996012 Seminars in the history of consumption (BS) (WiSe 2012/2013)

In these seminars I would like to introduce and discuss some of the writing and ideas that have influenced my work on the history of consumption, and in particular on retailing and coffee. The reading list for each seminar contains one piece of assigned (i.e. compulsory) shared reading for discussion, and some additional pieces for follow up reading, including, at times, some unpublished work of my own. Copies of this will be supplied on strict condition that they are not cited or reproduced without specific permission. I am also looking forward to hearing about seminar participants own work, and would ask them to think about introducing these for discussion during these seminars.

Introductory Reading on Consumption History
What do we understand by the history of consumption? What are its subjects and methodologies?
Reading:
Sharon Zukin and Jennifer Smith Maguire, ‘Consumers and Consumption’ Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 30 (2004), pp. 173-197.
Additional:
Frank Trentmann, ‘Consumption’ in John Merriman and Jay Winter eds., Europe since 1914: Encyclopaedia of the Age of War and Reconstruction, 2006, vol. 2, 704-17

SEMINAR PROGRAMME

WEDNESDAY 12TH
11:30-13:30 and 15:30-17:30

1. Retail Structures
How have retailing and distribution structures evolved over time? How have these differed between Europe and America? What implications do these have for shoppers, shopkeepers, and societal structures?
Reading:
Victoria de Grazia, ‘Changing Consumption Regimes in Europe 1930-1970’ in Susan Strasser, Charles McGovern and Matthias Judt eds., Getting and Spending. European and American Consumer Societies in the Twentieth Century, 1998, 59-84
Additional:
Jonathan Morris, ‘Contesting Retail Space in Italy: Competition and Corporatism 1915-1960’, The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research 9:3 July 1999 291–306

2 Third Places as Business Spaces
Are pubs, cafes etc. best understood as ‘third places’ between work and home? Are there differences in their effectiveness in generating social capital? What is the nature of the relationships between the customers and the proprietors?
Reading:
Ray Oldenburg, The Great Good Place, 1989, Ch.1 pp.3-19
Forthcoming:
Jonathan Morris, ‘Coffee House Formats through the Centuries: Third Places or Public Spaces?’ In Thurston, Morris, Steiman, eds. Coffee: A Handbook, 2013

THURSDAY 13TH DECEMBER
10:00-12:00 and 14:00-17:00

3. Commodity History
How can we write histories of commodities? What kinds of overarching narratives and interpretative frameworks should be privileged? How can capture the diversity of experiences at all stages of the chains linking commodity to consumer? What light does the production and consumption of commodities cast upon the global and the local?
Reading:
Bruce Robbins, ‘Commodity Histories’, PMLA (Proceedings of the Modern Languages Association) 120:2 (March 2005), 454-463.
Additional:
Jonathan Morris, ‘Chocolate, Coffee and Commodity History’, Food and History (forthcoming 2013)

4. Student Presentations

FRIDAY 14TH DECEMBER
10:00-13:00
5. The Production of Culture (with Klaus Nathaus)
How do we explain the changes in taste and genres within fields of cultural production such as music, film and literature? What is the relationship between consumer ‘demand’ and producer ‘supply’ in these fields? Can analytical models such as that of the ‘production of culture’ be extended to popular cultural practices beyond the artistic sphere?
Reading:
Richard A. Peterson, N. Anand, ‘The Production of Culture Perspective’, Annual Review of Sociology, vol. 30 (2004), pp.311-34.

6. COLLOQUIUM: ‘The Cappuccino Conquests: The Transnational History of Italian Espresso’
Vortrag um 16 Uhr in S2-147

External comments page

http://www.uni-bielefeld.de/bghs/programm/gastlehrende.html