University of Southern Denmark - Odense

Consumption Theory: Canon of Classics

Ph.D. Seminar

May 30 - June 4, 2004

Aim of the course: Consumption is beginning to take center stage as a subject of study in multiple disciplines, including sociology and anthropology among others.  Marketing and consumer research disciplines, along with economics, which had claimed consumption studies as their terrain, are both energized and challenged by this new interest in consumption.  The purpose of this course is to critically investigate some of the key classics that constitute the foundation for many of the current perspectives in consumption studies.

Faculty: The faculty members for this seminar are Søren Askegaard, Dominique Bouchet and A. Fuat Fırat, all from University of Southern Denmark - Odense, Douglas Holt from Harvard University, and Craig Thompson from the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

Location and dates: The seminar will take place at the Kystgaarden conference center, situated on the beach, walking distance to the town of Nyborg, and the Nyborg train station, on the island of Fyn in Denmark.  The seminar will begin at 10:30, Sunday, May 30, and end the night of Friday, June 4, 2004. 

Other course information: The seminar will be held in English, and is 5 ECTS credits.  The number of students will be held at 25.  The tuition for the seminar, which includes accommodation and meals, is 1000 Euros.  Students from Nordic and Baltic countries can apply for tuition discount and for funds towards travel expenses.  For this purpose, if they are accepted to the seminar, they need to contact the Nordic Network for Consumer Culture secretary Gitte Schwartz (gsc@sam.sdu.dk).

Seminar coordinator: A. Fuat Fırat, Visiting Professor of Marketing, Department of Marketing, University of Southern Denmark - Odense, Campusvej 55, DK-5230  Odense M, Denmark.  E-mail: aff@sam.sdu.dk.  Tel: +45 65 50 36 46.  Fax: +45 66 15 51 29.

Seminar prerequisites: There are no particular prerequisites for Ph.D. students.  Selection will be made from among applicants on the basis of a letter of interest, which should address the student’s dissertation research interests and the fit of this seminar within their doctoral program or other research interests.  This letter of interest should be 5000-7000 characters long.  All letters of interest must be sent to A. Fuat Fırat by mail or electronically as an attachment to an e-mail message.  The deadline for applications is February 15, 2004.

The students who are selected will be required to read the literature included in this program.  They will come to the seminar ready to make a brief presentation of their research project.  At the end of the seminar, they will make another presentation that will indicate how their research project will be modified based on the inspirations from the seminar.  They will be required to submit a written research proposal, based on their presentations, and discussions with and suggestions from the faculty, which will be evaluated by at least two faculty members.  The final written projects must be sent by mail or electronically to A. Fuat Fırat by September 6, 2004, at the latest.

Students will be evaluated based on their presentations, participation, written projects, and the capacity shown in enriching their perspective.

Program:

Sunday, May 30 

10:30-11:00     Welcome - Søren Askegaard & A. Fuat Fırat

11:00-12:30     Faculty Panel – Discussion of issues in the study of Consumption -

                        all faculty members participate

12:30-14:00     Lunch & Social Hour (Faculty and students meet and talk to each other)

14:00-19:00     Student project presentations

Students present their projects to faculty divided into two groups with 2-3 faculty in each group.  Each student has 15 minutes to present and 5 minutes of suggestions follow)

19:00-20:30     Dinner

                        After dinner is for discussions, preparations, reading, socializing, etc.

Monday, May 31 

9:00-12:00       Bataille and Mauss (Dominique Bouchet)

12:00-13:30     Lunch

13:30-16:00     Simmel (Dominique Bouchet)

16:30-19:00     “Marx and the making of modern consumption” - A. Fuat Fırat

19:00-20:30     Dinner

Tuesday, June 1 

9:00-12:00       Bourdieu-Barthes I - Douglas Holt

12:00-13:30     Lunch

13:30-15:30     Student-faculty meetings

Students make appointments with faculty to discuss their projects and get individual feedback

16:00-19:00     Bourdieu-Barthes II - Douglas Holt

19:00-20:30     Dinner

Wednesday, June 2 

9:00-12:00       “Michel Foucault: Bio-power and implications for the study of consumer culture” - Craig Thompson

