Consumer culture

The course aims to provide students with a theoretical and conceptual toolkit to critically understand the historical roots, sociological aspects, and political implications of consumption, with a focus on contemporary and digital consumer cultures.
The course is composed of three main parts. The first one looks at the historical development of consumer societies, also focusing on the recent and widespread datafication of consumption and platformization of markets. The second part covers sociological theories on taste, consumer identities, consumption collectives, consumer imaginaries, and resistance. The third part deals with three major debates about the ethical and political implications of contemporary consumer cultures: a) the ethics of marketing in the age of surveillance capitalism; b) consumption and the reproduction of social inequalities; c) consumer culture and environmental challenges. Students will work both individually and in groups in order to analyze and discuss empirical cases of consumption practices and lifestyles, thus developing capacities of critical reading and writing, as well as oral presentation and teamwork.

The expected learning outcomes relate to the development of the ability to: illustrate and critically discuss the history and political implications of consumer culture and consumer society; describe and explain key sociological theories regarding the social roots, social uses, and digitalization of consumption; produce research essays and team presentations that analyze real-life consumer cultures in a sociologically sound and methodologically rigorous way; apply the acquired knowledge to design, implement, and critically assess communication strategies within public, corporate, and political organizations