GEND206 Gender, Work and Consumer Culture

Explores the relationships between gender, paid and unpaid work, and cultures of consumption. Topics include labour force change, gendered production of consumer goods, fashion, retailing and the consumption of gender identities.

This paper will provide an introduction to the relationships between gender, work (both paid and unpaid) and the emerging field of consumer culture studies. We examine why women and men often experience work differently.
Consumer culture is the other side of the coin: patterns of spending the money we earn. As consumers we often rely on the work of ourselves and others, and we examine how consumer practices are also gendered. Specific topics include assumptions about work, emotional labour, the changing labour force, theories of work and consumption, shopping malls and the ambiguous spaces of suburbia.

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Prerequisite

GEND 101 or GEND 102 or 54 points

Restriction

GEND 306

Schedule C

Arts and Music

Contact

sgsw@otago.ac.nz

More information link

View more information on the Department of Sociology, Gender and Social Work's website

Teaching staff

Lecturer: Associate Professor Chris Brickell and Fairleigh Gilmour

Paper Structure

Key topics:

• Theories of work and consumer culture
• Gender and the labour force
• Unpaid work
• Emotional labour
• Histories of consumer culture
• Gender and shopping
• Malls and department stores
• Suburbia

Teaching Arrangements

Two lectures per week and a tutorial for six weeks of the paper.

Textbooks

Text books are not required for this paper.

Graduate Attributes Emphasised

Communication, Critical thinking.
View more information about Otago's graduate attributes.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the paper, students should:

• Be able to discuss relationships between gender, work and consumer culture
• Think critically about the world of work and consumer culture
• Have had practice in developing written and verbal arguments

^ Top of page

Explores the relationships between gender, paid and unpaid work, and cultures of consumption. Topics include labour force change, gendered production of consumer goods, fashion, retailing and the consumption of gender identities.

This paper will provide an introduction to the relationships between gender, work (both paid and unpaid) and the emerging field of consumer culture studies. We examine why women and men often experience work differently.
Consumer culture is the other side of the coin: patterns of spending the money we earn. As consumers we often rely on the work of ourselves and others, and we examine how consumer practices are also gendered. Specific topics include assumptions about work, emotional labour, the changing labour force, theories of work and consumption, shopping malls and the ambiguous spaces of suburbia.

^ Top of page

Prerequisite

GEND 101 or GEND 102 or 54 points

Restriction

GEND 306

Schedule C

Arts and Music

Contact

sgsw@otago.ac.nz

More information link

View more information on the Department of Sociology, Gender and Social Work's website

Teaching staff

Co-ordinator: Associate Professor Chris Brickell

Paper Structure

Key topics:

• Theories of work and consumer culture
• Gender and the labour force
• Unpaid work
• Emotional labour
• Histories of consumer culture
• Gender and shopping
• Malls and department stores
• Suburbia

Teaching Arrangements

Two lectures per week and a tutorial for six weeks of the paper.

Textbooks

Text books are not required for this paper.

Graduate Attributes Emphasised

Communication, Critical thinking.
View more information about Otago's graduate attributes.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the paper, students should:

• Be able to discuss relationships between gender, work and consumer culture
• Think critically about the world of work and consumer culture
• Have had practice in developing written and verbal arguments

^ Top of page