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A History of Technology, Consumption & Comfort - ARTS3302
Students studying

 
Faculty: Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
 
 
School:  School of Humanities
 
 
Course Outline: School of Humanities Courses 2012
 
 
Campus: Kensington Campus
 
 
Career: Undergraduate
 
 
Units of Credit: 6
 
 
EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)
 
 
Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 3
 
 
Enrolment Requirements:
 
 
Prerequisite: 24 units of credit in either the Environmental Studies stream or the History and Philosophy of Science stream or 72 uoc overall
 
 
CSS Contribution Charge:Band 1 (more info)
 
 
Tuition Fee:See Tuition Fee Schedule
 
 
Further Information: See Class Timetable
 
 

Description

Subject Area: History and Philosophy of Science

This course explores the complex nexus of influences encompassing not only technology but also political economy, philosophy, literature, and popular culture that fused to make mass consumption what it is today. It looks, in particular, at the emergence of contemporary notions of domestic comfort and examines the cultural contemporary pervasiveness of shopping. The course shows that rather than reflecting given human predispositions contemporary consumption was invented and is constituted today through technology, broader material infrastructure, everyday practices and deeply entrenched cultural and broader intellectual norms. The course concludes by exploring the implications emerging from this for the imperative to reduce the material throughput of industrial civilisation in order to ensure future sustainability.

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