Consumer Cultures

The Cluster of Excellence “Asia and Europe in a Global Context” is organising a summer school at Heidelberg University devoted to consumerism and its cultural interrelationships. From 24 to 29 July 2011 young scholars from all over the world will be meeting with renowned researchers from a variety of disciplines to discuss consumer behaviour in different countries. The purview also extends to the associated exchange of goods, values and ideas between the cultures.

“The concept of the ‘consumer society’ is always connected with modernity and westernisation,” says Prof. Harald Fuess, organiser of the summer school. “But in fact the concept is neither exclusively modern nor western. That is why we are in pursuit of a transcultural understanding of European and Asian consumer cultures.” One of the central concerns of the summer school is to inquire how consumerism as a phenomenon conditioned by specific cultural factors can be grasped in conceptual terms.

Among the speakers are scholars from the United States, the United Kingdom and France. Alongside lectures, seminars and workshops, the programme of events also provides for various excursions. The opening speech will be held by Prof. Sheldon Garon of Princeton University (USA). His topic is “Why America Spends while the World Saves”.

The summer school “Cultures of Consumption in Asia and Europe” is targeted at advanced students and doctoral candidates, notably those studying cultural and economic history, regional studies, ethnology, anthropology and the social sciences. The application deadline is 31 May 2011. For more information, go to www.asia-europe.uni-heidelberg.de/en/summer-school-2011.


Contact
Dr. Alexander Häntzschel
Cluster of Excellence “Asia and Europe in a Global Context”
phone: +49 6221 544008
haentzschel@asia-europe.uni-heidelberg.de

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