Consumption Studies / Consumption Studies

The Academic Board of Business Administration, Odense
Teaching activity id: 9850901.
Teaching language: English.ECTS / weighting: 10 ECTS / 0.167 full-time equivalent.
Examination language: English.
Exam activity id: 9850912, 9850902.Approved: 03-11-17.
Period: Spring 2018.
Grading: External examiner.
Assessment: 7-point scale.
Offered in: Odense.
Subject director:
Associate Professor Domen Bajde, Department of Marketing & Management.

Prerequisites:
Students who take this course are expected to have knowledge and skills equivalent to what is given in standard introductory courses in consumer behavior and marketing. They are also expected to be competent in reading, discussing and presenting (in teams and individually) scientific papers in the field of marketing and consumer research.

Purpose:
The purpose of the course is to provide students with knowledge of problems addressed by contemporary consumer research. This will enable students to analyze consumption culture and behaviour with an advanced set of theoretical frameworks with the purpose of defining needs for market research and identify strategic market challenges for organizations. The activities planned will enable students to improve their skills in reflectively engaging with scientific literature in the field of consumption studies, so that they are able to better understand, connect, apply and critique this body of work.

The course forms the conceptual and analytical foundation complementary to for example Advanced Brand Management and Marketing and Communication Ethnography by strengthening the students’ mastery of consumer culture theory and its application to consumer research and marketing.

Content - Key areas:
The course contains the following key areas:

  • Consumer culture and the foundational myths of the market
  • Rituals and consumption
  • Consumption as practices
  • Consumers' identify projects
  • Consumers in the market: shopping and experience economy
  • Mass mediated consumption ideologies and consumers' interpretive processes
  • Consumption and structure: segments and class
  • Consumption subcultures.

Goals description (SOLO taxonomy):
After the course students should be able to account for central concepts and processes in consumer culture theory. They should be able to describe how consumers' behaviour and consumption choices form systematic patterns. On the basis of this and founded on a research based conceptual apparatus, the student should be able to identify and explain similarities and differences between different consumers' or groups of consumers pattern of behaviour and be able to relate these to wider market place cultures. Finally, students should be able to critically relate different theoretical perspectives.

Literature:
Examples:
Collection of classic and state of the art research articles and chapters (in total approximately 450 pages).

Time of classes:
Spring.

Scheduled classes:
4 lecture hours a week for 11 weeks.

Form of instruction:
For each session, the students are assigned texts which are then reviewed and discussed in class, so that students are trained in presentation and discussion of the theories and links are made to broader theoretical debates and their application to marketing and consumption research is considered. Students must form reading groups of 4-5 members to aid their engagement with assigned texts and to conduct a mid-semester assignment. The latter involves in-depth analysis and application of selected readings to chosen social-economic problems.

The learning activities result in an estimated distribution of the work effort of an average student as follows:
Participation in lectures: 45 hours.
Preparation for lectures: 120 hours.
Participation in reading group: 45 hours.
Preparation of presentation in groups: 15 hours.
Examination preparation: 44 hours.
Examination: 1 hour.
Total: 270 hours.

Time of examination:
Ordinary examination in June.
Reexamination in August.

The form of the reexam is subject to change. This will be announced 14 days before the reexam takes place.

Registration for the course is automatically a registration for the ordinary examination in the course. Cancellation is not possible. If the student does not participate in the examination, the student will use an examination attempt.


Examination conditions:
Compulsory mid term report (ID 9850912). The assignment is only offered in the term when the course is taught. The report is completed in groups. The report is evaluated internally on a pass/fail basis.

If the requirement is not met, the student cannot participate in the exam and one examination attempt has been used. Fulfillment of the exam requirement is only possible prior to the ordinary exam. Participation in the re-exam thus requires that the exam requirement is met prior to the ordinary exam.

Duration: Students will submit a written 4-page report by the date assigned by the lecturer at the start of the semester.
Location: Take-home
Internet Access: Necessary.
Hand out: The course page in Blackboard.
Hand in: Via SDU-assignment in the course page in Blackboard.
Assignment Aids: All exam aids allowed.

Deviations may be granted by the teacher provided there is a reasonable cause.

Form of examination for the certificate:
Oral exam.

Supplemental information for the form of examination:
Oral exam (20 minutes in total) with all aids allowed. The exam will consist of an individual presentation of the mid term report (5 minutes), after which the student will respond to questions concerning the theoretical frameworks and concepts covered in the course and their application.

Comments:
Internally evaluated for guest and exhange students.

Joint lecturing with cand.negot. (course id. 7700431)

Programmes:
cand.merc. Brand Management and Marketing Communication
2nd semester, mandatory. Offered in: Odense
cand.merc. Marketing, Globalization and Culture
2nd semester, mandatory. Offered in: Odense
cand.merc. Market Anthropology
2nd semester, mandatory. Offered in: Odense
Cand.merc.aud.
All Semesters, elective subject. Offered in: Odense
cand.merc. International Business and Management
All Semesters, elective subject. Offered in: Odense
cand.merc. International Business and Marketing
All Semesters, elective subject. Offered in: Odense