ATS3309 · Producing and consuming Japan: A study tour through local geographies and consumption practices

Overview

This intensive study program enables you to recognise and assess the nature of consumption practices in Japan. Japan is famous internationally for its production of consumer goods. This unit addresses more specifically the diversity of scales of production, and examines the cultural discourses that accompany and frame the marketing and consumption of consumer goods - both tangible as material objects and intangible as experiences, spaces or feelings. Throughout your travels to cities, towns and villages in Japan, you are encouraged to recognise and critically assess such discourses, and to use them to reflect on the diverse and multifaceted nature of contemporary Japanese society, experiencing these places as local geographies, each with their own cultures of production and consumption. You come out of your experience equipped with a more sophisticated understanding of Japanese society and culture, and the nature of production and consumption in a post-industrial, increasingly globalised world.

Areas of study: Cultural competence Global asia International studies Japanese studies

Offerings

Assessment

The Handbook does not list a final examination among the assessment items. That is not a guarantee there is none.

Within semester assessment: 100%

Assessment details may change. Please refer to the assessment information in Moodle closer to the start of the teaching period.

Requisites

The Handbook lists no prerequisite, corequisite or prohibition for this unit.

Learning outcomes

1. Discuss cultures of consumption in Japan;
2. Critically examine the discursive frameworks around consumption;
3. Relate such discourses to broader global challenges;
4. Relate these challenges to their own field of interest or discipline;
5. Deploy theoretical tools to analyse relevant case studies on topics provided or chosen for assessment.

Workload

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

Student experience, not official rules. Nothing here changes what the Handbook says.