PLEASE NOTE this is a 2014-15 reading list—the precise content may change in future
years.
1. Global capitalism and the interconnections of production and consumption
Themes: commodity chains, producers, consumers and prosumers, coproduction, devices
and networks, contemporary globalisation, ‘global’ commodities.
Abílio, L. C. (2012) ‘Making up Exploitation: Direct Selling, Cosmetics and Forms of
Precarious Labour in Modern Brazil’, International Journal of Management Concepts
and Philosophy 6(1): 59–70.
Appadurai, A. (1986) ‘Introduction: Commodities and the Politics of Value’ in Appadurai, A.
(Ed.) The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective (Cambridge,
Cambridge University Press) 3-63.
Arvidsson, A. (2008). The Ethical Economy of Customer Coproduction. Journal of
Macromarketing, 28(4), 326–338.
Barrientos, S., Gereffi, G., & Rossi, A. (2011). Economic and social upgrading in global
production networks: A new paradigm for a changing world. International Labour
Review, 150(3-4), 319–340.
Cochoy, F. (2008). Calculation, qualculation, calqulation: shopping cart arithmetic, equipped
cognition and the clustered consumer. Marketing Theory, 8(1), 15–44.
Cochoy, F. (2009). Driving a Shopping Cart from STS to Business, and the Other Way Round:
On the Introduction of Shopping Carts in American Grocery Stores (1936--1959).
Organization, 16(1), 31–55.
Cochoy, Franck. (2007). A sociology of market-things: on tending the garden of choices in
mass retailing. The Sociological Review, 55(s2), 109–129.
Gereffi, G. (2005) The global economy: organization, governance, and development.
In N. J. Smelser and R. Swedberg (eds) The Global Economy: Organization, Governance, and
Development. Princeton: Princeton University Press and Russell Sage Foundation.
Gereffi G, 1994, ``The organization of buyer-driven global commodity chains: how US
retailers shape overseas production networks'', in Commodity Chains and Global
Capitalism Eds G Gereffi, M Korzeniewick (Greenwood, Westport, CT ) pp 95 ^ 122
Gereffi, G. and Korzeniewics, M. (eds) (1994) Commodity Chains and Global Capitalism
(Westport: Praeger).
Green, N. (2001). How Everyday Life Became Virtual: Mundane work at the juncture of
production and consumption. Journal of Consumer Culture, 1(1), 73–92.
Grinshpun, H. (2013). Deconstructing a global commodity: Coffee, culture, and consumption
in Japan. Journal of Consumer Culture.
Harvey, M. (2012). Drinking-Water and drinking water: trajectories of provision and
consumption in the UK, Taiwan and Delhi. Centre for Research in Economic Sociology and
Innovation (CRESI) Working Paper, 2, 2.
Hughes, A. (2000) ‘Retailers, Knowledges and Changing Commodity Networks: The Case of
the Cut Flower Trade’, Geoforum, 31(2): 175-190.
Koeber, C. (2011). Consumptive Labor: The Increasing Importance of Consumers in the
Labor Process. Humanity & Society, 35(3), 205–232.
Miller, Daniel and Sophie Woodward, eds. (2011). Global denim. Oxford: Berg.
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Mintz, Sidney (1985) Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History. New
York.
Ritzer, G., & Jurgenson, N. (2010). Production, Consumption, Prosumption: The nature of
capitalism in the age of the digital “prosumer.” Journal of Consumer Culture, 10(1),
13–36.
Ritzer, G., 2004. The globalization of nothing, 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
Schivelbusch,W. (1992) Tastes of Paradise: A Social History of Spices, Stimulants and
Intoxicants. New York: Pantheon Book.
Talbot, J. M. (2004) Grounds for Agreement: The Political Economy of the Coffee
Commodity Chain (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers)
Tokatli, N. (2006). Asymmetrical power relations and upgrading among suppliers of global
clothing brands: Hugo Boss in Turkey. Journal of Economic Geography, 7(1), 67–92.
Tokatli, N. (2007). Global sourcing: insights from the global clothing industry the case of
Zara, a fast fashion retailer. Journal of Economic Geography, 8(1), 21–38.
Tokatli, Nebahat. (2003). Globalization and the changing clothing industry in Turkey.
Environment and Planning A, 35(10), 1877–1894.
Trentmann, F. (2009). Crossing Divides: Consumption and globalization in history. Journal of
Consumer Culture, 9(2), 187–220.
Zwick, D., Bonsu, S. K., & Darmody, A. (2008). Putting Consumers to Work: `Co-creation` and
new marketing govern-mentality. Journal of Consumer Culture, 8(2), 163–196.
discussion questions
Is studying history important to understanding contemporary global capitalism?
In what ways is capitalism ‘global’? What is the significance of the local within the global?
Consider the ‘commercial work’ list (see lecture) and decide a. what’s missing, and b. how
you would group the occupations listed there.
Is ‘consumption work’ really work?
What makes ‘fast fashion’ possible?
research question
Investigate the supply chain of two products or services of your choice. Compare their
‘global’ nature. How do you explain this difference?
2. Customers, consumers and consumption
Themes: history of consumer society, contemporary consumer culture, subcultural
consumption, ordinary and mundane consumption
Atkinson, Michael (2006) ‘Straightedge Bodies and Civilizing Processes’. Body and Society,
Mar 2006; vol. 12: pp. 69-95. online and in library
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Arvidsson, A. (2011). Toward a Branded Audience: On the Dialectic Between Marketing and
Consumer Agency. The Handbook of Media Audiences, 267–285.
