Consumer Culture and Consumption Department of Media, Culture, and Communication New York University MCC-GE 2215 Spring 2020

Instructor and Course • Prof. Marita Sturken • M 2-4:10 Silver 404 • Office hours: Wed. 2-4 and by appointment, 239 Greene St. room 814 • [email protected]

Course Description This course examines theories of consumption, consumer culture, commodification, shopping, branding, media consumption, and the construction of social and cultural identity in the context of everyday life. We will investigate practices of consumption at both a theoretical level and in relation to our own practices of consumption, consumer identities, and ethics of consumption. What does it mean to consume things, stuff, food, media, music, and ideas? What are the affective and emotional aspects of shopping and consumption? How can we be informed consumers? What does it mean to consume media and how is media consumption changing? We will consider critical -2- responses to consumer culture, including the resistance and refusal of consumption as well as the attempted mobilization of consumption toward social change as commodity activism.

Course Requirements Students are required to attend all classes, complete the for each class session, and complete all assignments. If you miss more than 2 classes without a reasonable excuse, your grade will be lowered.

You should make an effort to meet with me in person at some point in the semester. I am available for consultation via e-mail, in office hours, and by appointment.

Required Texts: Elizabeth Chin, My Life with Things: The Consumer Diaries (Duke University Press, 2016) (Pantheon, 1996) All other readings are posted in pdf on NYU Classes.

Assignments There are 2 required papers (1 short, 1 long). You will be given prompts for the first paper. The final paper will be a research paper on a topic related to course topics, 8-10 pages. We will have a class blog that you will be required to blog on twice a week. These assignments will be worth the following portion of your grade: Short paper 20% Final paper 40% Participation on blog 30% Class participation 10%

Please type and double-space your written work and number your pages. I recommend you use Chicago style for your citations; the short version is here: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html. If you send me a document via email, please put your name in the file name and on each numbered page.

-3- Academic Integrity: Academic integrity is the guiding principle for all that you do, from taking exams, making oral presentations to term papers. It requires that you recognize and acknowledge information derived from others, and take credit only for ideas and work that are yours. You violate the principle of academic integrity when you cheat on an exam, submit the same work for two different courses without prior permission from your professors, receive help on a take-home examination that calls for independent work, or plagiarize. When taking this class, you enter into a contract that states that all the work you are turning in has been your own and no one else’s, and that you have not turned in any work for which you have received credit in another class, and that you have properly cited other people’s work and ideas. Do not take this policy lightly! Violations of this policy will result in a failing grade in the course. If you have questions about these policies, or proper citation of scholarship, please come speak with me in person. (see http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/policies/academic_integrity)

Student Resources

• Academic accommodations are available for students with disabilities. Please contact the Moses Center for Students with Disabilities (212-998-4980 or [email protected]) for further information. Students who are requesting academic accommodations are advised to reach out to the Moses Center as early as possible in the semester for assistance. • Writing Center (Washington Square): 411 Lafayette, 4th Floor. Schedule an appointment online at https://nyu.mywconline.com or just walk-in.

MCC’s Writing Program MCC’s Writing Coach, Dr. Kari Hensley, is here to support grad students in the writing and revising process. You are encouraged to make an appointment with her whether you are interested in refining your voice or are struggling to find it. Through individual sessions, she can work with you on papers, thesis/dissertations, conference papers, cover letters, and more. For more info and to make an appointment, visit: https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/mcc/masters/writing

-4- WEEKLY SCHEDULE

Week 1—January 27: Introduction: Defining Consumer Society

Week 2—February 3: Theories of Commodities, Gifts, and Exchange : Elizabeth Chin, My Life With Things, Introduction pp. 3-56, 142-57 Arjun Appadurai, “Commodity and Politics of Value,” pp. 3-16 Marcel Mauss, The Gift, Intro and Chapter 1 Daniel Miller, “Theories of Things” Karl Marx “The Fetishism of the Commodity”

Recommended: Celia Lury, Consumer Culture, Introduction and Exchanging Things

Week 3—February 10: Theories of the Consumer, Making Sense of Shopping Reading: Chin, My Life With Things, pp. 85-120 Mark Paterson, “You Are What You Buy: Theories of the Consumer” Sharon Zukin, “A Brief History of Shopping” Daniel Miller, “Why We Shop” Frank Trentmann, “The Modern Genealogy of the Consumer”

First Paper Assignment Given

Monday, February 17: Presidents Day—No Class

-5- Week 4—February 24: Spaces of Consumption: From Department Stores, Shopping Malls, and Big Box Retail, to Online Shopping Reading: Vicki Howard, From Main Street to Mall, excerpt Vicki Howard, “The Rise and Fall of Sears” https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/rise-and-fall-sears-180964181/ Lizabeth Cohen, “From Town Center to Shopping Center” Adam Gopnik, “Under One Roof” Derek Thompson, “History of Sears Predicts Amazon”

