Module SOC2110 for 2021/2
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Undergraduate Module Descriptor
SOC2110: Consumption and Society
This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.
Module Aims
This module will provide you with an understanding of a distinctive characteristic of developed capitalist societies, namely the central role that consumption plays in the reproduction of social class and the construction of individual identities. The module will enable you to analyse and interpret the ways that consumption itself and the discourse of consumerism pervade all aspects of contemporary social life.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to: | |
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Module-Specific Skills | 1. Demonstrate competence in working with diverse theoretical and empirical approaches to consumerism; 2. Demonstrate knowledge of some of the recent developments in the world consumption from a sociological and/or social anthropological perspective; 3. Demonstrate a foundational understanding of how subjectivities are constructed through and performed in consumption; |
Discipline-Specific Skills | 4. Demonstrate an analytical understanding of Sociology and/or Anthropology, taking into account different sociological and anthropological perspectives, some modes of social analysis and some of their concomitant theoretical and conceptual frameworks; 5. Demonstrate a foundational ability to conceptualise social, cultural, psychological and personal issues in a specifically sociological and/or anthropological manner; |
Personal and Key Skills | 6. Develop and deploy argument, grounded in theoretical frameworks and empirical evidence; 7. Identify problems of reliability and bias in empirical evidence; 8. Demonstrate a capacity to focus on and comprehend complex texts, and identify problems of reliability in empirical evidence 9. Participate in oral discussions with growing confidence and competence; 10. Undertake independent research and capacity to work to deadlines; |
Indicative Reading List
This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.
Slater, Don (1997): Consumer Culture & Modernity, Cambridge: Polity Press.
McCracken, Grant (1988): Culture and Consumption. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Campbell, Colin (1987): The Romantic Ethic and the Spirit of Modern Consumerism. Oxford: Blackwell.
Miller, Daniel (1998): A Theory of Shopping, Cambridge: Polity.
Featherstone, Mike (1991): Consumer Culture and Postmodernism, London: Sage.