12:00-13:30     Lunch

13:30-15:30     Student-faculty meetings

16:00-19:00     “Michel Foucault: Technologies of the Self and implications for the study of consumer culture” - Craig Thompson

19:00-20:3       Dinner

Thursday, June 3 

9:00-12:00       “Marx and the origins of postmodern consumption” - A. Fuat Fırat

12:00-13:30     Lunch

13:30-16:30     “Baudrillard: A System of Consumption?” - Søren Askegaard

17:00-19:00     Students prepare for their final presentations

                        MOVE TO HOTELS IN ODENSE

19:00-20:30     Dinner

20:30-until        Students prepare for their final presentations

Friday, June 4 

9:00-12:00       “Baudrillard: Fatalisms: Seduction and Desire” - Søren Askegaard

12:00-13:30     Lunch

13:30-16:30     Students briefly present ideas about how they intend to complete their projects and write their papers for this seminar

17:00-18:30     Evaluations of the seminar

19:00-until        Dinner and party!

Saturday, June 5 

Faculty and students leave accommodations

Faculty:

Søren Askegaard was born in 1961. He is professor of marketing at SDU Odense University, Denmark and, on a more-than full-time basis, head of the Dept. of Marketing there. He has a Masters Degree in Social Sciences from Odense University, a post-graduate Diploma in Communication Studies from the Sorbonne University, Paris and a Ph.D. in Business Studies from Odense University. His research interests are generally stuck in the field of consumer behaviour analysis from a cultural perspective, although he finds it difficult to concentrate very long on one particular topic. For some reason (or possibly without any), he has received two Danish research awards. His work does not appear in most major journals, although he came off to a head-start in his international publishing career with a contribution to “The Flag Bulletin”.

Dominique Bouchet has lived in Denmark for 27 years. He was born in Paris in 1949 where he was educated in business economics (ESSEC), international economics (Sorbonne), sociology (Paris 7), town planning (ENPC) and Latin American Studies (IHEAL). He has been an associate professor in international economics and an associate professor in sociology and social psychology and is now Professor of International Marketing at the Department of Marketing at University of Southern Denmark Odense where he is also the Director of Doctoral Programs in Social Sciences. He was also Professor at The Norwegian School of Management BI in Oslo. His main research interest is in social change and cultural differences. He studies the importance of the cultural dimension in international marketing and management. He teaches courses in cross-cultural marketing, cross-cultural communication, social psychology and cultural analysis in relation to marketing and management, marketing and social change, advertising, semiotics. He has given Ph.D. lectures and courses at The Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, at Arizona State University, at the University of California at Irvine, at Stockholm University, Paris Dauphine, Paris Sorbonne, ESADE in Barcelona and for EAISM and for EDAMBA (Two European Business Research Associations organizing international doctoral courses). He has organized several doctoral courses in Business Research, Qualitative Methods, and Semiotics. He has also taught in Belgium, Norway, Spain, China, Japan. Dominique Bouchet is the author or co-author of more than 25 books and 100 articles in ten languages. He is on the editorial board of several European and American journals. He is the Book Review Editor of Consumption, Markets & Culture. Frequently used in the media (more than fifty columns, hundreds of interviews), he is also a consultant to many European firms for top level management/marketing decisions, and an invited speaker by many companies and organizations. www.bouchet.dk.

A. Fuat Fırat is Visiting Professor of Marketing, University of Southern Denmark - Odense.  He received his degree in economics (Licenciè en Economie) from the Faculty of Economics, İstanbul University, in 1970 and his doctorate in marketing from Northwestern University in 1978.  His research interests cover areas such as macro consumer behavior and macromarketing; postmodern culture, the consumer, and marketing; transmodern marketing and strategies; gender and consumer research; marketing and development; and interorganizational relations.  His work has been published in a number of journals, including International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of Consumer Research, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Macromarketing, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Organizational Change Management, Journal of International Marketing, and Journal of Economic Psychology, as well as in several edited books.  His article "Consumption Choices at the Macro Level," with co-author Nikhilesh Dholakia won the Journal of Macromarketing Charles Slater Award, and his article "Liberatory Postmodernism and the Reenchantment of Consumption," with co-author Alladi Venkatesh won the Journal of Consumer Research best article award for 1995.  He has co-edited two books, Philosophical and Radical Thought in Marketing, and Marketing and Development: Toward Broader Dimensions.  He is also the coeditor of two special issues of the International Journal of Research in Marketing on postmodernism, marketing, and the consumer.  He is Co-Editor in Chief of the journal Consumption, Markets & Culture (CMC), and served as the President of the International Society of Marketing and Development (1995-1997).  His book, Consuming People: From Political Economy to Theaters of Consumption, co-authored by Nikhilesh Dholakia, is published by Routledge.

