ASOK22204U Consumption, Lifestyle, and the Climate

Consumption is part of pretty much everything we do in society. There is consumption involved in the most mundane routines like sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee and the cell phone. At the same time, consumption and lifestyle are embedded in global challenges such as climate change and increasing inequality. Consumption comes with everyday social activities and local communities such as student life, leisure life and family life and yet its regulated in institutionally, in Denmark and at the level of the European Union through consumer, welfare and agricultural policies embedded in the global economy. Furthermore, sociological research on consumption is one of the areas where societal discussions about climate change and degrowth unfold embedded and influenced in interaction with social movements promoting new practices and habits. This course approaches the sociology of consumption and lifestyle based on Max Weber's and Bourdieu’s work, and international comparative research on key sociological themes such as identity, social change, inequality and power. In the course, the participants insights of what characterizes the field of the sociology of consumption and lifestyle based on timely theoretical perspectives with a focus on students working on concrete empirical case studies on a diversity of topics (including political consumption and media consumption), current discussions (such as change of consumer habits and policy in the context of debates about climate change and degrowth). Students develop research projects that connect theoretical and empirically based analysis of a current consumption and lifestyle phenomenon of their choice.