BHUM 17A41 - Protest and the Market: Countercultures and the Cultural Industry in the US from 1945 to the Present

This course examines the relationship between countercultures and the cultural industry in

the United States since the post-war period, while also exploring the tension between

everyday cultural practices and their instrumentalization by the state and markets. It looks at

how dissenting ideas spread and how they are economically and politically recuperated.

We will study six periods: post-war cultural protests (1945-1960), social and anti-war

movements (1960-1970), the commercialization and rise of punk (1970-1980), the American

cultural hegemony during the Reagan era (1980-1990), globalization and cultural

appropriation (1990-2000), and finally, the changes of the digital age and "culture wars"

(2000-present). The course will use classic sociological and philosophical texts (Adorno,

Bourdieu, Du Bois, Becker) and various materials (films, articles, archives) to explore the

tension between protest and commercialization.

Oral group project on a movement, a cultural event, a work, or an artist placed in its

sociological and political context

Final written exam

Participation