The lecture course provides social scientific perspectives on consumption from the fields of economic sociology, sociology and social psychology. The course is intended for both MA and PhD level students at the universities of Tampere, Turku and Jyväskylä.

The course consists of the following lectures:

Pekka Räsänen (UTU): Consumption from the perspective of economic sociology

Taru Lindblom(UTU): Food consumption, status struggle and  economic inequality

Atte Oksanen (UTA): Debt problems and life-course transitions

Mette Ranta(JYU): Towards youth financial independence: Psychological and societal factors

Minna Autio(HU): Sustainability in consumption: goods, services and innovations

Semi Purhonen(UTA): Cultural stratification: Starting points and recent debates

Terhi-Anna Wilska(JYU): Consumption, necessities and excess

Turo-Kimmo Lehtonen & Olli Pyyhtinen(UTA): Consumption and waste

In addition, thematic readings will be suggested for each lecture. All the lecture videos and course readings are available for students in the Moodle platform. 

Students from university of Tampere, Turku or Jyväskylä may enrol via email (anu.sirola[at]uta.fi) to get the access to the course?s Moodle platform.

Following requirements for 5 ECTS:

1) Lecture diary in English or in Finnish (max 300 words/lecture, in total 2400 words)

2) Essay in English or in Finnish (max 3000 words including a reference list). Each lecture will include additional reading package (i.e. scientific articles). At least 3 articles should be used in the essay.

The due date for course assignments (lecture diary + essay) is the 12th of December.

This online course can be started and accomplished during the periods I and II. Due date for the course assignments is 12th December.