Module overview
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge and Understanding
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- key primary sources illustrating aspects of working in shops and the wider shopping experience including the promotion of stores and their wares
- the roles played by those who have influenced the way in which we shop;
- key secondary sources exploring the history of shopping and the birth of the consumer society;
- how shopping is connected with wider social, economic, political and cultural debates;
- the origins and development of the consumer society;
Transferable and Generic Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- participate effectively in group discussion
- research historical questions and communicate your findings convincingly and concisely in written reports
- locate and use effective textual, visual and material culture sources in the library and on-line
- develop your presentation skills
- develop your time-management skills
Cognitive Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- participate fully and constructively in group discussion, arguing your case by drawing on your reading, knowledge and understanding
- analyse and critically evaluate a variety of textual, visual and material culture sources
- actively engage with the secondary literature on the history of shopping, contributing to the debates relating to mass consumption and the origins and development of the consumer society
- contextualise a range of primary source material
- structure your ideas and research findings into well-ordered presentations and essays
Syllabus
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
Type | Hours |
---|---|
Lecture | 12 |
Seminar | 12 |
Tutorial | 1 |
Revision | 25 |
Preparation for scheduled sessions | 50 |
Completion of assessment task | 50 |
Total study time | 150 |
Resources & Reading list
General Resources
We will draw on a range of primary source material relating to shopping and working in shops, including contemporary catalogues, advertisements, newspaper and magazine articles, diaries and letters. We will also explore contemporary writings on the birth of the consumer society and mass consumerism, including texts by Daniel DeFoe, Charles Baudelaire, Denis Diderot, Karl Marx, Thorstein Veblen and Vance Packard..
Textbooks
Miller, Daniel (1987). Material Culture and Mass Consumption. Oxford: OUP.
Mauss, Marcel (2002). The Gift. London: Routledge Classics.
Wood, Martin (2014). Liberty Style. London: Frances Lincoln.
Davis, Dorothy (2010). A History of Shopping. Oxford and New York: Routledge.
Sassatelli, Roberta (2007). Consumer Culture: History, Theory and Politics. London: Sage.
Douglas, Mary and Baron Isherwood (1979). The World of Goods. London: Routledge.
Klein, Naomi (2000). No Logo. London: Flamingo.
Baudrillard, Jean (1998). The Consumer Society. London: Sage.
Bourdieu, Pierre (1984). Distinction: A Social Critique on the Judgement of Taste, trans. Richard Nice. London: Routledge.
Marx, Karl (1990). Capital, vol. 1, (1867), trans. Ben Fowkes. Harmondsworth: Penguin Classics.
Bevan, Judi (2007). The rise and fall of Marks & Spencer. London: Profile Books.
Fraser, W. Hamish (1981). The coming of the mass market, 1850 - 1914. London and Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Packard, Vance (1961). The Hidden Persuaders. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Briggs, Asa (1984). Marks & Spencer 1884 - 1984: A Centenary History. London: Octopus.
Forty, Adrian (1986). Objects of Desire. London: Thames and Hudson.
Veblen, Thorstein (1925). Theory of the Leisure Class. London: Allen and Unwin.
Glancy, Jonathan (2014). A very British Revolution: 150 years of John Lewis. London: Laurence King.
Rappaport, Erika (2001). Shopping for pleasure: Women and the Making of London’s West End. Princeton UP.
Hebdige, Dick (1988). Hiding in the Light. London: Routledge.
Cox, Pamela (2014). Shopgirls; The true story of life behind the counter. London: Hutchinson.
Zola, Emile (2012). The Ladies’ Paradise. Oxford: OUP.
Assessment
Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Essay | 60% |
Commentary exercise | 40% |
Referral
This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Resubmit assessments | 100% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal & External