Yogyakarta, October 22nd 2021─The Department of Sociology of FISIPOL UGM through the Social Research Center or SOREC in collaboration with the Postgraduate School of Cultural and Media Studies Program (KBM) held a book discussion on Friday (22/10). In accordance with the title, namely “The Road to Utopia: Juliet B. Schor on Consumerism, True Prosperity, and Sustainable Lifestyles”, Prof. Dr. Heru Nugroho━Professor at the Department of Sociology, FISIPOL UGM with an interest in the study of Critical Theory, Economic Sociology, and Social Criticism of Technology━discussed an article in the book “Across Borders” published by (KBM) regarding Juliet B. Schor’s views on consumerism, true prosperity, and sustainable lifestyles.
As an opening and introduction, Heru explained the reasons for his interest in the ideas initiated by Juliet B. Schor, as well as a brief profile of one of the most influential female sociologists according to this thoughtco. In discussing Schor’s ideas, of course Heru also does not forget the social context that underlies Schor’s thinking. From there, Heru explained Schor’s thoughts in more depth, which were in line with the courses he taught, namely Sociology of Economics and Political Economy.
Completing the presentation from Heru, Rony K. Pratama, M.A.━Alumni of the UGM Graduate School of Teaching and Learning Program━as the moderator, invited Dr. Tyas Retno Wulan, M.Sc., Head of the Soedirman University of the Department of Sociology with expertise in international migration and gender, children, and community services, to participate in providing the discussion. Tyas’ discussion consists of four main points. On the first point, Tyas invited the participants to understand Schor’s position. Departing from this understanding, the participants were invited to see the main ideas of Schor in the Indonesian context. Tyas also gives an objective assessment of Schor’s ideas by presenting his criticism on the third point. This critical point of view is also presented in Heru’s writing, which is applauded by Tyas in the fourth point regarding critical notes and discussion materials.
The discussion continued with a question and answer session with the participants, and ended with the conclusions drawn by Rony. With a group photo session, the discussion officially ended.