COMMODITY CONSUMPTION AND THE FORMATION OF CONSUMER CULTURE

COMMODITY CONSUMPTION AND THE FORMATION OF CONSUMER
CULTURE
ANTH 277 / FGSS 278
TUESDAY / THURSDAY 10.30 – 11.50AM
ROOM: FISK 210
Fall 2012
Professor Sarah Croucher
Email: scroucher@wesleyan.edu
x 4489
Office hours: Wed 2-4pm or by
appointment (ANTH 26)
Professor Betsy Traube
Email: etraube@wesleyan.edu
x 3066
Office hours: Thurs 3:30-5:30pm or by
appointment (ANTH 1)
Course Description
In all societies goods have symbolic as well material uses, but what is variously known as
“consumer culture”, “commodity culture”, or “the culture of consumption” is associated with the
expansion of commodity production and the capitalist economy. Otherwise put, all people
consume goods and convey meaning through their consumption practices, but individuals have
only recently, and unevenly, learned to define themselves as consumers and to experience
commodity consumption as central to the formation and expression of identities. The
periodization of consumer culture remains a contested issue. Some analysts reserve the term for
the increasingly segmented markets that began to be produced in Euro-American societies over
the latter part of the twentieth century, while others have backdated its origins to the early
modern period. In this course we take the latter approach and begin with changes in workingclass and middle-class consumption habits over the 18th century as people began consuming
new goods, some produced domestically and others in the colonies. Rather than a close,
detailed historical account of particular cases, we will present a series of thematically focused
reflections centered on particular moments in the development of consumer culture in the UK
and the US; we also look at issues in the globalization of consumer goods in several
“developing” nations. Throughout, we emphasize the role of things in connecting people
separated by distance, time, interests, and resources. We call attention to: relations between
production and consumption; the trajectories or “social lives” of things-in-motion; the multiple
forms of value they may carry; the roles of producers and consumers in giving meaning and
value to things; the different social positions from which people confront the “world of goods”
and the ways in which they incorporate particular goods into their everyday lives; inequalities
in access to consumer goods, as well as the diverse styles and identities created through
consumption.
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All readings are available on Moodle: there are no assigned books for this class. Please
check Moodle regularly for readings; if there is a change in relation to the syllabus, the Moodle
version will be the correct version.
Assessment:
» Class presentation (10 -15 minutes, in small groups), Thursday September 27 (worth
5% of grade)
» One 3 page short paper, due Friday October 12, 5pm (worth 20% of grade)
» One 2 page reading response paper, due Tuesday October 30, 9.30am (worth 10% of
grade)
» Participation in class debates (including preparation), Thursday December 6 (worth 5%
of grade)
» Research paper outline including annotated bibliography, 2-3 pages, due Tuesday
November 20, 5pm (worth 10% of final grade)
» Final research paper based on consumption practices (9-12 pages), due Wednesday
December 14 (worth 50% of final grade)
We have included several small items that encourage active and thoughtful participation
through the semester, and a research project which we would encourage you to think about
early in the semester. Class attendance will be taken into account and active, thoughtful
participation may count positively towards final grades.
Both of us are sympathetic towards those who may require extensions on written work.
However, all extensions must be authorized and arrangements should be made with us well in
advance of the deadline.
Missing in-class assessed work (presentations and debates) will require an email (prior to the
class) from your dean to let us know that you cannot attend because of illness or for other
reasons. We will expect some form of equivalent written work to make up any missed in-class
assessment.
Optional fieldtrip to Whole Foods: Two different times are available for this trip (Friday
October 12 and Wednesday October 17). Please sign up early to ensure your spot in the trip
which best suits your timetable. We would strongly encourage you to participate in these trips.
They will help you to think about viewing consumer culture through an ethnographic lens as
you begin to develop your final projects. We have also been promised some free samples during
the tours as an extra incentive to attend.
