Consumption, Markets and Culture

This course explores consumption as a cultural and social phenomenon, emphasizing how marketplace practices are embedded within systems of meaning and identity construction. Drawing on key frameworks in consumer culture theory, students critically examine how global market structures and corporate strategies co-create consumer lifestyles, symbolic value, and brand narratives. The course emphasizes the interplay between consumers’ identity projects and firms’ marketing practices, highlighting how cultural logics shape and are shaped by consumption. Ethical and societal implications of marketing are addressed through a critical lens, particularly in relation to identity-driven consumption and the reproduction of cultural norms.