Auslander, L. (1996) The Sex of Things: Gender and Consumption in Historical Perspective by
Victoria de Grazia; Ellen Furlough. (University of California Press. Los Angeles and
London).
Baker, S. E. (2012). Retailing retro: Class, cultural capital and the material practices of the
(re)valuation of style. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 15(5), 621–641.
Botterill, J. (2010) Consumer Culture and Personal Finance: Money Goes to Market,
(Basingstoke, New York: Palgrave Macmillan).
Brosius, C. (2010) India’s Middle Class: New Forms of Urban Leisure, Consumption and
Prosperity. New Delhi, Routledge India.
Bryman, A. (1999) ‘The Disneyization of Society’, Sociological Review 47(1): 25–47.
Bryman, A. (2004) The Disneyization of Society. (London: Sage).
Campbell, C. (1997). Romanticism, Introspection and Consumption: A Response to Professor
Holbrook. Consumption Markets & Culture, 1(2), 165–173.
Campbell, C. (1987) The Romantic Ethic and the Spirit of Modern Consumerism. Oxford:
Basil Blackwell, 1987
Chan, A. H. N. (2000) ‘Middle Class Formation and Consumption in Hong Kong' in Chua, B. H.
(ed) Consumption in Asia: lifestyles and identities (London: Routledge).
Chua Beng Huat (2003) Life is not complete without shopping. Singapore, NUS.
Cook, D. T. (2004). Beyond Either/Or. Journal of Consumer Culture, 4(2), 147–153.
Davila, A. (2010) ‘A Nation of "Shop 'til you Drop" Consumers? On the Overspent Puerto
Rican Consumer and the Business of Shopping Malls’ in Aronczyk, M. and Power, D.
(eds) Blowing up the Brand. Critical Perspectives on Promotional Culture (New York:
Peter Laing Publishing) pp. 93-114.
Amy-Chinn, Dee, Jantzen, Christian, Ostergaard, Per (2006) ‘Doing and meaning: Towards an
integrated approach to the study of women's relationship to underwear.’ Journal of
Consumer Culture, Nov 2006; vol. 6: pp. 379-401
Ewen, S. and Ewen, E. (1982) Channels of Desire: Mass Images and the Shaping of American
Consciousness (co-authored with Elizabeth Ewen), New York: McGraw-Hill, 1982.
Falk, Pasi.(1994) The consuming body. London : Sage.
Featherstone, M. (2012) Super-rich lifestyles. In Birtchnell and Caletrío (eds.) Elite
Mobilities. Routledge.
Featherstone, M., (1982),’The body in consumer culture’ Theory, Culture and Society, 1 (2):
18-33.
Featherstone, M., (2000) [1991] Consumer culture and postmodernism.
Fehérváry, K. (2002). American Kitchens, Luxury Bathrooms, and the Search for a ’Normal’
Life in Postsocialist Hungary. Ethnos, 67(3), 369–400.
Fırat, A. F., Pettigrew, S., & Belk, R. W. (2011). Themed experiences and spaces.
Consumption Markets & Culture, 14(2), 123–124.
Frank, T. (1997) The Conquest of Cool (Chicago; University of Chicago Press).
Gökarıksel, B. and Secor, A. (2010) “Between Fashion and Tesettür: Marketing
and Consuming Women’s Islamic Dress” Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies,
2010, 6, 3, 118-148.
Gottdiener, M. (1997) The Theming of America: Dreams, Visions, and Commercial Spaces
(Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press).
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J.Gronow and A. Warde (eds) (2001) Ordinary Consumption,. London: Harwood.
Holbrook, M. B. (1997). Romanticism, introspection, and the roots of experiential
consumption: Morris the Epicurean. Consumption Markets & Culture, 1(2), 97–163.
Horne, J. (2006) Sport in Consumer Culture (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).
Howson, A., (2004) The body in society: An introduction (chapter 4: ‘the body in consumer
culture’).
Humphery, K, (1998) Shelf Life: Supermarkets and the Changing Cultures Consumption,
(Cambridge University Press, Melbourne).
Jagger, E., (2002) Consumer bodies, in Hancock et al (Eds) The body, culture, and society : an
introduction. Buckingham : Open University,.
Jantzen C., Ostergaard, P. and Sucena Viera, C. M. (2006) ‘Becoming a ‘Woman to the
Backbone’: Lingerie Consumption and the Experience of Feminine Identity’, Journal
of Consumer Culture, 6(2): 177–202.
Jenkins, R., Nixon, E., & Molesworth, M. (2011). “Just normal and homely”: The presence,
absence and othering of consumer culture in everyday imagining. Journal of
Consumer Culture, 11(2), 261–281.
Kawamura, Y. (2012). Fashioning Japanese Subcultures. Berg. London and new York.
Knox, H., O’Doherty, D., Vurdubakis, T., & Westrup, C. (2010). THE DEVIL AND CUSTOMER
RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT: Informational capitalism and the performativity of
the sign. Journal of Cultural Economy, 3(3), 339–359.
Leach, W. R. (1993) Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American
Culture (New York: Pantheon).
