Consumption and Consumerism in American Society: Past and Present 3301-KA2516
The course discusses issues of consumerism, consumption and materialism in the context of American society and the peculiar role these topics played in the culture of the nation. The first classes are devoted to the defining of these terms and their theoretical background. We will touch upon the theories of such researchers as Jean Baudrillard (consumer society), Pierre Bourdieu (distinction), Karl Marx (commodity fetishism), Thorstein Veblen (conspicuous consumption), Raymond Williams (his definition of the term consumer), Colin Campbell (Consumerism and hedonism).
After these initial classes the course will focus on how these topics developed since late colonial times until the present day. Various issues will be discussed, including the role of goods and services as status symbols (the home as a place of consumption, fashion, stock, but also less obvious elements such as eating habits), business and entrepreneurship and their role in society, the development of advertising and marketing, the development of retail.
Particular attention will be paid to the threshold moments in US history, such as the rapid industrialization of certain parts of the country after the Civil War, the New Deal and the various reactions to it, consumption as an ideological weapon during the cold war or the introduction of mass production.
You may miss up to three meetings. If you miss more, you should contact the course instructor as soon as possible to discuss your situation. Missing more meetings can result in failing the course.
Small electronic devices are not to be used during the class.
Type of course
Prerequisites (description)
Learning outcomes
Students have knowledge of various topics connected with consumption, consumerism and materialism, and the roles that these issues have played in society since the late colonial times until the present day, They understand how advertising functions and are capable of analyzing consumer behavior and understands its symbolic value.
Is capable of identifying cultural symbols and adapt cultural codes when interacting with people from other cultures, particularly English-speaking ones;
Gains knowledge pertaining to issues of geography, history, politics, economics, culture of English-speaking countries;
becomes conscious of the complexity and pluralism of culture as a system, basing it in cultural anthropology;
Is capable of interpreting, analyzing, establishing hierarchy and synthesizing phenomena in their linguistic, cultural, social, historical and economic aspects;
is conscious of the value of his/her knowledge and abilities in creating communal ties.
In class discussions students acquire skills of expressing their thoughts in a clear, coherent, logical and precise manner, with the use of language which is correct grammatically, lexically and phonetically.
Language training towards a B2+ level
Assessment criteria
In-class activity, oral exam.
Retake is in the form of an oral exam
Maximum number of absences: 3.
Bibliography
Appleby, Joyce. The Relentless Revolution: A History of Capitalism. Norton, 2010.
Barnum P. T., The Art of Money Making, or Golden Rules for Making Money. Public Domain.
Bauman, Zygmunt. Consuming Life. Cambridge: Polity, 2007.
Berger, Arthur Asa. Ads, Fads and Consumer Culture: Advertising's Impact on American Character and Society. Fourth Edition. Rowman and Littlefield, 2011.
Blaszczyk, Regina Lee. American Consumer Society, 1865-2005. From Hearth to HDTV. Wheeling, Illinois: Harlan Davidson, 2009.
Boorstin, Daniel J. The Americans: The National Experience. New York, Vintage: 1965
Boorstin, Daniel J. The Americans: The Democratic Experience. New York, Vintage: 1974
Breen, T.H. The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Cohen, Lizabeth. A Consumers’ Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America. New York: Vintage Books, 2008.
Cross, Gary. An All Consuming Century: Why Commercialism Won in Modern America. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000.
Featherstone, Mike. Consumer Society and Postmodernism. London: Sage, 1991.
Franklin, Benjamin. Autobiography. Part Two, in: Baym, Nina, et al. The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Vol. 1 New York, W.W. Norton& Company, 1998, p. 569-585.
Franklin, Benjamin. Franklin’s Way to Wealth, or Poor Richard Improved. London: W. and T. Darton, 1810.
Glickman, Lawrence B., ed. Consumer Society in American History: A Reader. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1999.
Larsen, John Lauritz. The Market Revolution in America: Liberty Ambition, and the Eclipse of the Common Good. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Leach, William. Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American Culture. Vintage, 1993.
Lee, Martyn J. The Consumer Society Reader. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, 2000.
Rimini, Robert V. The Jacksonian Era.
Ritzer, George. Classical Sociological Theory. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2000.
Sellers, Charles Grier. The Market Revolution: Jacksonian America, 1815-1846. Oxford, 1994.
Schor, Juliet B. and Douglas Holt. The Consumer Society Reader. New Press, 2000.
Weber, Max. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism and Other Writings. New York: Penguin Books, 2002.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: