HR929-7-SP-CO:
The Making of Consumer Culture: Britain 1780-1960
PLEASE NOTE: This module is inactive. Visit the Module Directory to view modules and variants offered during the current academic year.
2023/24
Philosophical, Historical and Interdisciplinary Studies (School of)
Colchester Campus
Spring
Postgraduate: Level 7
Inactive
Monday 15 January 2024
Friday 22 March 2024
20
30 January 2020
Requisites for this module
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Until very recently the social history of consumption was virtually ignored by professional historians. It was only during the 1980s - a decade which witnessed the celebration and deification of the consumer - that this subject began to attract serious scholarly attention.
Adopting an interdisciplinary approach and employing a variety of primary as well as secondary source material (film and advertisements as well as written texts) this module explores both the origins and development of the 'consumer society' and also what is meant by that term.
The aim of the module is to give the student a better understanding of the changes in the sphere of consumption in Britain between the late eighteenth and the mid twentieth centuries although the experience of other countries (particularly France and the USA) will be used where appropriate for purposes of comparison.
By the end of the module you should have come to understand various theories of consumption from the mid nineteenth century to the present, particularly the work of Veblen, Marx, Simmel, Benjamin and Baudrillard.
General Reading List:
Adorno, T. and Hockheimer, M. Dialectics of Enlightenment (1945)
Aglietta, A. A Theory of Capitalist Regulations. The US Experience (1979)
Appadurai, A. (ed.) The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective (1986)
1 x 2 hour seminar per week
This module does not appear to have a published bibliography for this year.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
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Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Professor Peter Gurney
Graduate Administrator, Department of History, Telephone: 01206 872190
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No external examiner information available for this module.
Available via Moodle
Of 20 hours, 20 (100%) hours available to students:
0 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s).
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