LFU:online

Through independent self-study students acquire a deeper understanding of the relations between theory and empirical, qualitative research in the field of cultural sociology and in the field of specialization covered in the course.

The seminar delves more deeply into the topics covered in the lectures (VO Lebenswelt 2) through independent study and various formats of discussion. Topics:

Sociological and historical perspectives on consumer culture and consumer society

SE 1: Introduction

SE 2: Film + Discussion: Consumerism or consumption necessities?

Configurations of the modern consumer

SE 3: Geneaology of the consumer

Ecological crisis, (post-)growth, consumption and sustainability

SE 4: The problematization of consumption in sustainability discourse

Social dynamics of consumption

SE 5: Ecological impacts of (in-)conspicuous consumption

Material culture and consumption rituals

SE 6: Consumption and the objectification of culture

Consumption and identity

SE 7: Artefacts, affects and identity

Practices and routines

SE 8: Practice-theories and consumption

SE 9: The dynamics of the change of practices

The change of things and the change of practices

SE 10: Innovation and ‘transition’

‘Therapies’ of consumer culture: efficiency, consistency, sufficiency

SE 11: ‚Sustainable consumption and political governance

SE 12: Rebound-effects of consumption regulation

Alternative modes of everyday provision

SE 13: Potential and limits of cooperative and community-oriented everyday provisioning

From anti-consumerist moralizing towards the critical analysis of consumption

SE 14: Final discussion

Discussion, group work, inputs by students

seminar input, handout, written seminar paper

Indicative titles (full list provided at the beginning of the course):

Trentmann, Frank (2006): The modern genealogy of the consumer: Meanings: identities and political synapses. In: Brewer, John, Trentmann, Frank (eds.): Consuming Cultures, Global Perspectives. Historical Trajectories, Transnational Exchanges. Oxford: Berg: 19-69.

Jackson, Tim (2011): The ‘iron cage’ of consumerism. In ders.: Prosperity Without Growth. Economics for a Finite Planet. London, Washington: Earthscan, 87-102.

Miller, Daniel (2008): The Comfort of Things [dt.: Der Trost der Dinge]. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Belk, Russell W. (1988): Possessions and the Extended Self. Journal of Consumer Research 15: 139-168.

Hand, Martin, Shove, Elizabeth, Southerton, Dale (2005): Explaining showering: a discussion of the material, conventional, and temporal dimensions of practice. Sociological Research Online 10 (2): http://www.socresonline.org.uk/10/2/hand.html

Hand, Martin, Shove, Elizabeth (2007): Condensing practices: ways of living with a freezer. Journal of Consumer Culture 7(1): 79-104.

Molotch, Harvey (2005): Where Stuff Comes From. New York: Routledge.

Geels, F. W., Schot, J. (2007): Typology of sociotechnical transition pathways. Research Policy (36): 399-417.

Hobson, Kersty (2002): Competing discourses of sustainable consumption: Does the 'rationalisation of lifestyles' make sense? Environmental Politics 11 (2): 95-120.

Quilley, S. (2011): Resilience Through Relocalization: Ecocultures of Transition? Transition to a post-carbon, post-consumer society: new, traditional and alternative ways of living in the ‘adjacent possible’. Ecocultures Working Paper: 2012-1. University of Essex, UK.

Schor, Juliet, Slater, Don, Zukin, Sharon, Zelizer, Viviane (2010): Panel discussion: Critical and moral stances in consumer studies. Journal of Consumer Culture 10 (2): 274-291.

positive completion of the compulsory module according to § 5 Para 1 No 9