SSC 215 Consumer Society and Media

Content

In recent years society has undergone important transformations. Key social thinkers like Zygmunt Bauman have argued that we have moved from a society of producers to a society of consumers. This means that society has undergone a transition in which social behavior and identity are more related to the act of consumption than to the act of production. This course explores the wide implications of this transformation by focusing on this transformation and its wider implications for the understanding of society.

The main issues that are studied in this course are:

• The historical transformations that brought about the society of consumers.
• The construction of identity through practices of consumption.
• The symbolic intervention of marketing in our daily life.
• The role of the media in the configuration of our vision of social reality.
• The social problems that the society of consumer is facing.

Instructor

Dr. Rolando Vázquez

Track

Sociology

Period

Fall / 2009

Course Material

• The Consumer Society Reader - Martyn J. Lee
• Myths and Structures - Jean Baudrillard
• The Practice of Everyday Life - Michel De Certeau

Prerequisites

One needs to have followed one of the following courses in order to take this course:

• SSC 111 Introduction to Sociology
• SSC 131 Introduction to Socio-Cultural Anthropology
• SSC 151 Introduction to Political Theory
• SSC 171 Law, Society and Justice

Required for

This course is required in order to take the following course:

• SSC 334 Advanced Cultural Studies