• Describe and explain the fundamental theoretical concepts and frameworks within the field of Consumer Culture Theory conceptualizing the consumer, culture, consumption and marketing as well as the relationship between them
• Apply these different theoretical concepts and frameworks on some typical phenomena in consumer culture of today in order to describe and analyze these phenomena
• Apply these different theoretical concepts and frameworks on some typical phenomena in consumer culture of today and critically reflect on how different frameworks affect the analysis
• Critically reflect on theoretical and practical aspects the field of Consumer Culture Theory and its relation to adjacent fields.

The aim of the course is to introduce students to Consumer Culture Theory (CCT), a family of theoretical approaches viewing consumption not as an individual need-fulfilling activity but as a way to construct and communicate meaning in society.Consumer culture can be described as the context where this meaning construction and communication takes place. In consumer culture, consumers as well as public and commercial actors of different sorts are in a constant process of negotiating the meanings of things and services and students are introduced to theories investigating these negotiation processes. Upon completing the course, students should be able to understand the role which companies and consumers as well as public institutions play in consumer culture. Students will reflect and apply the knowledge about various CCT theories learned through textbooks and academic journal articles. The CCT perspective is of uttermost importance to marketers working in an increasingly uncertain and complex world of marketing practices, facing various ethical, moral and social dilemmas as part and parcel of their marketing work.
 
The course will cover the following areas:
·         Theoretical approaches to consumption;
·         The role of marketing in consumer culture;
·         Critical approaches to marketing and consumption
·         The history of consumer culture;
·         Consumption, modernism and postmodernism;
·         Needs and wants;
·         Branding, identities and meaning ;
·         Advertising, semiotics and meaning;
·         Consumer resistance;
·         Ethics and globalization

Books
Ellis, N. et al. (2011), Marketing: A Critical Textbook, Los Angeles, London, New York: Sage.
 

MA Theses :

Foo, Miriam Marquard (2017): From Jewelry Selections – You are what you Wear and the Stories you Keep.

Jackson, Anne Toldbod (2016): Value Creation in Commercial Pop-Up Activities: A Qualitative Study of Value Co-Creation from a Consumer Perspective.

Ølgod, Birgitte Friis (2016): You are what you Eat – and the Company you Keep.

Articles:

Arnould, Eric J. & Craig J. Thompson (2005), "Consumer Culture Theory (CCT): Twenty Years of Research," Journal of Consumer Research, 31 (March): 868-882.

Søren Askegaard & Jeppe Linnet (2011), “Towards an Epistemology of Consumer Culture Theory: Phenomenology and the Context of Context”, Marketing Theory, vol. 11 (4), 381-404.

Bardhi, Fleura, Jacob Östberg & Anders Bengtsson (2010), "Negotiating cultural boundaries: food, travel and consumer identities," Consumption Markets & Culture, 13 (2): 133-157.

Belk, Russell W (1988),  “Possessions and the Extended Self,” Journal of Consumer Research, 15 (2): 139-168.

Belk, Russell & Gregory S. Coon (1993) “Gift Giving as Agapic Love: An Alternative to the Exchange Paradigm Based on Dating Experiences,” Journal of Consumer Research 20 (3): 393-417.

Belk, Russell W., Güliz Ger & Søren Askegaard (2013),”The Fire of Desire: A Multisited Inquiry into Consumer Passion,” Journal of Consumer Research, 30 (3):  326-351

Cova, Bernard (1997), "Community and Consumption: Towards a definition of the Linking Value of Products and Services, European Journal of Marketing, 31 (3/4): 297-316.

Firat Fuat, A. and Alladi Venkatesh (1995), "Liberatory postmodernism and reenchantment of consumption," Journal of Consumer Research, 22 (3): 239-267.

Frow, P., Adrian, Pennie Payne, &  Kaj Storbacka  (2011). Co-creation: a typology and conceptual framework.  Proceedings of ANZMAC (pp. 1-6).

Jantzen, Christian & Per Østergaard, (2001). “Shifting perspectives in consumer research: From buyer behaviour to consumption studies.”  Interpretive consumer research, 9-23 (Book Chapter)

Kjeldgaard, Dannie & Jacob Östberg (2007), "Coffee grounds and the global cup: Glocal consumer culture in Scandinavia," Consumption, Markets & Culture, 10 (2): 175-187.

Llamas, Rosa & Thyra U. Thomsen (2016), “The Luxury of Igniting Change by Giving: Transforming Yourself While Transforming Other’s Lives,” Journal of Business Research, 6 (1), 166-176.

Puntoni, Stefano, Jonathan Schroeder and Mark Ritson (2010), "Meaning matters: polysemy in advertising," Journal of Advertising, 39 (2): 51-64.

Saarijärvi, Hannu, P.K Kannan & Hannu  Kuusela. (2013). Value co-creation: theoretical approaches and practical implications. European Business Review, 25(1): 6–19

Scott, Linda M. (1992), "Playing with Pictures: Postmodenrism, Poststructuralism, and Advertising Visuals," Advances in Consumer Research, eds. John Sherry and Brian Sternthal, Provo: UT: 596-612

Thompson, Craig & Arsel, Zeynep (2004), "The Starbucks Brandscape and Consumers' (Anticorporate) Experiences in Glocalization," Journal of Consumer Research, 31 (December): 631-42

Vargo Sl. L. & R. F. Lush (2004), “Evolving to a New Dominant Logic For Marketing,” Journal of Marketing,“68 (January), 1-17

Vargo Sl. L. & R. F. Lush (2008), “Service Dominant Logic: Continuing the Evolution,” Journal of Academic Marketing Science, 36 (1), 1-10.

Wallendorf, Melanie & Eric Arnould (1991) “’We Gather Together’: Consumption Rituals of Thanksgiving Day” Journal of Consumer Research, 18 (1), 13-31.

Östberg, Jacob (2011). “The Mythological Aspects of Country-of-Origin: The Case of Swdishness of Swedish Fashion.” Journal of Global Fashion Marketing, 2-4, 223-234.