Module overview
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Cognitive Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- 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
- 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
- contextualise a range of primary source material
- structure your ideas and research findings into well-ordered presentations and essays
Knowledge and Understanding
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- the roles played by those who have influenced the way in which we shop;
- key primary sources illustrating aspects of working in shops and the wider shopping experience including the promotion of stores and their wares
- how shopping is connected with wider social, economic, political and cultural debates;
- key secondary sources exploring the history of shopping and the birth of the consumer society;
- the origins and development of the consumer society;
Transferable and Generic Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- develop your time-management skills
- locate and use effective textual, visual and material culture sources in the library and on-line
- develop your presentation skills
- research historical questions and communicate your findings convincingly and concisely in written reports
- participate effectively in group discussion
Syllabus
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
Type | Hours |
---|---|
Completion of assessment task | 50 |
Seminar | 12 |
Preparation for scheduled sessions | 50 |
Lecture | 12 |
Revision | 25 |
Tutorial | 1 |
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
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.
Davis, Dorothy (2010). A History of Shopping. Oxford and New York: Routledge.
Packard, Vance (1961). The Hidden Persuaders. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Bevan, Judi (2007). The rise and fall of Marks & Spencer. London: Profile Books.
Wood, Martin (2014). Liberty Style. London: Frances Lincoln.
Mauss, Marcel (2002). The Gift. London: Routledge Classics.
Briggs, Asa (1984). Marks & Spencer 1884 - 1984: A Centenary History. London: Octopus.
Veblen, Thorstein (1925). Theory of the Leisure Class. London: Allen and Unwin.
Cox, Pamela (2014). Shopgirls; The true story of life behind the counter. London: Hutchinson.
Sassatelli, Roberta (2007). Consumer Culture: History, Theory and Politics. London: Sage.
Zola, Emile (2012). The Ladies’ Paradise. Oxford: OUP.
Fraser, W. Hamish (1981). The coming of the mass market, 1850 - 1914. London and Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Glancy, Jonathan (2014). A very British Revolution: 150 years of John Lewis. London: Laurence King.
Miller, Daniel (1987). Material Culture and Mass Consumption. Oxford: OUP.
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.
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.
Forty, Adrian (1986). Objects of Desire. London: Thames and Hudson.
Assessment
Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Commentary exercise | 40% |
Essay | 60% |
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