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Sociology 021, Spring 2006
Instructor: Professor Juliet Schor
Throughout the 20th, and now the 21st century, consumerism has increasingly
come to dominate American society. Shopping, buying, having, showing
and wearing are central aspects of who we are, who we dream of being,
how we interact with each other, and how we affect the larger environment.
Shop 'Til You Drop: The Question of Consumer Society is an overview
of contemporary consumer society. It draws on classic sociological texts,
as well as recent writings about consumer society. It is interdisciplinary,
also using material from economics, history and anthropology. It presents
many of the key issues and controversies surrounding consumerism by
providing opposite points of view and asking students to make up their
own minds about issues.
Written requirements are
a midterm exam (20%), six two-page papers (15%), a 5 page paper (15%),
a final examination (30%) and participation in weekly sections (20%).
Assignments and discussion questions are posted on the course website.
There will also be an opportunity to engage in a campus project connected
to the themes of the course.
The books listed below are
available at the BC Bookstore. All books have been put on reserve at
O'Neill Library. If an article on the syllabus is not in Schor and Holt,
it will typically be on the class website or available on-line. A few
articles may be provided at the reserve desk in O'Neill Library.
Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed (Metropolitan Books 2002).
Carl McDaniel and John Gowdy, Paradise for Sale: A Parable of Nature
(University of California 2ooo).
John C. Ryan and Alan Durning, Stuff: The Secret Lives of Everyday Things
(Northwest Environment Watch 1997).
Juliet Schor and Douglas Holt, The Consumer Society Reader (New Press
2000).
James Twitchell, Lead Us Into Temptation (Columbia 1999).
Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class (Dover 1994).
Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction:
A Theory of the Social Judgement of Taste (Harvard 1984).
Academic Integrity and Plagiarism Policy: I take cheating and plagiarism
extremely seriously. I have appended portions of the University's academic
integrity statement to this syllabus. You are responsible for knowing
what that policy is, and how cheating and plagiarism are defined.
I. Introduction to Consumer Society: Materialism and Happiness (January
18, 23)
James Twitchell, Lead Us Into Temptation, Introduction, pp. 1-17.
Patricia Dalton, "We've Gotta Have It, But We Don't Need It, and
It's Consuming Us," Washington Post Outlook, November 28, 2004,
Page B01.
Juliet Schor and Douglas Holt, "Introduction," in Schor and
Holt, pp. vii-xxiii.
Tim Kasser, The High Price of Materialism, (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press)
2002, chs. 1-2, pp. 1-22.
John C. Ryan and Alan Durning, Stuff: The Secret Lives of Everyday Things.
II. Consumption and the Reproduction of Class Inequality (January 25,
3o, February 1)
Film: People Like Us (January 25)
Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class, chs 2, 4, 5.
Murray Milner, Jr., Freaks, Geeks and Cool Kids (New York: Routledge)
2004, ch. 3, pp. 39-80.
Pierre Bourdieu, "The Sense of Distinction," in Schor and
Holt, pp. 205-211. Douglas Holt, "Does Cultural Capital Structure
American Consumption?" in Schor and Holt, pp. 212-253.
Jim Twitchell, Lead Us Into Temptation, pp. 17-49.
Recommended: Juliet B. Schor, The Overspent American, chs, 1-3.
Extra credit reading: Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique
of the Judgement of Taste, chs 2,5, plus additional pages, pp. 1-17,
99-175, 260-317
III. Critiques of Mass Culture: Consumption as Manipulation
A. Corporations Create Demand (February 6,8)
Theodore Adorno and Max Horkheimer, "The Culture Industry: Enlightenment
as Mass Deception," in Schor and Holt, pp. 3-19.
John Kenneth Galbraith, "The Dependence Effect," in Schor
and Holt, pp. 20-25.
Douglas Holt, "Why Do Brands Matter? A Dialectical Theory of Consumer
Culture and Branding," Journal of Consumer Research 29(1):70-90,
June 2002.