Recommended: Christoph Grunenberg, “Wonderland: Spectacles of Display from the Bon Marche to Prada” Anne Friedberg, “Cinema and the Postmodern Condition” Mary Schmich, “A Professor’s Tweets Teach us about Radical Sears”

Week 5—March 2: Taste, Conspicuous Consumption, and Class Reading: Thorstein Veblen, Conspicuous Consumption (excerpt) Elizabeth Currid-Halkett, The Sum of Small Things: Chaps 1, 2, 5, 6, 7 Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction (excerpt)

Week 6—March 9: Theories of the Brand, from the 19th Century to and Brand Culture Reading: Sarah Banet-Weiser, “Brand Keyword” Sarah Banet-Weiser, Authentic, Introduction and “Branding Consumer Citizens” Marcel Danesi, “From Product to Brand” Yasmin Ibrahim, “Instagramming Life” Alice Marwick, “Instafame: Luxury Selfies in the Attention Economy”

First Paper Assignment Due

Spring Break March 16-20

-6- Week 7—March 23: Logistics, Labor, and the Global Supply Chain Reading: Clare Lyster, “The Logistical Figure” Pietra Rivoli, Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy, excerpts Juliet Schor, “The Paradox of Materiality: Fashion, Marketing, and the Planetary Ecology” Elizabeth Cline, “Fast Fashion” from Overdressed

Week 8—March 30: Media Consumption: The Movie Theater, Television and the Emergence of Streaming Reading: Miriam Hansen, “Early Cinema, Late Cinema: Transformations of the Public Sphere” Lynn Spigel, “The Suburban Home Companion” Alison Trope, “Hollywood in a Box” from Stardust Monuments David Bordwell, When Media Became Manageable” http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2020/01/22/when-media-become-manageable- streaming--research-and-the-celestial-multiplex/print/ Recommended: Barbara Klinger, “Once is Not Enough” Proposals for Final Papers Due

Week 9—April 6: On Demand Culture Reading: Chuck Tryon, On Demand Culture, Introduction and excerpts Michael Smith and Rahul Telang, Streaming, Sharing, Stealing: Big Data and the Future of , “House of Cards” Jennifer Holt and Kevin Sanson, “Introduction: Mapping Connections” from Connected Viewing: Selling, Streaming & Sharing Media in the Digital Era Hye Jin Lee and Mark Andrejevic, “Second Screen Theory” Jack Webster, “Music On Demand” “From the Phonograph to Spotify” https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/history-of-internet-radio Recommended: Sharon Stover and William Moner, “The Contours of On-Demand Viewing”

-7- Week 10—April 13: Data Collection, Consumer Tracking, and New Modes of Selling Reading: Mark Bartholomew, Ad Creep, “Colonizing New Advertising Spaces” and “New Market Research” Joe Turow, The Aisles Have Eyes, Chap 4: Hunting the Mobile Shopper Nicole Cohen, “Commodifying Free Labor Online” Mike Serazio, “Ambient Governance of Advertainment” Collection of New York Times articles on data tracking Recommended: Liza Featherstone, Divining Desire: Focus Groups and the Culture of Consultation (2017), excerpts

Week 11—April 20: Pathologies of Consumption: House Flipping, Hoarding, Decluttering, and Reality TV Reading: Chin, My Life With Things, pp. 203-219 Shawn Shimpach, “Realty Reality: HGTV and the Subprime Crisis” Arielle Bernstein, “Marie Kondo and the Privilege of Clutter” https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/03/marie-kondo-and-the- privilege-of-clutter/475266/ Susan Murray and Laurie Ouellette, Introduction to Reality TV

Week 12—April 27: Consumer Ethics, Commodity Activism, and Shopping for Change Reading: Chin, My Life With Things, pp. 127-129, 170-184 Sarah Banet-Weiser and Roopali Mukherjee, “Commodity Activism in Neoliberal Times” Jo Littler, “Cosmopolitan Caring: Globalization, Charity, and the Activist Consumer” Nicki Lisa Cole, “Ethical Consumption in the Global Age: Coffee’s Promise of a Better World” Josee Johnson and Kate Cairns, “Eating for Change” Juliet Schor, True Wealth, excerpt

-8- Week 13—May 4: Postindustrial Consumption, Craft, Artisan Consumerism, and the Experience Economy Reading: Joseph Pine and James Gilmore, “Welcome to the Experience Economy” Sharon Zukin, “How Brooklyn Became Cool” and “Destination Culture” Richard Ocejo, Masters of Craft (excerpt) Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class (excerpt) Richard Florida, The New Urban Crisis (excerpt)

Week 14—May 11: Opting Out, Rejecting Consumption, and DIY Culture Reading: Laura Portwood-Stacer, “Anti-Consumption as Tactical Resistance” Ann Patchett, “My Year of No Shopping” Elizabeth Cline, “Make Alter Mend” from Overdressed Maurie Cohen, “The Mass Market Maker Movement”

Final Papers Due: Friday May 15