Craig J. Thompson is Churchill Professor of Marketing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee in 1991 with an official degree in marketing and a subversive interest in hermeneutical and poststructural research traditions. For well over a decade, he has been terrorizing journal editors, reviewers, and the occasional reader with hermeneutic harangues, desultory deconstructive diatribes, and Foucauldian-inspired confabulations regarding consumer identities, power and resistance dynamics in the marketplace, and the ideological shaping of gender. His oeuvre has been described as post-lucid and, much to his continuing surprise, his research appears in otherwise respectable journals including Consumption, Markets, & Culture, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Sociological Quarterly, and Journal of Advertising. He is co-author of the book The Phenomenology of Everyday Life (with Howard Pollio and Tracy Henley). He has never won a major academic award but vows to keep trying because mistakes do happen. Finally, he is the only person on the planet who actually believes that the Matrix sequels are more interesting than the “original.” Whoa….. 

Readings:

JEAN BAUDRILLARD

Baudrillard, Jean. 1998/1970. The Consumer Society, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Baudrillard, Jean. 1981/1972. For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign, “The Ideological Genesis of Needs,” pp. 63-87, St. Louis, MO: Telos Press (trans. by C. Levin).

-. "La genese ideologique des besoins", in Pour une critique de l'economie politique di signe, Paris: Gallimard, 1972, 59-94.

Baudrillard, Jean. 1993/1976. Symbolic Exchange and Death, “The Order of Simulacra,” pp. 50-86, London: Sage (trans. by I.H. Grant).

-. "L'ordre des simulacres", in L'echange symbolique et la mort, Paris: Gallimard, 1976, 75-128.

Baudrillard, J. 1988/1983. Fatal strategies: Selected writings, “The Object and its Destiny,” Oxford, Polity Press: 185-206 (trans. by M. Poster).

-. "L'objet et son destin", in Les strategies fatales, Paris: Grasset, 1983, 127-198.

MICHEL FOUCAULT

Foucault, Michel (interviewed by Hubert Dreyfus and Paul Rabinow) (1983), “Afterword: On the Genealogy of Ethics; Overview of a Work in Progress” & “Afterword: Foucault’s Interpretive Analytic of Ethics, in Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics, by H. Dreyfus and P. Rabinow, Chicago, Ill: University of Chicago Press, 229-264. 

Foucault, Michel (1978), The History of Sexuality Vol. 1, New York: Vintage. Pages 1-102. 

Thompson, Craig J. and Elizabeth Hirschman (1995), “Understanding the Socialized Body: A Poststructuralist Analysis of Consumers' Self-Conceptions, Body Images, and Self-Care Practices,” Journal of Consumer Research, 22 (September), 139-153.

Haraway, Donna (1994), "Teddy Bear Patriarchy: Taxidermy in the Garden of Eden, New York City, 1908-1936," in Culture/Power/History, eds. Nicholas B. Dirks, Geoff Eley, and Sherry B. Ortner, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 49-95.

Foucault, Michel (1988) “Truth, Power, and Self: An Interview with Michel Foucault” (pages 9-15); “The Technology of the Self” (pages 16-19); in The Technology of the Self, eds., Luther Martin, Huck Gutman, and Patrick Hutton, Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts.

Foucault Michel and J.D. Gauthier (conducted January 20, 1984) “The Ethic of Care for the Self as a Practice of Freedom: An Interview with Michel Foucault” in The Final Foucault, (1994) eds. James Berauer and David Rasmussen, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pages 1-20.

Illouz, Eva (1997), “Chapter 1: Constructing the Romantic Utopia;” “Chapter 2: Trouble in Utopia;” “Chapter 3: From Romantic Utopia to American Dream; Chapter 3,” excerpted from Consuming the Romantic Utopia, Berkeley, CA; University of California Press, pages 25-111.  

