Consumption, Marketing and Culture

What does it mean to be a consumer in a consumer society? In this MOOC we think about marketing in terms of what marketing does rather than how we do it. It's not just a case of how we buy the products that are sold to us, but how we are affected by those products and the services that we encounter. This course prepares students for a more analytical understanding in the role that marketing activities play in shaping our consumer cultures and lives. Rather than pose the question of how ‘we’ can sell more stuff to consumers, this course asks, what does it mean to be regarded as a consumer in this moment of history?

• Week 1: Markets, ideology and gender
• This week includes: gender, ideology, and governmentality.
• Week 2: Digital consumer culture
• This week includes: algorithmic culture, surveillance capitalism, and communicative capitalism.
• Week 3: Consumers and the environment
• This week includes: sustainability, green consumerism, and degrowth.