Mallard, A. (2007) ‘Performance testing: dissection of a consumerist experiment’. In: Callon,
M. Millo, Y. and Muniesa, F. (eds.) Market Devices. Oxford: Blackwell. Pp152-172.
Mort, Frank. 1996. Cultures of consumption. London: Routledge.
Peñaloza, L. 1999. Just doing it: A visual ethnographic study of spectacular consumption
behavior at Nike Town. Consumption, Markets & Culture 2, no. 4: 337–400.
Pine, B. J. and Gilmour, J. H. (2011) The Experience Economy (Boston, MA: Harvard Business
Review Press)
Rafferty, K. (2011). Class-based emotions and the allure of fashion consumption. Journal of
Consumer Culture, 11(2), 239–260.
Rappaport, E. (2000) Shopping for Pleasure: Women in the Making of London's West
End
Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Sassatelli, R. (2007) Consumer Culture: History, Theory and Politics. Los Angeles: Sage.
Juliet Schor (1998) The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don't Need (1998).
Basic Books, New York.
Willis, P. (1990) Common Culture. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Wong, L. (2007). Market Cultures, the Middle Classes and Islam: Consuming the Market?
Consumption Markets & Culture, 10(4), 451–480.
Zhang, L. (2010) In Search of Paradise: Middle-class Living in a Chinese Metropolis. Cornell
University Press.
Zukin S and Kosta E (2004) Bourdieu off-Broadway: Managing distinction on a shopping
block in the East Village. City and Community 3(2): 101–114.
Zwick, D., & Denegri Knott, J. (2009). Manufacturing Customers: The database as new means
of production. Journal of Consumer Culture, 9(2), 221–247.
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discussion questions
Do you think contemporary consumption is ‘mass’ consumption; if it is differentiated, what
markers of difference are most significant?
Consider your last purchase (whether a bottle of water, a night in a casino or a haircut).
Which of the ways of ‘explaining consumption’ help you to understand this purchase?
Are you ‘brand loyal’? Do you think ‘brand culture’ has gone too far?
research question
Investigate the different ways ‘consumers’ are understood and framed in your country by at
least one of the following:
- Market research agencies
- Government policy documents
- Consumer rights organizations
- Academic research into consumers/ or into ‘identity’ groups.
OR
Investigate the history of retail in your local area: which are the oldest forms of retail that
still persist? What can you tell about how shopping used to happen from old buildings?
When did supermarkets first arrive in your area, and what effect did they have?
3. Cultural intermediation 1: the creative industries
Themes: cultural intermediaries, creative work, fashion buyers, designers, work and
precarity.
Aspers, Patrik. (2008). Knowledge and valuation in markets. Theory and Society, 38(2), 111–
131.
Bill, A. (2012): ‘Blood, Sweat and Shears: Happiness, Creativity and Fashion
Education’, Fashion Theory, 16 (1), 49-66
Christopherson, S. (2009) ‘Working in the Creative Economy: Risk, Adaptation, and the
Persistence of Exclusionary Networks’ in McKinlay, A. and Smith, C. (eds) Creative
Labour: Working in the Creative Industries (London: Palgrave Macmillan) pp. 72-90.
Christopherson, S. (2008). Beyond the Self-expressive Creative Worker: An Industry
Perspective on Entertainment Media. Theory, Culture & Society, 25(7-8), 73–95.
Crewe (2003)
Representing Men: Cultural Production and Producers in the Men's Magazine
Market. Berg.
Ebbers, J. J., & Wijnberg, N. M. (2009). Latent organizations in the film industry: Contracts,
rewards and resources. Human Relations, 62(7),
Entwistle, J. (2009) The Aesthetic Economy of Fashion: Markets and Value in Clothing and
Modelling (Oxford: Berg)
Entwistle, J. (2006). The Cultural Economy of Fashion Buying. Current Sociology, 54(5), 704–
724.
Garnham, N. (2005). From cultural to creative industries. International Journal of Cultural
Policy, 11(1), 15–29.
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Gill, R. (2008). Culture and Subjectivity in Neoliberal and Postfeminist Times. Subjectivity,
25(1), 432–445.
Gill, R., & Pratt, A. (2008). In the Social Factory?: Immaterial Labour, Precariousness and
Cultural Work. Theory, Culture & Society, 25(7-8), 1–30.
Godart, F. C., & Mears, A. (2009). How do cultural producers make creative decisions?
Lessons from the catwalk. Social Forces, 88(2), 671–692.
Hesmondhalgh D (2002) The Cultural Industries. London: Sage.
Julier G and Moor L (2009) Conclusion: Counting creativity. In: Design and Creativity: Policy,
Management and Practice. Oxford and New York: Berg, pp. 256–272.
Kong, Lily (2005) The sociality of cultural industries. International Journal of Cultural Policy;
March 2005, Vol. 11 Issue: Number 1 p61-76, 16p
Kong, L., & O’Connor, J. (2009). Creative economies, creative cities: Asian-European
perspectives (Vol. 98). Springer Verlag.
Larner, W., & Molloy, M. (2009). Globalization, the `new economy’ and working women:
Theorizing from the New Zealand designer fashion industry. Feminist Theory, 10(1),
35–59.
Lee, H. K. (2012) ‘Cultural Consumers as “New Cultural Intermediaries”: Manga Scanlators’,
Arts Marketing: An International Journal, 2(2): 131-143.
