197contEnts
Part one - Jargon Busting: An activity to build
understanding of key terms (sustainable development,
consumerism, globalisation, discourse, communism,
capitalism, postmodernity, postmodernism, modernism), and
encourage the student group, who may not have previously
met, to work together.
Part Two – Timeline: An activity to enable students to
chart the rise of consumer society and discuss key events
in its development.
Part Three - Course outline prepared for second year BA
students at Central St. Martin’s College of Art and Design,
autumn 2007: The Responsibilities of Consumption –
Beyond Shopping
aBstract
Two participatory educational activities are presented,
which were developed for a cultural studies module.
They encourage critical reflection and enable students
to place ethics and sustainability within a historical and
theoretical context. An outline of ‘The Responsibilities of
Consumption: Beyond Shopping’ course offered to all BA
second year Central St. Martin’s students in autumn 2007,
along with the reading list and essay titles for the course,
are also included.
IntroductIon
‘The Responsibilities of Consumption: Beyond Shopping’
was a cultural studies module which looked at ethics and
sustainability within the context of cultural, social and
economic theory. In this course, students examined current
consumption, sourcing and production patterns within
the fashion industry by exploring the historical context in
which consumer society has developed, and considering
the impact of the current economic system - dominated
by multinational corporations concerned with maximising
profits - on producer countries and the environment.
Students then considered whether ‘sustainable’
consumption that is socially just, environmentally sound
and economically viable is an achievable goal within the
postmodern, consumer driven society. The course outline,
reading list and essay questions are presented below.
The objective of the course is based on the notion that
students’ depth of understanding regarding the ethical and
sustainability challenges facing society, and their capacity
to find solutions to these challenges when they enter
the workplace, can be enhanced by teaching the cultural,
social and economic theoretical context of consumption
and production. A fashion design student who appreciates
that consumerism is a defining feature of postmodern life,
and is central in the construction of an individual’s sense
of identity, is better positioned to create garments that try
and reduce levels of consumption, and therefore waste,
whilst feeding an individual’s needs. This could be achieved
by designing something more durable or that can be used
in multiple different ways, whilst maintaining the aesthetic
qualities of the garment. Similarly, a fashion business student
who understands that, in the capitalist economic model a
business is primarily concerned with growing profits for
the benefit of company shareholders will have a greater
notion of the root cause of the need to ‘squeeze’ suppliers
to reduce costs. Armed with this knowledge, they may then
be able to think about whether business could operate in
a different way – in a way that is economically viable but
does not maximise profits at the expense of those further
down the supply chain.Most of the students taking the course came from an
arts background and had little understanding of cultural,
economic and political ideas. Many of the students
responded well to being introduced to ideas that enabled
them to analyse their chosen disciplines - from advertising
to fashion – from a historical and theoretical perspective,
but some struggled with these new abstract ideas. In
order to make the ideas accessible, and encourage critical
reflection, the course was taught using participatory
educational activities, which sought to build on participants’
existing knowledge and experience and engage the
students actively in the sessions. The following activities are
examples of the approach used. The first is an activity in
which students match terms and definitions. The second is
an activity in which students place key historical events on
a timeline. The third part of this contribution is the outline
of ‘The Responsibilities of Consumption: Beyond Shopping’
module.IntEractIVE actIVItIEs