Dr Donald Slater STC S310

This course is available on the MSc in Global Media and Communications (LSE and Fudan), MSc in Global Media and Communications (LSE and USC), MSc in Media and Communications, MSc in Media and Communications (Research), MSc in Sociology and MSc in Sociology. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

The course will provide a theoretical foundation for researching cultural processes and institutions. The course investigates concepts of culture in relation to core concerns of social theory. This includes both a review of traditions of theorising culture and a consideration of analytical frameworks and debates that have developed in relation to specific social dimensions such as the city, economy, mediation, ethnicity, gender and technology.

10 hours of lectures and 20 hours of seminars in the MT.

P Bourdieu, Distinction (1984); P du Gay (Ed), Production of Culture, Cultures of Production (1997); N Couldry, Inside Culture (2000); T Eagleton, The Idea of Culture (2000); M Featherstone & S Lash (Eds), Spaces of Culture: City-Nation-World (1999); U Hannerz, Cultural Complexity (1992); D Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity (1990); P Jackson, M Lowe et al (Eds), Commercial Cultures: economies, practices, spaces (2000); A McRobbie, In the Culture Society: Art, Fashion and Popular Music (1999); A J Scott, The Cultural Economy of Cities (2000); R Sennett, The Fall of Public Man (1977); D R Slater, Consumer Culture and Modernity, Cambridge (1997); M Smith, Culture: Reinventing the Social Sciences (2000); J Storey (Ed), Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: A Reader (1998); John Thompson, The Media and Modernity (1995)R Williams, Culture and Society (1958).

Coursework (100%, 5000 words) in the LT.

Attendance at all seminars and submission of all set coursework is required.