McKercher, C. and Mosco, V. (eds) (2008) Knowledge Workers in the Information Society
(Lanham MD: Lexington Books).
McKinlay, A. and Smith, C. (2009) Creative Labour: Working in the Creative Industries
(London: Palgrave Macmillan).
McRobbie A (2002) From Holloway to Hollywood: Happiness at work in the new cultural
economy? In: du Gay P and Pryke M (eds) Cultural Economy: Cultural Analysis and
Commercial Life. London: SAGE, 97–114.
Maguire, J. S., & Matthews, J. (2012). Are we all cultural intermediaries now? An
introduction to cultural intermediaries in context. European Journal of Cultural
Studies, 15(5), 551–562.
Maguire, J. S. (2010) ‘Provenance and the Liminality of Production and Consumption: The
Case of Wine Promoters’, Marketing Theory, 10(3): 269-282.
Maguire, Jennifer Smith. (2008). Leisure and the Obligation of Self‐Work: An Examination of
the Fitness Field. Leisure Studies, 27(1), 59–75. doi:10.1080/02614360701605729
Maguire, Jennifer Smith, & Matthews, J. (2010). Cultural Intermediaries and the Media:
Cultural Intermediaries. Sociology Compass, 4(7), 405–416.
Maguire, Jennifer Smith, Strickland, P., & Frost, W. (2013). Familiness as a form of value for
wineries: a preliminary account. Journal of Wine Research, 24(2), 112–127.
Morgan, George; Wood, Julian; Nelligan, Pariece (2013) ‘Beyond the vocational fragments:
Creative work, precarious labour and the idea of 'Flexploitation'. The Economic and
Labour Relations Review : ELRR 24.3
(Sep 2013): 397.
Ross, Andrew. (2009). Nice work if you can get it: life and labor in precarious times. New
York: New York University Press.
Sherman, Rachel. (2010). The Production of Distinctions: Class, Gender, and Taste Work in
the Lifestyle Management Industry. Qualitative Sociology, 34(1), 201–219.
Siebert, S. and Wilson, F. (2013) All work and no pay: consequences of unpaid work in the
creative industries. Work, Employment & Society August 201327: 711-721
Skov, Lise. (2002). Hong Kong Fashion Designers As Cultural Intermediaries: Out Of Global
Garment Production. Cultural Studies, 16(4), 553–569.
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Sommerlund, J. (2008). Mediations In Fashion. Journal of Cultural Economy, 1(2), 165–180.
Stahl, Matt (2013): ‘Specificity, Ambivalence and the Commodity Form of Creative Work’,
Mark Banks, Rosalind Gill & Stephanie Taylor (eds): Theorizing Cultural Work: Labour,
Continuity and Change in the Cultural and Creative Industries London: Routledge,
115-139.
Wernick, A (1991) Promotional Culture: Advertising, Ideology and Symbolic Expression
(London, Sage).
discussion questions
Is the concept of the ‘cultural intermediary’ too generic to be useful?
When so many consumers are also producers of web content, aren’t we all cultural
intermediaries?
Wine-makers and booksellers: what kind of mediation do they engagine in?
research question
Interview a commercial worker (or read an existing interview) to see whether you can elicit
tacit knowledge about this occupation. Consider alternative methods of understanding how
they do what they do, and plan your research carefully.
OR
Take the end credits of a film and investigate the different occupations listed. How might you
characterise these different occupations?
4. Cultural intermediation 2: focus on advertising
themes: working in advertising, knowledge work, knowing markets, marketing, how do
consumers think about advertising? How do we understand adverts.
Alvesson, M. (2004) Knowledge Work and Knowledge Intensive Firms (Oxford: Oxford
University Press).
Araujo, L. (2007). Markets, market-making and marketing. Marketing Theory, 7(3), 211–226.
Botterill, J. (2007). Cowboys, Outlaws and Artists: The rhetoric of authenticity and
contemporary jeans and sneaker advertisements. Journal of Consumer Culture, 7(1),
105–125.
Cochoy, Franck. (2010). “How To Build Displays That Sell.” Journal of Cultural Economy,
3(2), 299–315.
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Crockett, David (2008) Marketing blackness: How advertisers use race to sell products.
Journal of
Consumer Culture, Jul 2008; vol. 8: pp. 245-268
Cronin, A. M. (2004a). Currencies of Commercial Exchange: Advertising agencies and the
promotional imperative. Journal of Consumer Culture, 4(3), 339–360.
Cronin, Anne M. (2004b). Regimes of mediation: advertising practitioners as cultural
intermediaries? Consumption Markets & Culture, 7(4), 349–369.
Ibroscheva, E. (2013). The unbearable lightness of advertising: culture, media and the rise of
advertising in socialist Bulgaria. Consumption Markets & Culture, 16(3), 290–310.
Kemper, S. (2003) ‘How Advertising Makes its Object’. Eds. deWaal Malefyt, T. and Moeran,
B. Advertising Cultures. Berg, Oxford and New York. 35-54
Kobayashi, K. (2011). Globalization, corporate nationalism and Japanese cultural
intermediaries: Representation of bukatsu through Nike advertising at the globallocal nexus. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 47(6), 724–742.
