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Netflix’s (2018) Tidying Up with Marie Kondo series marked a cultural moment where the ‘danger’ of clutter became a collective and pressing concern. The series advocated for a mindful approach for how we manage our surrounding material worlds and cast scrutiny on how we store, use and cling-onto our possessions and how they should ‘spark joy’. This course will examine this proliferation of popular interest into consumption and divestment practices focusing on a number of themes such as the meaning of material goods, how we construct our identities, upcycling practices, defining waste, design aesthetics and Instagram culture and alternative second-hand markets. Drawing on a range of sources including academic texts, personal memoirs, popular media content, internet memes, etc., we will engage meaningfully in anthropological discussion about this ‘clutter complex’ in contemporary times.
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