Course 2007-2008 a.y.

Course Objectives

The aim of this course is to analyze the changes occurred in the 20th century and in particular in the last fifteen years in the sectors of creative industries, especially from the consumers point of view.
The impact of new technologies, the role of intangible elements in the success of a growing number of products, the central position of the aesthetic dimension in the creation processes of new goods and services, the globalization of life-styles and the formation of large scale new markets have radically modified not only the production dynamics of the most traditional cultural products (i.e. works of art, books, music, movies, etc.) but also the perceptions, the expectations and the behaviour of many consumers, not only in the cultural realm.
The course is organized in three sections concerning the relevant issues: in the first the theoretical approach is considered, taking into account the evolutions of academic literature, both the one  consecrated to cultural industries and that more generically linked to the consumerism issue; in the second part the sectorial dimension is analyzed, with a thorough research on five sectors; in the third part specific issues bound to exert a considerable influence on future developments will be discussed.
The frontal lessons will be supported by workshops with professionals and experts and visits to consumption and production centres.

Course Content Summary

The programme is organized in lessons divided in thematic sections. In the first  lessons  theoretical aspects will be dealt with, considering the evolution of considerations on:

• Historical evolution of cultural consumption in the 20th century: the impact of growth on income, education and spare time, the role of technologic and technical evolutions on the modality of production and consumption, the considerations of economic, sociologic and anthropologic disciplines on the nature of such products and on relevant forms of consumption .
• Nature of goods and cultural services:  works of art and collectibles, exhibitions and performances, cultural events, products of publishing cultural industries, such as books, music products, radio, television and cinematographic programmes, design and fashion & life style objects;
• Their distinctive characteristics compared to non-cultural products and the recent contact points (commodification of the aesthetic dimension, ritualization and socialization vs privatization of consumption, creation of groups, communities and creative realms, belonging codes, megabrand vs nologo, peer reviewing and  opinion sharing.
• The modalities of consumption and the anomalies characterizing them: production overload, information asymmetries, difficulty in the selection processes, new forms of consumption linked to technological evolutions, role of the prosumer, new notions of authorship, reallocation of rights of intellectual property, problems with the traditional mechanisms of value appropriation, new models of business to guarantee the survival of threatened sectors.

In the second section we analyze 5 specific sectors, examining recent evolutions linked to the dynamics of the processes of production and consumption, to the transformation of processes, to the steps of creation of perceived value and of reputation of the actors, to the evolutions of behaviours and of strategies of individual consumers and to their pressure and opinion groups. The sectors analyze will be the following:

• art and collectible markets
• exhibitions and performances
• music and discography (traditional and multimedia)
• cinema
• design, fashion and life style

In the second and third lessons block the course will focus on issues that can be considered as key points of the evolution of contemporary cultural consumption. The main issue will be represented by the evolution of consumption communities, crucial communication objective for any product typology; these communities become particularly relevant in the case of symbolic and cultural consumption.

This main issue includes others which will be the object of our common reflection:

• different typologies of aggregation of the communities (ethnic, class-oriented, virtual) and the role of symbolic dimension of consumption producing codes of inclusion and exclusion in micro social systems;
• the relationship and overlapping of consumption and production communities;
• the relevance of the intercultural and crossover dimension set off by consumption and production aggregations. Their contextualization in urban spaces which defines the presence of creative scenes considered as complex systems of consumption and production communities which influence the dynamics of urban improvement.
• Presence and typology of addiction phenomena which become socially institutionalized, creating specific identity community.

Detailed Description of Assessment Methods

Attending students
The final exam includes:

• A final written exam based on the standard program followed in class (67% of the final vote)
• Evaluation of an individual paper (text of at least 5000 words, video, documentary, interviews) on a subject agreed upon with the professors (33 % of the final vote)

Non attending students
The exam on the whole program will be written.

Textbooks

Attending students
Didactic materials are represented by chapters of a book and articles included in a list which will be distributed in the class. All the articles can be downloaded in PDF from the database in the section Riviste of the electronic resources of the Bocconi library.

Non attending students
Besides the material provided to the participants, those who do not participate will have to bring two texts whose titles will be given at the beginning of the course.