Li, H. (2010) ‘From Chengfen to Shenjia. Branding and Promotional Culture in China’ in
Aronczyk, M. and Power, D. (eds) Blowing up the Brand. Critical Perspectives on
Promotional Culture (New York: Peter Laing Publishing) pp. 145-169.
McFall, L. Advertising: A Cultural Economy (2004) London: Sage
McClintock, A., (2005) Soft-soaping Empire: Commodity racism and imperial advertising, in
Fraser, M and Monica Greco (eds) (2005).The body : a reader. London : Routledge.
Millard, J (2009) ‘Performing Beauty: Dove's "Real Beauty" Campaign’ SYMBOLIC
INTERACTION 32 (2) p 146-168
Moeran, B. (2007). a Dedicated Storytelling Organization: advertising talk in Japan. Human
Organization, 66(2), 160–170.
Moeran B. (2006) Ethnography at Work New York: Berg.
Morais, R. J. (2007). Conflict and confluence in advertising meetings. Human Organization,
66(2), 150–159.
Muller, L. (2005) 'Localizing International Business Services Investment: The Advertising
Industry in Southeast Asia’ in Daniels, P. W., Ho, K. C. and Hutton, T. A. (eds.) Service
Industries and Asia-Pacific Cities : New Development Trajectories (London and New
York: Routledge) pp. 131-149.
Nixon, S. (2003) Advertising Cultures.
Redmond, Sean (2003)’ Thin White Women in Advertising: Deathly Corporeality’. Journal of
Consumer Culture, Jul 2003; vol. 3: pp. 170-190
Xu, Bai Yi. (1991) Marketing to China: One Billion New Customers (Lincolnwood: NTC
Business Books).
Zwick D and Cayla J (eds) Inside Marketing. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
discussion questions
Should keeping up with pop culture to make better adverts count as skilled knowledge
work?
What, if anything, is gained by thinking about commercial work as craft work?
research question
8
Investigate a recent marketing campaign that has caught your eye. Unpick the work that has
gone into it: who produced it? What knowledges did they need? What skills were involved
in its production?
5. Brands
Themes: Brands, brand value, brand everything.
Aronczyk, M. and Powers, D. (2010) ‘Introduction: Blowing up the Brand’ in Aronczyk, M.
and Power, D. (eds) Blowing up the Brand. Critical Perspectives on Promotional
Culture (New York: Peter Laing Publishing) 1-26.
Aronczyk, M. (2008a). Living the brand: nationality, globality and the identity strategies of
nation branding consultants. International Journal of Communication, 2(1), 41–65.
Arvidsson, A. (2005). Brands A critical perspective. Journal of Consumer Culture, 5(2), 235–
258.
Chang (Translated by Yung-chao Liao, H). (2004). Fake logos, fake theory, fake globalization.
Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, 5(2), 222–236.
Craciun, E. M. (2013) Material Culture and Authenticity: Fake Branded Fashion in Europe.
Bloomsbury: London.
Davison, J. (2012) ‘Icon, Iconography, Iconology: Banking, Branding and the Bowler Hat’ in
Puyou, F. R, Quattrone, P, McLean, C and Thrift, N. Imagining Organizations:
Performative Imagery in Business and Beyond (New York, London: Routledge), pp.
152-172.
Harquail, C. (2006) ‘Employees as Animate Artifacts: Employee Branding by ‘Wearing the
Brand’’, in Rafaeli, A. and Pratt M. (Eds.) Artifacts and Organizations: Beyond Mere
Symbolism (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates), pp. 161-180.
Hearn, Alison (2008) `Meat, Mask, Burden`: Probing the contours of the branded `self`.
Journal of Consumer Culture, Jul 2008; vol. 8: pp. 197-217
Veronika Koller (2007) “The World's Local Bank”: Glocalisation as a Strategy in Corporate
Branding Discourse’ Social Semiotics. Volume 17, Issue 1, 2007. 111-131
Lury, C. (2009). Brand as Assemblage. Journal of Cultural Economy, 2(1-2), 67–82.
Moor, L. (2012). Beyond cultural intermediaries? A socio-technical perspective on the
market for social interventions. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 15(5), 563–580.
Moor, Liz. (2008). Branding consultants as cultural intermediaries. The Sociological Review,
56(3), 408–428.
Moor, Liz, & Lury, C. (2011). Making and Measuring Value: Comparison, Singularity And
Agency In Brand Valuation practice. Journal of Cultural Economy, 4(4), 439–454.
Liz Moor (2007) the Rise of Brands. London and New York, Berg.
Powers, D. (2010) ‘Strange Powers: The Branded Sensorium and the Intrigue of Musical
Sound’ in Aronczyk, M. and Power, D. (eds) Blowing up the Brand. Critical
Perspectives on Promotional Culture (New York: Peter Laing Publishing) pp. 285-306.
Roper, S. and La Niece, C. (2009) ‘The importance of brands in the lunch-box choices of lowincome British school children’, Journal of Consumer Behaviour. Volume 8, Issue 23, pages 84–99, March - June 2009
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Schroeder, J. (2012) ‘Style and Strategy: Snapshot Aesthetics in Brand Culture’ in Puyou, F.
R, Quattrone, P, McLean, C and Thrift, N. (eds) Imagining Organizations:
Performative Imagery in Business and Beyond (New York, London: Routledge), pp.
129-151.
