Jo Littler

Senior Lecturer, Media and Cultural Studies

Department: School of Arts and Education

Contact

Qualifications

BA, MA, PGCHE, PhD

Research Interests

Jo Littler’s work gravitates towards intersections between the politics of globalization, consumer culture and the media and cultural industries. These interests have taken three main directions in her research: first, work on the mediation of global trends in anti-consumerism and ethical consumption; second, on the relationship between consumer culture, cultural institutions, heritage and display; and third, on the media and cultural industries, particularly concepts of celebrity and work.

Jo has given many invited talks – from Boston to Luton to Paris - and is on the editorial boards of Soundings: A Journal of Politics and Culture,Cultural Studies and Celebrity Studies. She is research convenor for Media, Culture and Communications and welcomes enquiries from potential PhD students.

Biography

Publications

Books

  • Jo Littler, Radical consumption: Shopping for change in contemporary culture (Open University Press, 2009)
  • Jo Littler and Roshi Naidoo (eds) The Politics of Heritage: the legacies of ‘race’ (Routledge, 2005).

Edited journals

  • Jo Littler, ‘Celebrity and the Transnational’, issue of Celebrity Studies, Vol 2, Issue 1, 2011. To be reprinted by Taylor and Francis as a book, 2012.
  • Jo Littler and Sam Binkley, (eds) ‘Anti-consumerism and cultural studies’, issue of Cultural Studies 2008, Vol 22 No 5. Reprinted by Taylor and Francis as a book, 2011.
  • Editor of Mediactive Vol 1, Issue 2: Celebrity, 2004.

Peer-reviewed journal articles

  • Jo Littler and Nick Couldry, ‘Work, Power and Performance: Analysing the 'reality' game of The Apprentice'. Cultural Sociology 5:2 2011 pp263-279.
  • Jo Littler and Steve Cross, ‘Celebrity and Schadenfreude: The Cultural economy of fame in freefall’, Cultural Studies 24:3, 2010 pp395-417
  • ‘I feel your pain: Celebrity do-gooding, cosmopolitan caring and the globalised soul’, Social Semiotics, 2008 18:2 pp237-251
  • Jo Littler and Sam Binkley, ‘Cultural Studies and Anti-Consumerism: A Critical Encounter’, Cultural Studies, 2008 22:5.
  • Jo Littler and Liz Moor, ‘Fourth worlds and neo-Fordism: American Apparel and the cultural economy of consumer anxiety’. Cultural Studies, 2008 22:5.
  • ‘Beyond the Boycott: anti-consumerism, cultural change and the limits of reflexivity’, Cultural Studies, 2005 19:2, pp. 227-252
  • ‘Celebrity and “meritocracy”’, Soundings: A Journal of Politics and Culture, Issue 26, Spring 2004, pp118-130
  • ‘Making fame ordinary: intimacy, reflexivity and ‘keeping it real’, Mediactive, Issue 2, 2004, pp8-25.

Chapters and articles in edited books

  • Jo Littler, ‘Good Housekeeping: Green products as consumer activism’ in Sarah Banet-Weiser and Roopali Mukherji (eds) Commodity Activism (NYU Press, forthcoming 2011)
  • Jo Littler, ‘What’s wrong with ethical consumption?’ in Tania Lewis and Emily Potter (eds) Ethical Consumption: A Critical Introduction (Routledge, 2011)
  • Jo Littler and Jeremy Gilbert, ‘Radicalism: Strategies, ecologies, roots’ in Jonathan Pugh (ed) What is Radical Politics Today? (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009)
  • ‘Gendering anti-consumerism: consumer whores and conservative consumption’ in Kate Soper, Martin Ryle and Lyn Thomas (eds) The Politics and Pleasures of Consuming Differently: Better than Shopping (Palgrave, 2009)
  • Nick Couldry and Jo Littler, 'The work of work: Reality TV and the negotiation of neoliberal labour in The Apprentice’ for Thomas Austin and Wilma de Jong (ed) The Documentary Reader (Open University Press 2008)
  • ‘Heritage and ‘Race’’ in Brian Graham and Peter Howard (eds) Ashgate Research Companion to Heritage and Identity (Ashgate, 2008)
  • ‘Celebrity CEOs and the cultural economy of tabloid intimacy’ in Su Holmes and Sean Redmond, A Reader in Stardom and Celebrity (Sage 2007)
  • ”Festering Britain”: The 1951 Festival of Britain, national identity and the representation of the Commonwealth’ in Simon Faulkner and Anandi Ramamurthy (eds) Visual Culture and Decolonisation In Britain (Ashgate, 2006)
  • ‘British heritage and the legacies of ‘race’’ in Jo Littler and Roshi Naidoo (eds) The Politics of Heritage: the legacies of ‘race’ (Routledge, Comedia series, 2005)
  • Jo Littler and Roshi Naidoo, ‘White past, multicultural present: heritage and national stories' in Robert Philips and Helen Brocklehurst (eds) History, Identity and the Question of Britain (Palgrave, 2004). Reprinted in Laurajane Smith (ed) Cultural Heritage: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies (Routledge, 2007).
  • ‘Creative Accounting: Consumer culture, the ‘creative economy’ and the cultural policies of New Labour’ in Tim Bewes and Jeremy Gilbert (eds) Cultural Capitalism: Politics after New Labour (Lawrence & Wishart, 2000)

Some other writings

  • Review of Andrew Ross, Nice Work If You Can Get It and Brett de Barry (ed) Universities in Translation for Radical Philosophy October 2010 No. 164
  • ‘Mediating climate change’ Interview with George Monbiot, Max Boykoff and Mike Goodman for Soundings 48, 2009 pp47-64. Reprinted in Eurozine.
  • ‘Tackling turbo consumption’ An interview with Juliet Schor, Soundings, Issue 34 2006. Different version printed in Cultural Studies, 2008 Vol 22 No 5.
  • ‘Consumers: agents of change?’ interview with Kate Soper and Clive Barnett for Soundings: A Journal of Politics and Culture, Issue 31 2005, pp.147-160
  • ‘Change – a – lejuah!’ Interview with anti-consumer activist Reverend Billy and Savatri D., Red Pepper, October 2005

Some recent talks

Dec 2011 Keynote, ECREA @ LSE Media and Communications symposium, The Mediation of Scandal and Moral Outrage

Nov 2011 Invited Speaker, Popular Culture and World Politics post-conference symposium, The University of Lapland.

Nov 2011 Invited Speaker, Research Seminar, ICS University of Leeds.

Sep 2011 Invited Speaker, ‘Inter-disciplinary perspectives on consumption, ethics and sustainability’ day event, Royal Holloway University of London.

 

Other activities

Reviewer of academic book proposals, projects and papers for Continuum, NYU Press, Palgrave Macmillan, McGill-Queens University Press, Pluto Press, Polity, Routledge, Zed Books, Antipode, British Journal of Sociology, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Cultural Studies, Culture and Organization, The European Journal of Cultural Studies, Educational Philosophy and Theory, Environment and Society, New Formations,Journal for Cultural Research, Social Semiotics,Sociological Inquiry, Soundings, Subjectivity, Research Foundation Flanders and the ESRC.

Co-Investigator, Spectactular Environmentalisms, AHRC-funded Research Network

Regular book reviewer for The Guardian

External examiner, BA Media and Communication Studies, Goldsmiths

Bookmark and Share