CRIT 303 Politics of Consumerism

3 credits 45.0 hours
300 level undergraduate course

Consumerism, in any of its manifestations, involves a wide range of economic interests and players, heads of business, stakeholders, consumers (of course), media and government to name a few. If in the age of the algorithm and social media, consumerism might be at its most pervasive. Material culture, however, is nothing new. Acquisitive societies reflect their values through the commodities they chose to put before or behind, but in doing so they shape conceptions of the self, and of what citizenship means, what it means to belong or not belong. The course explores the ways in which different iterations of consumerism shaped the politics, social organization and the psyche of citizens by exploring the back-and-forth, love hate relationship between consumerism and the arts.

Prerequisites COMP*102, COMP*102D, COMP*102E, COMP*112, or COMP*112H

This course is not repeatable for credit.