Sherry, Jr., John F. 1998. The soul of the company store: Nike Town Chicago and the
emplaced brand-scape. In Servicescapes, ed. J. F. Sherry Jr. Lincolnwood, IL: NTC
Business Books.
discussion questions
Why are fake brands popular?
How has branding changed since the emergence of consumer culture?
What understanding of self-hood is present in the idea of ‘personal branding’?
research question
Consider either a brand that was once the height of fashion and has since become
unpopular, or a brand that has been criticised in the past. Tell the story of this brand by
exploring the connections between brand, product, creative workers and consumers.
6. An Aesthetic economy
Themes: fashion, aesthetics, design, modelling, sensory experiences.
Aspers, P. (2009). Using design for upgrading in the fashion industry. Journal of Economic
Geography, 10(2), 189–207.
Bitner, M. J. (1992). Servicescapes: The impact of physical surroundings on customers and
employees responses. Journal of Marketing 54 (2), 69–82.
Böhme, G. (1993). Atmosphere as the Fundamental Concept of a New Aesthetics. Thesis
Eleven, 36(1), 113–126.
Böhme, G. (2003). Contribution to the critique of the aesthetic economy. Thesis Eleven,
73(1), 71–82.
Cappetta, R. and Gioia, D. (2006) ‘Fine Fashion: Using Symbolic Artifacts, Sensemaking, and
Sensegiving to Construct Identity and Image' in Rafaeli, A. and Pratt M. (Eds.)
Artifacts and Organizations: Beyond Mere Symbolism (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates), pp. 199-????.
Chugh, S., & Hancock, P. (2009). Networks of aestheticization: the architecture, artefacts
and embodiment of hairdressing salons. Work, Employment & Society, 23(3), 460–
476.
De Nora, T. and Belcher, S. (2000) ‘’When You’re Trying Something on you Picture Yourself
in a Place Where they are Playing this Kind of Music’ – Musically Sponsored Agency
in the British Clothing Retail Sector’, Sociological Review, 48(1): 80-101
Entwistle, Joanne (2002) The aesthetic economy: The production of value in the field of
fashion modelling’. Journal of Consumer Culture, Nov 2002; vol. 2: pp. 317-339
Entwistle, J., & Wissinger, E. (2006). Keeping up appearances: aesthetic labour in the fashion
modelling industries of London and New York. The Sociological Review, 54(4), 774–
794.
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Eustace, E. (2012). Speaking allowed? Workplace regulation of regional dialect. Work,
Employment & Society, 26(2), 331–348.
Gökarıksel, B. and Secor, A. (2009) "New transnational geographies of Islamism, capitalism
and subjectivity: The veiling-fashion industry in Turkey", Area, 41, 1, 6-18.
Hall, R., & van den Broek, D. (2011). Aestheticising retail workers: Orientations of aesthetic
labour in Australian fashion retail. Economic and Industrial Democracy, 33(1), 85–
102.
Kniazeva, M., & Belk, R. W. (2007). Packaging as Vehicle for Mythologizing the Brand.
Consumption Markets & Culture, 10(1), 51–69.
Mears, A (2011) Pricing Beauty: The Making of a Fashion Model (2011). Berkeley: University
of California Press.
Molotch, H. (2003) Where Stuff Comes From (London and New York: Routledge).
Postrel, V. (2004) The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value is Remaking
Commerce, Culture and Consciousness (New York: Harper Perennial).
Saito, Y. (2007) Everyday Aesthetics (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press).
Sandıkcı, Ö., and Ger, G. (2010). Veiling in Style: How Does a Stigmatized Practice Become
Fashionable?. Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 37 (June), 15-36.
Todd, A. M. (2004). The Aesthetic Turn in Green Marketing: Environmental Consumer Ethics
of Natural Personal Care Products. Ethics & the Environment, 9(2), 86–102.
Warhurst C. and Nickson D (2001) Looking Good, Sounding Right: Style Counselling in the
New Economy. London: The Industrial Society.
Williams, C. L., & Connell, C. (2010). “Looking Good and Sounding Right”: Aesthetic Labor
and Social Inequality in the Retail Industry. Work and Occupations, 37(3), 349–377.
Wissinger, E. (2012). Managing the semiotics of skin tone: Race and aesthetic labor in the
fashion modeling industry. Economic and Industrial Democracy, 33(1), 125–143.
Witz A, Warhurst C, Nickson D (2003) The labour of aesthetics and the aesthetic of
organization. Organization 10(1): 33–54.
discussion questions
What explains changes in fashion?
Is it acceptable to expect employees to be attractive and to do body work?
What effect might a celebrity endorsement have?
research question
Visit a consumption space – a restaurant, café or bar is ideal. Sit there for a while, noticing
what’s going on around you. Write a summary of its aesthetic and sensory composition.
Consider what part of the aesthetic experience has been managed by commercial workers,
and what part is emerging from your own encounter. How does paid work intersect with
consumption, leisure, sociability and so on.
7. Selling Feeling: emotion and affect in commercial culture
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Themes: emotional capitalism, emotion and affect, sensory experiences, ordinary feelings,
selling feelings, emotional labour.
Carah, N. (2013). Brand value: how affective labour helps create brands. Consumption
Markets & Culture, 1–21.
Gobé, M. (2001) Emotional Branding, Allworth Press, New York, NY.
