Lifestyle and Consumer Culture

Subject 106-226 (2008)

Note: This is an archived Handbook entry from 2008.Search for this in the current handbookSearch for this in the current handbook

Credit Points: 12.500
Level: Undergraduate
Dates & Locations:

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2008:

Semester 2, - Taught on campus.
Pre-teaching Period Start not applicable
Teaching Period not applicable
Assessment Period End not applicable
Last date to Self-Enrol not applicable
Census Date not applicable
Last date to Withdraw without fail not applicable


Timetable can be viewed here. For information about these dates, click here.
Time Commitment: Contact Hours: A 1.5-hour lecture and a 1-hour tutorial per week.
Total Time Commitment: Not available
Prerequisites: Usually fifty points of first year arts including 12.5 pts from an approved study area and completion of the first year Cultural Studies subject 106-101.
Corequisites: None
Recommended Background Knowledge: None
Non Allowed Subjects: None
Core Participation Requirements:

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Student Support and Engagement Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Generic Skills sections of this entry.

It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability may impact on meeting the requirements of this subject are encouraged to discuss this matter with a Faculty Student Adviser and Student Equity and Disability Support: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/disability

Coordinator

Brett Farmer
Subject Overview:

What is lifestyle? When and how did the concept develop, and what functions does it serve in consumer culture today? How does it relate to parallel concepts like taste, style and identity? This subject frames lifestyle as the site where consumer culture and individual identity intersect; where identities are produced through our interactions with the commodities we consume. It approaches lifestyle as the relatively recent invention of advertising, marketing, and related discourses, contextualizing it within the broader rise of modern consumer culture in order to provide a historical framework for understanding the rise and global spread of lifestyle culture today. The subject engages key theories for understanding consumer culture from Marxist accounts of commodity fetishism and alienated labour to contemporary social theories of DIY selves and reflexive individualism. On completion of this subject students should be able to analyse the complex relations between contemporary consumer culture, lifestyle discourse, and individual identity formation, and to trace the workings of these relations through selected cultural sites that may include advertisements, television programs, and Internet sites, and everyday practices like shopping.

Assessment: An essay of 1500 words 40% (due mid-semester) and an essay of 2500 words 60% (due at the end of the semester).Note:Assessment submitted late without an approved formal extension will be penalised at 2% per day. Students who fail to submit up to 2-weeks after the final due date without a formal extension and/or special consideration will receive a fail grade for the piece of assessment.
Prescribed Texts: Prescribed Texts:A subject reader will be available from the University Bookshop.
Breadth Options: This subject is a level 2 or level 3 subject and is not available to new generation degree students as a breadth option in 2008.
This subject or an equivalent will be available as breadth in the future.
Breadth subjects are currently being developed and these existing subject details can be used as guide to the type of options that might be available.
2009 subjects to be offered as breadth will be finalised before re-enrolment for 2009 starts in early October.
Fees Information: Subject EFTSL, Level, Discipline & Census Date
Generic Skills:

  • acquire advanced research and analytic skills;

  • develop critical and ethical self-awareness;

  • acquire an ability to develop and communicate effective arguments in both oral and written form;

  • have acquired basic skills in media and information literacy and management.
Notes:

This subject can be credited as an elective subject towards the Graduate Certificate or Graduate Diploma in Gender Studies.
Related Course(s): Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts(Media and Communications)
Diploma in Arts (Cultural Studies)
Graduate Certificate in Arts (Cultural Studies)
Graduate Certificate in Arts (Gender Studies)
Graduate Certificate in Arts(English Literary Studies)
Graduate Diploma in Arts (Cultural Studies)
Graduate Diploma in Arts (English Literature)
Graduate Diploma in Arts (Gender Studies)

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