History and Anthropology of Consumption

2025/2026

Учебный год

ENG

Обучение ведется на английском языке

3

Кредиты

Кто читает:

Департамент истории

Статус:

Курс по выбору

Когда читается:

2-й курс, 2 модуль

Преподаватель

Платонова Евгения Сергеевна

Course Syllabus

Abstract

This MA course delves into the multifaceted realms of consumption through the lenses of history and anthropology. Students will navigate through the historical trajectories of consumption, observing how societies in socialist and capitalist frameworks have produced, distributed, and consumed goods and services over time. They will be equipped to critically analyze consumer culture, assess its societal implications, and discern its role in shaping identities and social structures within varying economic systems. Engaging with key theoretical texts, empirical studies, visual materials, and case studies, students will be able to deepen their knowledge and critical thinking skills in analyzing consumption within diverse social and historical contexts.

Learning Objectives

• The aim of the course is to provide students with information about the modern theories of consumption and the changes in consumption practices over time

Expected Learning Outcomes

• Identify and critique the core arguments of key theoretical frameworks in consumption studies
• Distinguish between economic, symbolic, and social interpretations of consumption, moving beyond the notion of consumption as merely the satisfaction of material needs
• Articulate how gender is both constructed by and reflected in consumer culture, through advertising, product design, and the gendered division of consumption labor
• Analyze how consumption practices (related to food, fashion, housing, or technology) are used to construct, maintain, and perform social identities across different axes, such as class, gender, ethnicity, and generation
• Evaluate the relationship between consumption and contemporary global challenges, including sustainability and waste management
• Deconstruct the ideologies embedded in advertising, branding, and media representations to reveal how they create myths, assign value, and influence consumer desire

Course Contents

• Introduction to history and anthropology of consumption
• Consumption between socialism and capitalism
• Consumption and gender
• Anthropology of consumption
• Consumption and sustaniablity
• The future of consumption

Assessment Elements

• Attendance and in-class participation
• A taste map: a mini ethnography of two different social spaces
  Students will select two field sites (online or on-site) that represent contrasting social spaces (e.g. third-way coffee shop vs. fast-food restaurants; Wildberries vs. Ozon; two different drug stores). The task is to act as an ethnographic cartographer and to map the visible and invisible codes of taste in each location. Students will spend 1-2 hours at each site (or equivalent time online), gathering data on the following dimensions of taste. Students should take detailed field notes and photographs. It’s allowed to use any pictures related to the topic but available online. Students are expected to present a single, curated poster (digital, e.g. in Photoshop, Canva, Pinterest or any other available tool) that visually contrasts the two field sites. Student map presentations will take place in the final meeting on December 19th. The students are expected to present and explain their taste map, incorporating basic theories and concepts studied during the course.
• Writing assignment
  The final assignment is a short research paper on a topic of the student’s choice. Students are expected to examine any topic that is related to consumption practices: it may be any historical phenomenon, a part of their personal experience or a topic within their MA research. In this final paper, the students are expected to debate across materials and different approaches that have been covered in the course. The paper should be approx. 1500 words long.

Interim Assessment

• 2025/2026 2nd module
  0.3 * A taste map: a mini ethnography of two different social spaces + 0.3 * Attendance and in-class participation + 0.4 * Writing assignment

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• Рощина, Я. М. (2010). Sociology of consumption ; Социология потребления. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.DCEC73B8

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• Evgenia Krasteva-Blagoeva. (2018). Approaching Consumer Culture : Global Flows and Local Contexts. Springer.

Authors

• Platonova Evgeniia Sergeevna