Introductory description

This is the core module in the second year of the the BA in Liberal Arts degree. Centred on interdisciplinary examinations of consumer capitalism, this module explores what it means to consume, what it means to be a consumer, and how practices of consumption are represented within, and actively create, contemporary cultures.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Theme 1: Creating Consumers
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Making the Masses: Cultures of Refinement
1.3 For the Masses: Production and Design
1.4 "Free" Time: Commodification and Leisure
1.5 Selling the Dream: Advertising
1.6 Reading Week
1.7 Eating the Other: Imperialism and Appropriation
1.8 Culture Industry: Give the People What They Want
1.9 Fitter, Happier, More Productive: Marketing Ourselves
1.10 Waste Not, Want Not: Luxury and Excess

Theme 2: The World Consumption Built
2.1 Spaces of Consumption
2.2 Ordinary Escapism: Supermarkets, Shops, and Malls
2.3 Extraordinary Escapism: Theme Parks and Festivals
2.4 Culture and Capital: Museums
2.5 Consuming the Past: Heritage
2.6 Reading Week
2.7 Social Strutures: Making Human Capital
2.8 Political Consumption: Neoliberalism
2.9 Around the World: Globalisation
2.10 Assessment Support

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• demonstrate an in-depth understanding of how consumerism shapes people, cultures, and societies 
• apply their understanding of consumer cultures to analyse a variety of 'texts', such as objects, spaces, systems, practices, and experiences
• mobilise a range of critical and theoretical perspectives to support and develop interpretations of consumer culture
• reflect on and evaluate interdisciplinary perspectives on consumer culture
• devise and produce their own independent research project on consumer cultures
• persuasively communicate ideas about, and understandings of, consumer cultures to different audiences

Indicative reading list

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Research element

• seminar preparation includes guided independent research
• all assessments involve research
• final assessment asks students to think holistically about the research process and make decisions about content, methodology and output; this acts as "light-touch" preparation for the final-year Liberal Arts dissertation

Interdisciplinary

This is a core module on the BA in Liberal Arts degree programmme, which centres on interdisciplinary learning.

This module is not subject-specific. Instead, it is issue-focused and draws from a range of disciplinary perspectives, including (but not limited to): cultural studies, sociology, history, geography, economics, marketing, philosophy, media studies, visual studies, and literary studies.

International

Theme 1: Creating Consumers is designed to position contemporary consumer culture in a broader cultural, historical, and geographic context, looking at patterns and systems of trade and cultural exchange across the globe from past to present.

Theme 2: The World Consumption Built looks at how practices of consumption homogenise local spaces into global (non)spaces, as well as how different global cultures are consumed through museums and tourism.

In addition to these specific points of focus and theorisation of internationalised consumer cultures, examples / case studies from a range of locations / cultures will be explored throughout the module.

Subject specific skills

As this is an interdisciplinary module, all skills are inherently transferable across academic and professional contexts, as detailed below.

Transferable skills

• independent research
• communication of knowledge and ideas
• constructing and supporting arguments
• critical and creative thinking
• collaborative working
• problem solving
• time management and organisation