Veidlapa Nr. M-3 (8)
Study Course Description

Anthropology of Consumption

Main Study Course Information

Course Code
KSK_006
Branch of Science
Media and communications
ECTS
3.00
Target Audience
Sociology
LQF
Level 7
Study Type And Form
Full-Time

Study Course Implementer

Course Supervisor
Structure Unit Manager
Structural Unit
Faculty of Social Sciences
Contacts

Dzirciema street 16, Rīga, szf@rsu.lv

About Study Course

Objective

Provide an overview of the main concepts of consumer anthropology (as a finer specialization of economic anthropology), offering insights into the anthropological perspective on everyday consumption habits and practices.

Preliminary Knowledge

Economic and Political Anthropology, Classical Anthropology Theories.

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge

1.Knowledge of the main principles of consumer anthropology, understanding of everyday consumption habits and practices in a global society.

Skills

1.The ability to analyze and understand consumption as an integral part of daily economic and political life.

Competences

1.Critically evaluate the theoretical and empirical material covered in this course, use it in interpreting and analyzing other theoretical and empirical materials, as well as apply it in solving practical problems and research.

Assessment

Individual work

Title
% from total grade
Grade
1.
Individual work
-
-
Students must independently master the required literature, prepare necessary written assignments and oral presentations. They independently prepare for seminars, visit the library, and utilize available digital resources to prepare for face-to-face classes. Specific tasks are updated annually and detailed on the e-study platform.

Examination

Title
% from total grade
Grade
1.
Examination
-
-
Reflective essays on seminar-assigned literature account for (45%) of the assessment; active participation in seminar discussions contributes (15%); and the written exam constitutes (40%) of the overall grade.
2.
Examination
-
-
Reflective essays on the literature assigned for seminars (45%); active participation in seminar discussions (15%); written exam (40%).

Study Course Theme Plan

FULL-TIME
Semester 1
  1. Introduction to Consumer Anthropology Issues. Consumption and Culture.

EventType
Modality
Location
Contact hours
1.
Lecture
On site
Auditorium
2
2.
Lecture
On site
Auditorium
2
  1. Consumption and Popularity in the 21st Century.

EventType
Modality
Location
Contact hours
1.
Class/Seminar
On site
Auditorium
2
2.
Class/Seminar
On site
Auditorium
2
  1. Directions and Methods of Consumption Research.

EventType
Modality
Location
Contact hours
1.
Lecture
On site
Auditorium
2
2.
Lecture
On site
Auditorium
2
  1. Economic Processes and Consumption.

EventType
Modality
Location
Contact hours
1.
Class/Seminar
On site
Auditorium
2
2.
Class/Seminar
On site
Auditorium
2
  1. Active and Conspicuous Consumption: The Individual and Materiality.

EventType
Modality
Location
Contact hours
1.
Lecture
On site
Auditorium
2
2.
Lecture
On site
Auditorium
2
  1. Conspicuous Consumption in the 21st Century.

EventType
Modality
Location
Contact hours
1.
Class/Seminar
On site
Auditorium
2
2.
Class/Seminar
On site
Auditorium
2
Total ECTS (Creditpoints):
3.00
Contact hours:
24 Academic Hours
Final Examination:
Exam (Written)

Bibliography

Required Reading

1.

Visa literatūra pieejama angļu valodā, tapēc paredzēta gan latviešu, gan angļu plūsmas studentiem

2.

Horvat, K. V. 2012. Memory, Citizenship, and Consumer Culture in Postsocialist Europe. In: U. Kockel, M. N. Craith, & J. Frykman (Eds.), A Companion to the Anthropology of Europe. P. 145–162.

3.

Rausing, S. 2002. Re-constructing the ‘ Normal’: Identity and the Consumption of Western Goods in Estonia. In book: Markets and Moralities

4.

Henrich, J., Boyd, R., Bowles, S., Camerer, C., Fehr, E., Gintis, H., & McElreath, R. 2001. In Search of Homo Economicus: Behavioral Experiments in 15 Small-Scale Societies. The American Economic Review, 91(2), 73-78.

5.

Cohn, A., Fehr, E., & Maréchal, M.A. 2014. Business culture and dishonesty in the banking industry. Nature, 516, 86-89.

6.

Xu, A. J., Schwarz, N., & Wyer, R. S. 2015. Hunger promotes acquisition of nonfood objects. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 112(9), 2688-2692.

7.

Robert Shiller. 2019. Narrative Economics: How Stories Go Viral and Drive Major Economic Events. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

8.

Hearn, A. 2008. Meat, Mask, Burden: Probing the contours of the branded `self. Journal of Consumer Culture, 8(2), 197–217.

9.

Lien, M. E. 2004. The Virtual Consumer: Constructions of Uncertainty in Marketing Discourse. 46–69.

10.

Ashley Mears. 2020. Very Important People: Status and Beauty in the Global Party Circuit. Princeton : Princeton University Press.

11.

Thompson, D. 2017. Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction (First Edition). Penguin Press.

12.

Davenport, T., Guha, A., Grewal, D., & Bressgott, T. 2020. How artificialintelligence will change the future of marketing. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 48(1), 24–42.

Additional Reading

1.

Appadurai, Arjun, ed. 1986. The social life of things. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

2.

Bloch, Maurice and Parry, Jonathan, eds. 1989. Money and the morality of exchange. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

3.

Howes, David, ed. 1996. Cross-cultural consumption. Global markets, local realities. London and New York: Routledge Mandel, Ruth and Humphrey, Caroline, eds. 2002.

4.

Markets and moralities: Ethnographies of postsocialism. Oxford: Berg Miller, David, ed. 1996

5.

Douglas, Mary, Isherwood, Baron 1996. The world of goods: Towards an anthropology of consumption. Oxford and New York: Routledge

6.

Plattner, Stuart, ed. 1989. Economic anthropology. Stanford: Stanford University Press

7.

Veblen, Thorstein. 2009. The Theory of the Leisure Class.

8.

Lange, A. 2022. Meet me by the fountain: An inside history of the mall. Bloomsbury Publishing.

9.

Pridmore, J., & Zwick, D. 2011. Editorial—Marketing and the Rise of Commercial Consumer Surveillance. Surveillance & Society, 8(3), 269–277.

10.

MacDonald, M., McDonald, M., & Wearing, S. 2013. Social psychology and theories of consumer culture: A political economy perspective. Routledge.

11.

Skidelsky, R. J. A., & Skidelsky, E. 2013. How much is enough? The love of money, and the case for the good life (Published with a new preface). Penguin Books.

12.

Acknowledging consumption. London and New York: Routledge

Other Information Sources

1.

The American Sociological Association section on Consumers and Consumption

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