B. Contemporary Advertising (February 13,15)
Robert Goldman and Steve Papson, "Advertising in the Age of Accelerated
Meaning," in Schor and Holt, pp. 81-98 and Sign Wars: The Cluttered
Landscape of Advertising, (New York: Guilford Press 1996), ch 1, pp.
20-54.
Thomas Frank, "Advertising as Cultural Criticism," in Schor
and Holt, pp. 374-394.
Jim Twitchell, Lead Us Into Temptation, ch 5, pp. 159-196.
Douglas Holt, "Brands as Icons," Harvard Business Review,
March 2003.
Recommended: Jean Baudrillard, "On the Ideological Genesis of
Needs," in Schor and Holt, pp. 57-80.
IV. The Active Consumer (February 20, 22)
Jim Twitchell, Lead Us Into Temptation, chs, 1, 7, 8 pp. 17-49, 233-286.
Michael Schudson, "Delectable Materialism: Were the Critics of
Consumer Culture Wrong All Along?" The American Prospect, Spring
1991:26-35.
Thomas O'Guinn, "Touching Greatness: The Central Midwest Barry
Manilow Fan Club," in Schor and Holt, pp. 156-169.
V. Consumption and the Construction of Identity-Race and Gender
A. Gender (February 27)
William R. Leach, "Transformations in a Culture of Consumption:
Women and Department Stores, 1890-1925," Journal of American History
1(2):319-342 Sept 1984.
Betty Friedan, "The Sexual Sell," in Schor and Holt, pp. 26-46.
Ellen Seiter, Sold Separately: Parents and Children in Consumer Culture,
(New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press) 1995, ch 5., pp. 115-144.
Janice Radway, "Reading the Romance," in Schor and Holt, pp.
170-186.
MIDTERM EXAM, In class (March 1)
Special AEF Lecture, March 13, Susan McManama Gianinno, Chairman &
CEO, Publicis North America
B. Race (March 15, 20)
Bridget T. Hennigan, Whitewashing America: Material Culture and Race
in the Antebellum Imagination (Mississippi 2004), chs. 1-2, pp. 3-43
Sharon Zukin, Point of Purchase (New York: Routledge 2004), ch 6, pp.
145-167.
Alex Kotlowitz, "False Connections," Schor and Holt, pp. 251-256.
bell hooks, "Eating the Other," in Schor and Holt, pp., 343-359.
VI. Topics in Contemporary Consumer Culture
A. The Commodified Self-body and beauty (March 22, 27)
Kathy Peiss, "Making Up, Making Over" in Victoria de Grazia
The Sex of Things, (Berkeley: University of California Press) 1996,
pp. 311-336.
Susan Bordo, "Introduction" and "Braveheart, Babe and
the Contemporary Body," in Twilight Zones: The Hidden Life of Cultural
Images from Plato to O.J., (Berkeley: University of California Press)
1997, pp. 1-65.
B. Fashion (March 29)
April Witt, "Acquiring Minds: Inside America's All-Consuming Passion,"
The Washington Post, December 14, 2003, page W14.
Malcolm Gladwell, "The Coolhunt," in Schor and Holt, pp. 360-374.
Twitchell, ch. 6.
Ehrenreich, pp.
Online reading assignment: National Labor Committee website nlcnet.org
Juliet Schor, "Cleaning the Closet: Toward a New Ethic of Fashion,"
in Juliet Schor and Betsy Taylor, Sustainable Planet: Solutions for
the 21st Century (Boston: Beacon Press).
Recommended: Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the
Judgement of Taste, pp. 177-225.
Georg Simmel, "On Fashion," American Journal of Sociology
62:54-58, 1957.
C. Romance and its Commodities (April 3,5)
Janice Radway, "Reading the Romance," in Schor and Holt, pp.
170-186.
