The course is available to students of all Master’s programmes at the Faculty of Social Sciences, as well as those of the Master’s Programme in Food Economy and Consumption. Priority is given to Master’s level students, but, depending on the available student places, students pursuing a Bachelor's degree are also welcome.

No more than 40 students will be admitted.

The course is intended to be completed at the beginning of the Master’s level studies.

After completing the course, students will be able to critically interpret phenomena related to the modern economy. The course provides students with the ability to put new phenomena into a wider context and anticipate their development and significance, particularly from the viewpoint of consumers.

Second period of every other academic year, next in 2018

The objective of the course is to describe and interpret the role of consumers in a changing economy, to familiarise students with the dynamics of modern economy and to offer alternative theoretical frameworks that, instead of focusing on technological determinism, put an emphasis on the active role of citizens/consumers. The course consists of interactive lectures, groupwork and its presentation, as well as a written text reflecting on the entire course to be completed individually by each student.

The literature will be announced during the course.

The grade (on a scale of 0 to 5) is based on an assessment of the written work and the rate of active participation.

The assessment matrix and criteria are available on the Moodle site for the course. Graded on a scale of 0 to 5 (0 = Fail, 1 = Passable, 2 = Satisfactory, 3 = Good, 4 = Very Good, 5 = Excellent)

Perspectives to Consumer Studies (5 cr), Service Consumption and Retailing (5 cr), Boundaries of Data Society (5 cr), The Politics of Consumption (5 cr)

Contact teaching 24 h (lectures, class assignments, supervised groupwork)

Reflection writing 24 h

Studying selected related literature 20 h

Groupwork 65 h

Self-assessment and course feedback 2 h