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Please read Moodle for our full policy on laptop computers. We encourage their use as an
aid for class work. However, we request that they are not used in the back three rows of the
classroom, and that you do not use your computer for email, Facebook, or similar applications
during class. We find that following these guidelines helps those who use laptops in class to
stay more focused.
Disability Policy
It is the policy of Wesleyan University to provide reasonable accommodations to students with
documented disabilities. Students, however, are responsible for registering with Disabilities
Services, in addition to making requests known to me in a timely manner. If you require
accommodations in this class, please make an appointment with one of us soon as possible (by
preference during the first two weeks of the semester), so that appropriate arrangements can be
made. The procedures for registering with Disabilities Services can be found at
http://www.wesleyan.edu/studentaffairs/disabilities/studentguide.html.
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Class Schedule and Readings:
Tuesday September 4
Introduction; no assigned reading
Capitalism and Commodities: A Brief History
Thursday September 6
Fulcher, James. 2004. Capitalism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford, OUP. Pp. 1-9 & 19-26
Mintz, Sidney W. 1985. Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History. New York,
Penguin. Chapter 2: ‘Production.’ Pp. 19 - 72
Tuesday September 11
Marx, K. 1976. Capital, Volume 1. ‘The Fetishism of the Commodity and its Secret.’ Pp163 – 177
Harvey, D. 2010. A Companion to Marx’s Capital. Pp. 38-47.
Consumers: The Romantic Origins of Modern Consumerism
Thursday September 13
Campbell, C. 1983. Romanticism and The Consumer Ethic: Intimations of a Weber-Style
Thesis. Sociological Analysis 44(4): 279-296. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3711611
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Gift/Commodity: Entangled Transactions
Tuesday September 18
Appadurai, A. 1987. Introduction: Commodities and the Politics of Value. In Appadurai, A
(Ed.), The Social Life of Things.
Carrier. J. 1991. Gifts, Commodities, and Social Relations: A Maussian View of Exchange.
Sociological Forum 6(1): 119-136.
Thursday September 20
Thomas, N. 1991. Entangled Objects: Exchange, Material Culture, and Colonialism in the Pacific,
Chapter 3 (The Indigenous Appropriation of European Things)
Herrmann, G.M. 1997. Gift or Commodity: What Changes hands in the U.S. Garage Sale?
American Ethnologist 24(4): 910-930.
Commodification of Intimate Life
Tuesday September 25
Hochschild, A. 2012. The Outsourced Self: Intimate Life in Market Times. Chapter 1 (You Have
Three Seconds), Chapter 4 (“Our Baby, Her Womb), & Chapter 5 (Her Baby, Our Womb)
Gupta, J. A. 2012. Reproductive Biocrossings: Indian Egg Donors and Surrogates in the
Globalized Fertility Market. International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics 5(1): 25-51.
[Concentrate on pp. 31-44]
Thursday September 27
Class presentations, readings TBA
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Advertising, Branding, and Media in Capitalist Modernity
Tuesday October 2
Ohmann, R. 1996. Selling Culture: Magazines, Markets, and Class at the Turn of the Century,
Chapter 6 (Advertising: New Practices, New Relations) & Chapter 8 (The Discourse of
Advertising).
The Modern Girl Around the World Research Group (Weinbaum et al.). 2008. The Modern
Girl Around the World: Cosmetics Advertising and the Politics of Race and Style. In
Weinbaum, et al. The Modern Girl Around the World.
Thursday October 4
Curtin, M., and Shattuc, J. 2008. The American Television Industry, Chapter 2 (Audiences and
Advertising).
Shopping Spaces: Department Stores and Malls
Tuesday October 9
Laermans, R. 1993. Learning to Consume: Early Department Stores and the Shaping of the
Modern Consumer Culture (1860-1914). Theory, Culture & Society 10: 79-102.
