Consumption, Class and Culture

Course content

This course aims to explore the role played by culture in generating, maintaining and reproducing inequalities. It first explores the varying models of culture in the theories of inequality. Then, it interrogates how seemingly individual and random choices and experiences, such as our tastes, leisure time activities, friends and emotions are related to inequality. Throughout the course, the most frequently used anlysis methods and the most controversial debates on class cultures will be introduced. The last four weeks aim to utilise the overviewed concepts and debates to understand class-cultural hierarchies in Turkey. By the end of the course, the students will comprehend the relationship between culture, class and consumption, as well as their various workings in the everday life of Turkey.