Gottschalk, S. (2009). Hypermodern Consumption and Megalomania: Superlatives in
commercials. Journal of Consumer Culture, 9(3), 307–327.
Hartmann, B. J. & Ostberg, J. (2013) Authenticating by re-enchantment: The discursive
making of craft production. Journal of Marketing Management. Volume 29, Issue 78, 2013. pages 882-91
Highmore, B. (2011) Ordinary Lives: Studies in the Everyday (New York, London: Routledge)
Illouz, E. (2009). Emotions, Imagination and Consumption: A new research agenda. Journal
of Consumer Culture, 9(3), 377–413.
Illouz, E. (2007a) Cold Intimacies: The Making of Emotional Capitalism (Cambridge: Polity
Press).
Schulz, S. (2008) ‘Our Lady Hates Viscose: The Role of the Customer Image in High Street
Fashion Production’, Cultural Sociology, 2(3): 385–405.
Strickland, P. (2013). Using family heritage to market wines: A case study of three “New
World” wineries in Victoria, Australia. International Journal of Wine Business
Research, 25(2), 125–137.
Bolton, S. C. (2009). Getting to the heart of the emotional labour process: a reply to Brook.
Work, Employment & Society, 23(3), 549–560.
Bolton, S. C., & Houlihan, M. (2010). Bermuda Revisited? Work and Occupations, 37(3), 378–
403.
Brook, P. (2009). In critical defence of “emotional labour”: refuting Bolton’s critique of
Hochschild’s concept. Work, Employment & Society, 23(3), 531–548.
Hochschild, A. (1983) The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling. London:
University of California Press.
Wissinger, E. (2007). Modelling a way of life: Immaterial and affective labour in the fashion
modelling industry. Ephemera: Theory and Politics in Organization, 7, 250–69.
discussion questions
What are the limits to the concept ‘emotional capitalism’?
What does the idea of ‘affect’ add to our understanding of consumer capitalism?
What are the implications of Disney’s strategy of capturing the child?
research question
Find the website of a branding or marketing agency and study how it presents emotion. Use
the different theories of emotion to develop a critique of the site.
8. Service work and the production of consumption
Skill, soft skill, body work, deference, hierarchy, service triangles.
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Gabriel, Y. (2009) ‘Conclusion-Latte Capitalism and Late Capitalism: Reflections on Fantasy
and Care as Part of the Service Triangle’ in Korczynski, M. and MacDonald, C. L.
(eds.) Service Work: Critical Perspectives (New York and London, Routledge) pp. 175190.
Gatta, M. (2009) Restaurant servers, tipping, and resistance. Qualitative research in
accounting and management. v. 6. no. 1/2. 2009. p. 70 - issn: 1176-6093 .
Gatta, M., Boushey, H., & Appelbaum, E. (2009). High-Touch and Here-to-Stay: Future Skills
Demands in US Low Wage Service Occupations. Sociology, 43(5), 968–989.
Gimlin, D. (2007). What Is ’Body Work’? A Review of the Literature. Sociology Compass, 1(1),
353–370.
Kang, M. 2003. “The Managed Hand: The Commercialization of Bodies and Emotions in
Korean Immigrant-Owned Nail Salons.” Gender and Society, 17(6): 820-839.
Tyler, M. and Abbott, P., (1998) Chocs away: weight watching in the contemporary airline
industry, Sociology, 32(3): 433-450
Adkins, L. and Lury, C., (1999) The labour of identity: performing identities, performing
economies, Economy and Society, 28(4): 598-614
Sharma, U. and Black, P (2001) Look Good Feel Better: Beauty Therapy as Emotional Labour,
Sociology, 35 (4): 913-931
Tyler, M. and Hancock, P., (2001) Flight attendants and the management of gendered
bodies, in Backett-Milburn, K. and McKie, L., (Eds) Constructing gendered bodies
Pettinger, L (2005) Gendered work Gendered Work Meets Gendered Goods: Selling and
Service in Clothing Retail Gender, Work & Organization 12 (5) ...460-478
Nixon, D (2009) 'I Can't Put a Smiley Face On': Working-Class Masculinity, Emotional Labour
and Service Work in the 'New Economy' GENDER WORK AND ORGANIZATION
16(3) p300-322
Warhurst, C; Nickson, D (2009) 'Who's Got the Look?' Emotional, Aesthetic and Sexualized
Labour in Interactive Services.’ GENDER WORK AND ORGANIZATION 16 (3)p 385-404
Johnston, A., & Sandberg, J. (2008). Controlling Service Work: An ambiguous
accomplishment between employees, management and customers. Journal of
Consumer Culture, 8(3), 389–417.
Korczynski, M., & Ott, U. (2004). When production and consumption meet: cultural
contradictions and the enchanting myth of customer sovereignty. Journal of
Management Studies, 41(4), 575–599.
Lopez, S. H. (2010). Workers, Managers, and Customers: Triangles of Power in Work
Communities. Work and Occupations, 37(3), 251–271.
Nickson, D., Warhurst, C., Commander, J., Hurrell, S. A., & Cullen, A. M. (2012). Soft skills
and employability: Evidence from UK retail. Economic and Industrial Democracy,
33(1), 65–84.
