SOC 478 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Walter Benjamin, Consumerism, The Roots

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 478
• Professor: Graeme Metcalf

Document Summary

Part one: the ideology of consumerism and the rise of the mall. Charles baudelaire social flaneur would (cid:498)stroll or wander(cid:499) As defining buildings: offered consumer a city within a city, accessibility to mobility and options, acted as (cid:498)dream world(cid:499) outside the home, the space itself came to act as spectacle to gaze upon. Shopping for dreams: by 1985, for example. For example: the interior fantasy may stand in stark contrast to its external reality. Controlled space: crawford (!992) devoid of the unseemly, disney offered a self-contained, controlled, insulated environment free of the problems plaging early 20th theme park, for example the ex (toronto) Consumption/consumerism: visitors knew what to expect a tightly regulated world where danger was exchanged for the assurance of fun, safety, family, In three categories: structural, individual and social practice: structural: consider the social structure and institutions that maintain (or challenge) consumerism.