For a consumption context of your choice (see suggestions below), discuss the extent to which the globalisation of consumer culture has led to greater openness and tolerance for a divergent of cultural experience.

MN3106: Consumer Culture: Globalisation, Materialism, and Resistance

Essay Questions

Write a 2500-word essay in response to ONE of the following questions:

Question 1

For a consumption context of your choice (see suggestions below), discuss the extent to which the globalisation of consumer culture has led to greater openness and tolerance for a divergent of cultural experience. In this essay, you should draw on the concepts of cultural homogenisation and cosmopolitanism to discuss the consequences of globalisation on consumer culture. Suggested contexts include (but not limited to):

 Food

 Music

 Fashion

 Tourism

 Sports

 Media

 Supermarket

Question 2

Using theories introduced to you in the lecture (see suggestions below); discuss how consumer culture engenders individual’s sense of identity. You should discuss how the marketplace provides resources for the construction and negotiation of identities. Note: You should discuss your essay in relation to only ONE aspect of identity as suggested below:

 Gender Identity

 Tribal Identity/Subcultural Identity

 Race

 Class

Getting Started! We expect you to refer to a range of literatures in your essay. We have provided you with the following key theories to help you get started. This is by no means an exhaustive list of resources and those looking to achieve higher grades should include literature and resources beyond those listed here. These literatures are designed to stimulate your thinking and to give you an overview of the breadth of the debate you are engaging with.

Key Theories and Suggestions (please note these are provisional suggestions)

Question 1

 Hannerz (1990): Cosmopolitanism

 John Tomlinson (2003): Globalisation and Culture

 George Ritzer (2006): The McDonaldization of Society

 Adorno and Horkheimer (1944/2000): The Culture Industry

 Arjun Appadurai (1990): Global ‘Scapes’

 Arjun Appadurai (1988): Indigenization

 Daniel Miller (1995): Worlds apart: Modernity through the prism of the local

Key Theories and Suggestions (please note these are provisional suggestions)

Question 2

 Chris Shilling (1993): The Body as Project

 Featherstone (1982): The Body in Consumer Culture

 Michel Foucault: The Disciplined Body and The Technology of the Self

 Judith Butler (1993): Gender Trouble

 Judith Butler (1990): Bodies that Matters

 Adrienne Rich (1980): Compulsory Heteronormativity

 Susan Bordo (1993): The Unbearable Weight

 The Birmingham School of Subculture

 Maffesoli (1996): Tribal Identity

 Sarah Thornton (1995): Subcultural Capital

 Pierre Bourdieu (1984): The Body as Cultural Capital

 Clive Seale(2000): The Commoditization of the Body

 Merleau-Ponty (1945/2002): The Phenomenological Body

 Iris Marion Young (1990): The Lived Body of Femininity

 Homi Bhaba: The Location of Culture

 Edward Said (1978): Orientalism

 Paul Gilroy: Diapora and Race

 Donna Haraway: Posthumanism

Your assignment should be within the word limit of 2500 words (+/- 10%). It should be double-spaced, presented in Times New-Roman using font size 12. You should use the Harvard style of referencing (no footnotes please) and include an adequately presented bibliography. Please spell-check your work before submission and make good use of paragraphs as this makes it easier to follow the arguments presented. Do make good use of transition so that your sentences and paragraphs hang together. Departmental policy regarding extensions, late submissions and plagiarism apply. Please consult the course handbook.