Goldsmiths - University of London

Dr. Liz Moor

My research looks at the role of communication in organising economic life. So far this has been focused on two main areas: brands and branding, and the design industry. My book The Rise of Brands (Berg, 2007) examined the emergence of the branding industry, and traced its connection to changing international trade regimes, new modes of governance and the context of a more developed media and information society. The book also looked at the relationship between branding and intellectual property regimes, and at the global, national and local dynamics at play in various types of brand communications.

A second book, Design and Creativity: policy, management and practice (Berg, 2009, with Guy Julier), is an edited collection looking at the use of different design methods and practices by business and government, the forms of audit, management and accountability associated with this, and their implications for traditional understandings of creativity.

More recently I have been interested in the extension of market logics into the public realm, and I have published work on the use of ‘social marketing’ techniques by governments.

Before joining the department, I taught Media and Cultural Studies at Middlesex University, and before that I wrote my PhD – about the spatial and architectural dimensions of brand communications – in the Sociology department at Goldsmiths.

Areas of supervision

I am interested in supervising postgraduate research about communication in economic life, particularly from the perspectives of cultural economy, economic sociology and the sociology of consumption and markets.

I am the co-convenor of the BA Media and Sociology. I am also the convenor of the MA in Brands, Communication and Culture. Please email me for further information about either programme. 

In March 2012, I will be a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the Université de Toulouse II.

Selected publications

(2011, in press) (with Celia Lury) ‘Making and Measuring Value: Comparison, singularity and agency in brand valuation practice’, Journal of Cultural Economy, Vol. 4. No. 4.

(2011) ‘Neoliberal Experiments: social marketing and the governance of populations’, in D. Zwick and J. Cayla, eds. Inside Marketing, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

(2011) 'The Making of Place: Consumers and Place-affiliated Brands', in A. Pike (ed.) Brands and Branding Geographies, London: Edward Elgar.

(2010) (with Celia Lury) 'Brand Valuation and Topological Culture', in M. Aronczyk and D. Powers, eds. Blowing Up the Brand, New York: Peter Lang.

(2009) ‘Global Brands’, Global Media and Communication, Vol. 5, No. 1.

(2009) 'Designing the State', in G. Julier and L. Moor, eds. Design and Creativity: policy, management and practice, Oxford: Berg.

(2009) Design and Creativity: policy, management and practice (co-edited with Guy Julier), Oxford: Berg.

(2008) ‘Branding Consultants as Cultural Intermediaries’, in The Sociological Review, Vol. 56, No. 3.

(2008) (with Jo Littler) 'Fourth worlds and neo-Fordism: American Apparel and the cultural economy of consumer anxiety'. Cultural Studies, Vol. 22, Nos. 5-6.

(2007) The Rise of Brands, Oxford: Berg.

(2007) ‘Sport and Commodification: a reflection on key concepts’, in Journal of Sport and Social Issues, Vol. 31, No. 2.

(2006) ‘‘The Buzz of Dressing’: commodity culture, fraternity and football fandom’, in South Atlantic Quarterly. 105: 2.

(2004) ‘Brands, Property and Politics’, in Soundings 28, Winter 2004.

(2003) ‘Branded Spaces: the scope of New Marketing’, in Journal of Consumer Culture. Vol. 3, No. 1.