Cele C. Otnes and Elizabeth H. Pleck, Cinderella Dreams: The Allure
of the Lavish Wedding (Berkeley: University of California Press), 2003,
chs 2, 5, pp. 25-54, 105-133.
Jane Perlez and Kirk Johnson, "The Cost of Gold," The New
York Times, Monday 24 October 2005, A1.
Film: The Curse of Inca Gold (April 5)
D. From Slow to Fast-the commodification of food (April 10,12, 19)
Susan Bordo, "Hunger as Ideology," in Schor and Holt, pp.
99-114.
Marion Nestle, Food Politics (Berkeley: University of California Press)
2002, ch. 1, pp. 1-28.
Twitchell, Lead Us Into Temptation, ch 4.
Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed, chs.
Frances Moore Lappé and Anna Lappé, Hope's Edge: The Next
Diet for a Small Planet (New York: Putnam) 2001, chs. 1-2, pp.13-62,
TBA
VII. Beyond Consumerism
A. Ecological Perspectives (April 24, 26)
Carl McDaniel and John Gowdy, Paradise for Sale: A Parable of Nature.
B. Culture Change and Activism (May 3, 5)
Kalle Lasn, "Culture Jamming," Schor and Holt pp. 412-430.
Juliet B. Schor, The Overspent American, ch 5-6.
Judy Wicks,
Online reading assignment:
adbusters.org,
newdream.org
Sociology 021 and the Core Curriculum
Sociology 021 is a part of the Core Curriculum in Sociology. As such
it is designed to address a range of intellectual issues, using a variety
of methodologies, and to engage students in particular ways. These are
discussed below.
a) The long-standing questions. Sociology, and intellectual inquiry
more generally, have long been preoccupied with a set of big questions.
These include the debate over biological versus sociological causality,
how cultures and societies evolve, the nature of human agency and its
relation to social structures, what constitutes progress and what are
the contemporary possibilities for realizing it. This course addresses
these, and other similar issues. For example, we will explore whether
the highly acquisitive and consumerist society which has evolved in
the United States is a product of "human nature," or social
design. We look at the extent to which consumer desire is "produced"
by advertising and marketing, or whether it is driven by social competition,
or whether it is innate. Our readings delve into the origin of consumer
society, and how it evolved from an environment of saving and austerity.
We investigate the debate about the spread of Western consumer culture
to other societies, and debate the pros and cons of that transformation.
b) Cultural diversity. This course also considers at consumer society
from the point of view of cultural diversity, looking at how class,
race, gender, and nation are structured and reproduced by consumer society.
These distinctions are absolutely central to the operation of U.S. consumer
society. We look at how racial stereotypes and images have become integral
to contemporary marketing practices, and how at the same time, the consumer
ideology supports a color-blind veneer. We explore the changing relationship
between gender and consumer capitalism, and how class has been a persistent
feature of this society since the beginning.
c) Historical perspective. Throughout the course, a historical perspective
is included. The course begins with an exploration of the origins of
consumer society in the early 20th century. It goes on to consider the
1950s and 60s, another key period, and ends with discussion of contemporary
trends.
d) Methodology. Students are exposed to a variety of methodological
approaches and tools. Much of the course is organized around debates
(structure versus agency in consumer desire, pros and cons of globalization,
etc.) By looking at a variety of points of view we are able to assess
the relative strengths and weaknesses of various methods of analysis.
e) Writing component. The course requires not only reading, but also
considerable writing. In addition to a mid-term and a final examination
which are mainly essay format, students write bi-weekly "diary
essays" which incorporate readings and personal experience.
f) Creating a personal philosophy. Every one of us is a participant
our consumer society. Not all of consume consciously, however. A major
objective of this course is to get students to think critically and
consciously about consumer society and their place in it. Students are
forced to reflect on how they consume, how their consumption affects
others, the environment, and themselves.
Juliet Schor
Copyright © 2006. All rights reserved.
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