Bowlby, R. 2001. Carried Away: The Invention of Modern Shopping. Chapter 4 (The Passer-By and
the Shop Window)
Thursday October 11
Cohen, L. 1996. From Town Center to Shopping Center: The Reconfiguration of Community
Marketplaces in Postwar America. The American Historical Review 101(4): 1050-1081.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/view/2169634
Chin, E. Purchasing Power: Black Kids and American Consumer Culture. Chapter 4 (“Hemmed In
and Shut Out”)
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Supermarkets
Whole Foods Fieldtrip option I: Friday October 12 : Recommended reading, Johnston (see
below)
Tuesday October 16 FALL BREAK, no class
Whole Foods Fieldtrip option II: Wednesday October 17 : Recommended reading, Johnston
(see below)
Thursday October 18
Bowlby, R. 2001. Carried Away: The Invention of Modern Shopping. Chapter 9 (The Jungle and
Other Post-War Supermarkets) & Chapter 12 (The Deviant, The Checkout, and the Future).
Johnston, J. 2007. The Citizen-Consumer Hybrid: Ideological Tensions and the Case of Whole
Foods Market. Theoretical Sociology 37: 229-270. [Concentrate on pp. 248 – 261]
Taste, Class, and Lifestyle
Tuesday October 23
Bourdieu, P. 1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. Chapter 3 (The Habitus
and the Space of Life Styles)
Recommended:
Bennett, T., Emmison, M., and J. Frow. 1999. Accounting for Tastes: Australian Everyday Cultures.
Chapter 5 (Care of the Body, Care of the Self)
Thursday October 25
Johnston, J. & Baumann, S. 2010, Foodies: Democracy and Distinction in the Gourmet Foodscapes.
Chapter 2 (Eating Authenticity) & Chapter 3 (The Culinary Other: Seeking Exoticism)
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Ethical Consumption: The Case of Coffee
Tuesday October 30
Roseberry, W. 1996. The Rise of Yuppie Coffees and the Reimagination of Class in the United
States. American Anthropologist 98(4): 762-775.
Two page reading response due by 9.30am
Thursday November 1
West, P. 2012. From Modern Production to Imagined Primitive: The Social world of Coffee from
Papua New Guinea. Durham: Duke University Press. Chapter 7 (International Coffee)
Sassatelli, R. 2007. Consumer Culture: History, Theory, and Politics. ‘Alternative Consumption and
Social Movements,’ Pp. 182 - 189
Style and Identity: How Clothes Make Men
Tuesday November 6
Peiss, K. 2011. Zoot Suit: The Enigmatic Career of an Extreme Style. Chapter 1 (Making the Suit
Zoot) & Chapter 2 (Going to Extremes)
Moss, M. 2011. The Media and Modes of Masculinity. Chapter 3 (Masculine Adornment)
Thursday November 8
Guest Lecturer: Nikko Misko Lencek-Inagaki (Wesleyan 2007)
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Style and Identity: Refashioning Bodies
Tuesday November 13
Weber, B. 2009. Makeover TV: Selfhood, Citizenship and Celebrity. Chapter 1 ("Makeover
Nation")
Thursday November 15
Edmonds, A. 2010. Pretty Modern: Beauty, Sex and Plastic Surgery in Brazil. Part 3 (Engineering
the Erotic)
Global Consumers
Tuesday November 20
Hansen, K.T. 2000. Salaula: The World of Secondhand Clothing and Zambia. Chapter 7 (Clothing
Retail Practices) & Chapter 8 (The Work of Consumption).
Hand in paper outline
Thursday November 22 THANKSGIVING BREAK
Bodies for Sale
Tuesday November 27
Wacquant, L. 2001. Whores, Slaves and Stallions: Languages of Exploitation and
Accommodation among Boxers. Body and Society 7(2-3): 181-194.
Moss, M. 2011, The Media and the Modes of Masculinity. Chapter 10 (Sports and Media Culture)
Thursday November 29
Scheper-Hughes, N. 2001. Bodies for Sale: Whole – or in Parts? Body and Society 7(2-3): 1-8.
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Class Debates
Tuesday December 4
Preparation session, Readings TBA
Thursday December 6
In-Class Debates
Final Research Paper, due Wednesday December 14, 5pm
http://500px.com/photo/6702392
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