Thompson, Craig J. (2003), “Natural Health’s Narratives of Healing and the Ideological Production of Consumer Resistance,” The Sociological Quarterly, 44 (Winter), 81-108.

KARL MARX

Primary readings:

Marx, Karl. 1973/1939. Grundrisse, “Introduction: Production, Consumption, Distribution, Exchange (Circulation),” pp. 83-111, New York: Vintage Books (trans. by M. Nicolaus).

Marx, Karl. 1976/1867. Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Vol. 1, “Chapter 1: The Commodity,” pp. 125-177, “Chapter 2: The Process of Exchange,” pp. 178-187, and “Chapter 23: Simple Reproduction,” pp. 711-724, New York: Penguin Books (trans. by B. Fowkes).

Fırat, A. Fuat. 1987. “The Social Construction of Consumption Patterns: Understanding Macro Consumption Phenomena,” in Philosophical and Radical Thought in Marketing, ed. by A.F. Fırat, N. Dholakia and R.P. Bagozzi, pp. 251-267, Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.

Fırat, A. Fuat. 1994. “Gender and Consumption: Transcending the Feminine?” in Gender Issues and Consumer Behavior, ed. by J.A. Costa, pp. 205-228, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Secondary readings:

Marx, Karl. 1976/1867. Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Vol. 1, “Chapter 3: Money, or the Circulation of Commodities,” pp. 188-244, New York: Penguin Books (trans. by B. Fowkes).

Fırat, A. Fuat and Alladi Venkatesh. 1995. “Liberatory Postmodernism and the Reenchantment of Consumption,” Journal of Consumer Research, 22 (December), 239-267.

Fırat, A. Fuat. 2000. “Rethinking Consumption,” Consumption, Markets & Culture, 3, 4, 283-295.

GEORG SIMMEL (1858-1918)

Bouchet, Dominique. 1998. "Information technology, the social bond and the city. Georg Simmel updated. About the changing relationship between identity and the city." Built Environment, 24:104-133. This text is also available also in German, Danish and Portuguese.

THEME: CITY LIFE:

Simmel, Georg.1997. "The metropolis and mental life." Pp. 174-185 in Simmel on Culture. Selected writings, edited by D. Frisby and M. Featherstone. London: Sage.

-. 1903. "Die Großtädte und das Geistesleben." Pp. 187-205 in Jahrbuch der gehe-stiftung zu Dresden, vol. 9. Dresden.

-. 1979b. "Métropoles et mentalité." Pp. 61-77 in L'école de Chicago, edited by Y. Grafmeyer and I. Joseph. Paris: Editions du Champ Urbain.

-. 1998c. "Storbyerne og det åndelige liv." Pp. 191-207 in Georg Simmel. Hvordan er samfundet muligt? Udvalgte sociologiske skrifter, af Georg Simmel. Copenhagen: Samlerens Bogklub.

THEME: THE STRANGER:

Simmel, Georg. 1980. "The stranger." Pp. 235-240 in The pleasures of sociology, edited by Lewis A. Coser. New York: Mentor Book, New American Library.

-. 1908. "Exkurs über den Fremden." Pp. 509-512 in Soziologie, Untersuchungen über die Formen der Vergesellschaftung, edited by G. Simmel. Leipzig: Verlag von Duncker & Humblot.

-. 1992. "Exkurs über den Fremden." in Soziologie, Untersuchungen über die Formen der Vergesellschaftung, edited by G. Simmel. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag.

-. 1999 "Excursus sur l'étranger." Pp. 663-668 in Sociologie. Études sur les formes de socialisation, de George Simmel. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.

-. 1979a. "Disgressions sur l'étranger." Pp. 53-59 in L'école de Chicago, edited by Y. Grafmeyer and I. Joseph. Paris: Editions du Champ Urbain.

-. 1998a. "Ekskurs om den fremmede." Pp. 95-102 in Georg Simmel. Hvordan er samfundet muligt? Udvalgte sociologiske skrifter, af Georg Simmel. Copenhagen: Samlerens Bogklub.

THEME: FASHION

Simmel, Georg. 1997. "The philosophy of fashion." Pp. 187-205 in Simmel on Culture. Selected writings, edited by David Frisby and Mike Featherstone. London: Sage.

