Marketing and (Anti-)Consumerism

Description

CRN: 10301 8-credits; 10472 12-credits
Note: This program will meet from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

This quarter-long program is designed to provide an introduction to and overview of the intersection of three related fields—consumerism, anti-consumerism and marketing, including classical, critical and multidisciplinary perspectives on the field of marketing as it reflects consumer and business participation and behavior in economic exchanges in the marketplace.

In the economic perspective, firms engage in various behaviors and efforts (which could include artifice, persuasion or other means) to influence consumer choice. Firms and consumers are said to be engaging in economic exchanges in pursuit of their own benefit, however calculated or construed. This quarter-long program begins a two-quarter program sequence examining (1) interdisciplinary approaches to the study of consumer behavior, firm marketing behavior and their consequences, as well as (2) an introduction to the art and science of marketing, as reflected in the theories, models and techniques employed in the marketing discipline today.

In fall quarter, we will review the literature from marketing and related disciplines (e.g., economics, psychology and sociology) including classic, critical, practical and recent books, essays and studies, with an eye toward identifying the theories, models and perspectives that help illuminate real-world behavior by firms and consumers. While the primary focus will be on the behavior of marketing firms and consumers in their interdependent courtship of each other in the marketplace, positive and negative spillover effects (i.e., consequences, intentional or not) of these exchanges in the marketplace will also be examined.

Students enrolled in the 12-credit section will participate in an additional research workshop. Topics may include social networking, consumerism and marketing; consumering and/or marketing to women; consumerism and/or marketing to children; and marketing and (anti-)consumerism in other countries or cultures. The underlying goal of the Research Workshop is to help students develop skills in social sicence research.