Nixon, A. E. Yang, L Q, Spector, P. E. and Zhang, X. (2011) ‘Emotional labor in china: do
perceived organizational support and gender moderate the process?’ Stress and
Health Volume 27, Issue 4, pages 289–305, October 2011
Ocejo, R. E. (2012) ‘At Your Service: The Meanings and Practices of Contemporary
Bartenders’, European Journal of Cultural Studies, 15(5): 642-658.
Otis, E. M. (2008). Beyond the industrial paradigm: Market-embedded labor and the gender
organization of global service work in China. American Sociological Review, 73(1),
15–36.
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Pettinger, L. (2005). Friends, relations and colleagues: The blurred boundaries of the
workplace. The Sociological Review, 53, 37–55.
Pettinger, L. (2008). Developing aesthetic labour: the importance of consumption.
International Journal of Work Organisation and Emotion, 2(4), 327–343.
Tyler, M. (2009). Growing Customers: Sales-service work in the children`s culture industries.
Journal of Consumer Culture, 9(1), 55–77.
Weeks, K. (2007). Life within and against work: Affective labor, feminist critique, and postFordist politics. Ephemera: Theory and Politics in Organization, 7(1), 233-49.
Whyte, W. (1946) ‘When Workers and Customers Meet’ in Whyte, W. (ed), Industry and
Society (New York: McGraw-Hill) pp. 123-47.
Sargent, C. (2009). Playing, Shopping, and Working as Rock Musicians: Masculinities in “DeSkilled” and “Re-Skilled” Organizations. Gender & Society, 23(5), 665–687.
Nath, V. (2011) Aesthetic and emotional labour through stigma: national identity
management and racial abuse in offshored Indian call centres. Work Employment &
Society December 2011 vol. 25 no. 4 709-725
discussion questions
Do personal services still matter in the age of online retailing?
How might emotional labour vary between different consumer markets?
In the cases of Otis (and Hanser – not on the list but you might look for some material),
western researchers went to study Asia. How might being an outsider affect the nature of
the knowledge they produced?
research question
Find a training manual or similar for a customer or client-facing occupation and investigate
how emotional management is discussed.
9. Ethics and markets
Themes: ethics of consumption, ethics of work
Arvidsson, A. (2009). The ethical economy: Towards a post-capitalist theory of value. Capital
& class, 33(1), 13–29.
Cheng, H. (2012). Cheap Capitalism: A Sociological Study of Food Crime in China. British
Journal of Criminology, 52(2), 254–273.
Hodson, R. (2001) Dignity at Work. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Land, C., & Taylor, S. (2010). Surf ’s Up: Work, Life, Balance and Brand in a New Age
Capitalist Organization. Sociology, 44(3), 395–413.
Littler, J. (2009). Radical Consumption: Shopping for change in contemporary culture. Open
University Press.
Sandel, M. (2012). What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets. London: Allen Lane.
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Skov, Lise. (2009). Ethics and the fashion industry in West Europe. Creative Encounters
Working Paper, CBS, Copenhagen. Retrieved from
http://openarchive.cbs.dk/handle/10398/7770
Trentmann, F. (2007). Before “fair trade”: empire, free trade, and the moral economies of
food in the modern world. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 25(6),
1079–1102.
discussion questions
Is ‘ethical capitalism’ possible?
Is ‘green consumption’ a good idea?
How would you assess whether commercial work was good or bad?
research question
Identify a consumer campaign you are interested in (e.g. Fairtrade, anti-consumerism, rights for
production workers). Investigate the aims of the campaign and its reception by media and the
relevant industries. Assess what counts as ‘success’ for this campaign, and identify what might
support or interfere with the chances for success.
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Assessment
DEADLINE: 6th Jan.
Your assessment consists of one 3000 word essay that addresses the theme:
How is consumption made possible?
You can decide how to address this theme, and are advised to choose a clear focus for your
essay. Some suggestions for focus are listed below, others will emerge in the course of
classroom conversations, and you may have your own ideas that you can discuss in your
essay tutorial.
1. Tell the story of one commodity (of your choice) from production to consumption,
exploring the themes of the module.
2. Compare brands and their promotion (of your choice), considering the themes of the
module.
3. What space is there for local differences in a globalised commercial culture?
4. Is ethical consumption possible?
5. Does a good commercial worker have to be an active consumer? Are we always
‘working’ as consumers to generate value in capitalism?
6. Is contemporary consumer capitalism radically different from earlier ‘consumer
society’?
All students are invited to an essay tutorial (in pairs or trios) to discuss their intended
assessment with the module leader. These will be arranged in class. You must prepare for
the tutorial by writing a 1-page document, to be submitted 1 week before the scheduled
meeting, that consists of:
1. A statement of how you intend to focus the question into a specific set of themes.
This might also include a geographical or historical focus, or a focus on a particular
dimension of consumption (e.g. food, clothing/fashion, children subcultures,
personal finance, or other of your choice).
2. A paragraph that sets out the story or argument you intend to follow (this can be a
bullet point structure, or a summary in full sentences).
3. A short bibliography of items that are relevant to the essay; at least 2 items should
have been found by the student themselves, in addition to those picked from the
reading list.
This document should be submitted as an appendix to the final essay, after the bibliography.
It is not included in word count. You may choose to add a paragraph on how their original
plan changed – this will help you reflect on how an argument develops. The plan and any
reflections you make will not be marked; they are there to help you develop your skills.
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