-. 1905. "Philosophie der Mode. Berlin: Pan Verlag

-. 1919. "Philosophie der Mode." Pp. 25-57 Leipzig in Philosophische Kultur von Georg Simmel: Kröner Verlag

-. 1983. "Philosophie der Mode." Pp. 26-51 Philosophische Kultur. ûber das Abenteuer, die Ggeschlechter und die Krise der Moderne. Gesammelte Essais. Berlin: Wagenbach.

-. 1995. "Philosophie der Mode. Die Religion. Kant und Goethe, Schoepenhauer und Nietzsche." Pp. 7-38 in: Georg Simmel Gesamtausgabe 10 Band, Herausgaben Michael Behr, Volkhard Krech und Gert Schmidt. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag

-. 1998b. "Moden." Pp. 103-134 in Georg Simmel. Hvordan er samfundet muligt? Udvalgte sociologiske skrifter, af Georg Simmel. Copenhagen: Samlerens Bogklub.

THEME: FOOD

Simmel, Georg. 1997. "Sociology of the meal." Pp. 130-135 in Simmel on Culture. Selected writings, edited by David Frisby and Mike Featherstone. London: Sage.

-. 1910. "Soziologie der Mahlzeit." in Berliner tageblatt, 10 Oktober 1910.

-. 1998(1986). "Soziologie der Mahlzeit." in Das Individuum und die Freihheit, by Georg Simmel. Berlin: Verlag Klaus Wagenbach.

-. 1998(1986). "Sociología de la comida." Pp. 263-270 in El individuo y la libertad. Ensayos de crítica de la cultura, by Georg Simmel. Barcelona: Ediciones Península.

-. 1998. "Måltidets sociologi." Pp. 135-146 in Georg Simmel. Hvordan er samfundet muligt? Udvalgte sociologiske skrifter, af Georg Simmel. Copenhagen: Samlerens Bogklub.

GEORGE BATAILLE (1897-1962)

Bataille, Georges. 1971(1967). La part maudite. Précédé de: la notion de dépense. Paris: Seuil (Collection Points N. 20). Lire pages 1 à 194.

Bataille, Georges. 1976. "La part maudite." pp. 5-179 in Œuvres complètes. Volume 7. Paris: Gallimard. (Lire pages 5 à 135.

Bataille, Georges. 1991. The Accursed Share. An Essay on General Economy. Volume 1: Consumption. New York: Zone Books. Read pp. 1-142.

Bataille, Georges. 1975(1949). "Der verfemte Teil (La part maudite)." pp. 33-236 in Das theoretische Werk Band I. Die Aufhebung der Ökonomie, edited by Georges Bataille. München: Rogner & Bernhard GmbH & Co.

Bataille, Georges. 1933. "La notion de dépense." Critique Sociale 7:Janvier 1933. 7-15.

Bataille, Georges. 1970. "La notion de dépense." Pp. 302-320 in Œuvres complètes I. Premier écrits 1922-1940, edited by Georges Bataille. Paris: Gallimard.

Bataille, Georges. 1985. "The notion of expenditure." Pp. 116-129 in Visions of Excess. Selected Writings, 1927-1939, edited by Georges Bataille. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota.

Bataille, Georges. 1975(1933). "Der Begriff der Verausgabung (La notion de dépense)." Pp. 9-32 in Das theoretische Werk Band I. Die Aufhebung der Ökonomie, edited by Georges Bataille. München: Rogner & Bernhard GmbH & Co.

MARCEL MAUSS (1872-1950)

Mauss, Marcel. 1968(1924). "Essai sur le don. Forme er raison de l'échange dans les sociétés archaïques." Pp. 143-279 in Sociologie et anthropologie, edited by Marcel Mauss. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.

Mauss, Marcel. 1924. "Essai sur le don. Forme er raison de l'échange dans les sociétés archaïques." Année Sociologique Seconde série:Volume I.

Mauss, Marcel. 1990(1924). The gift. The form and reason for exchange in archaic societies. New York: W. W. Norton.

Mauss, Marcel. 2001(1924). Gaven. Gaveudvekslingens form og logik i arkaiske samfund. Copenhagen: Samlerens Bogklub.