor, Tim (2004): ‘Automobility and National Identity: Representation, Geography and Driving Practice’, in: Theory, Culture and Society, Vol.21, No.44/5, pp.101-120

Gartman, David (2004): ‘Three Ages of the Automobile: The Cultural Logics of the Car’, in: Theory, Culture and Society, Vol.21, No.4/5, pp.169-95 (SOC)

Inglis, David (2004): ‘Auto Couture: Thinking the Car in Post-War France’, in: Theory, Culture and Society, Vol.21, No.4/5, pp.197-219.

Lupton, Deborah (1999): ‘Monsters in Metal Cocoons: “Road Rage” and Cyborg Bodies’, in: Body & Society, Vol.5, No.1, pp.57-72.

Miller, Daniel (ed.) (2001): Car Cultures,Oxford: Berg.

Muniz, Albert M./O’Guinn, Thomas (2001): ‘Brand Community’ in: Journal of Consumer Research, Vol.27, pp.412-32

Schultz, Jeremy (2006): ‘Vehicle of the Self: The Social and Cultural Work of the H2 Hummer’, in: Journal of Consumer Culture, Vol.6, No.1, pp.57-86

Sheller, Mimi (2004): ‘Automotive Emotions: Feeling the Car’, in: Theory, Culture and Society, Vol.21, No.4/5, pp.221-42 (ANT)

Taylor, Nigel (2003): ‘The Aesthetic Experience of Traffic in the ModernCity’, in: Urban Studies, Vol.40, No.8, pp.1609-25.

Urry, John (2004): ‘The “System” of Automobility’, in: Theory, Culture and Society, Vol.241, No.4/5, pp.25-39

Volti, Rudi (1996): ‘A Century of Automobility’, in: Technology and Culture, Vol.37, No.4, pp.663-85.

 

week 11: alternative consumption and anti-consumerismBarnett, Clive/Cloke, Paul/Clarke, Nick/Malpass, Alice (2005): ‘Consuming Ethics: Articulating the Subjects and Spaces of Ethical Consumption’, in: Antipode, Vol.37, No.1, pp.24-45

Bennett, W. Lance/Lagos, Taso (2007): ‘Logo Logic: The Ups and Downs of Branded Political Communication’, in: The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, No.611, pp.193-206.

Berlan, Amanda (2008): ‘Making or Marketing a Difference? An Anthropological Examination of the Marketing of Fair Trade Cocoa form Ghana’, in: Research in Economic Anthropology, Vol.28, pp.171-94. (ANT)

Bryant, Raymont L./Goodman, Michal K. (2004): ‘Consuming Narratives: the Political Ecology of “Alternative” Consumption’, in:Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series Vol.29, pp.344-66

Carducci, Vince (2006): ‘Culture Jamming: A Sociological Perspective’, in: Journal of Consumer Culture, Vol.6, No.1, pp.116-38

Etzioni, Amitai (1998): ‘Voluntary Simplicity: Characterization, Select Psychological Implications, and Societal Consequences’. In:Journal of Economic Psychology, Vol.19, pp.619-43

Frank, Dana (2003): ‘Where are the Workers in Consumer-Worker Alliances? Class Dynamics and the History of Consumer-Labor Campaigns’, in: Politics Society, Vol.31, No.3, pp.363-79

Gould, Nicholas J. (2003): ‘Fair Trade and the Consumer Interest: A Personal Account’ in: International Journal of Consumer Studies, Vol.27, No.4, pp.341-345

Guthman, Julie (2002): ‘Commodified Meanings, Meaningful Commodities: Re-thinking Production-Consumption Links through the Organic System of Provision’, in: Sociologia Ruralis, Vol.42, No.4, pp.295-311.

Harrison, Rob/Newholm, Terry/Shaw, Deirdre (eds.) (2005): The Ethical Consumer,London: SAGE

Heath, Joseph/Potter, Andrew (2005): The Rebel Sell: How the Counterculture became Consumer Culture,Chichester: Capstone

Hudson, Ian/Hudson, Mark (2003): ‘Removing the Veil? Commodity Fetishism, Fair Trade, and the Environment,’ in: Organization & Environment, Vol.16, No.4, pp.413-30

Jaffee, Daniel (2007): Brewing Justice: Fair Trade Coffee, Sustainability and Survival, Berkley: University of California Press.

Johnston, Josée (2002): ‘Consuming Global Justice: Fair Trade Shopping and Alternative Development’, in: James Goodman (ed.):Protest and Globalisation: Prospects for Transnational Solidarity,Annandale, NSW: Pluto PressAustralia, pp. 38-56

Kaplan, Caren (1995): ‘“A World without Boundaries”: The Body Shop’s Trans/National Geographics’, in: Social Text, No.43, pp.45-66

Klein, Naomi (1999) No Logo,New York:St Martin’s

Littler, Jo (2005) ‘Beyond the Boycott: Anti-consumerism, Cultural Change and the Limits of Reflexivity’. Cultural Studies, 19 (2) 227-252.

Littler, Jo (2008): Radical Consumption,

Lyon, Sarah (2006): ‘Evaluating Fair Trade Consumption: Politics, Defetishization and Producer Participation’, in: International Journal of Consumer Studies, Vol.30, No.5, pp.452-464

Micheletti, Michele (2003): Political Virtue and Shopping,New York: Palgrave.

Nicholls, Alex/Opal, Charlotte(2004): Fair Trade. Market-Driven Ethical Consumption,London: SAGE

Ramamurthy, Anandi (2012): 'Absences and Silences: The Representation of the Tea Picker in Colonial and Fair Trade Advertising', in: Visual Culture in Britain, Vol.13, No.3, pp.367-81

Shaw, Deirdre/Newholm, Terry (2002): ‘Voluntary Simplicity and the Ethics of Consumption’. In: Psychology and Marketing, Vol.19, No.2, pp.167-185.

Soper, Kate (2007): ‘Re-thinking the “Good Life”: The Citizenship Dimension of Consumer Disaffection with Consumerism’, in: Journal of Consumer Culture, Vol.7, No.2, pp.205-229

Trentmann, Frank (2007): ‘Before “Fairtrade”: Empire, Free Trade, and the Moral Economies of Food in the Modern World’, in:Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, Vol.25, pp.1079-1102

Varul, Matthias Zick (2009): ‘Ethical Consumption: The Case of Fair Trade’, in: Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie, SH.49, pp.366-385. (SOC)

Varul, Matthias Zick (2008): ‘Consuming the Campesino: Fair Trade Marketing between Recognition and Romantic Commodification’, in: Cultural Studies, Vol.23, No.5.

week 11/2: revision 

 

suggested essay questionsEither expand your seminar presentation to a 2000 words essay or write approximately 2000 on a topic of your own (consult lecturer if unsure) or write approximately 2000 words on one of the following topics:

 

1. Choose an artefact and analyse it explaining and applying one of the theoretical perspectives studied in weeks 2 to 5.

 2. Use a recent TV commercial or magazine advertising campaign to explain how advertising works.

 3. Contrast views of consumerism as a-moral with views of consumerism as a moral order.

 4. Analyse a specific site of consumption of your choice.

 5. Analyse a specific item of consumption from either of the following fields:

a) food

b) fashion

c) motorised vehicles

d) any other field you can think of

 6. Analyse a specific form of ethical consumerism (e.g. veganism, ethical clothing etc.)

 

You can now also write a report on a participant observation in retail – contact lecturer to talk about details