Full Description
NASCAR, Sturgis, and the New Economy of Spectacle maps the structure of economies of spectacle in stock car racing and large displacement motorcycle rallying. The book traces the historical development of economic spectacles and models the structural components and moving parts that sustain them. Economies of spectatorship emerge when activities and legends in the cultural commons are privatized or enclosed as immaterial property. Once privatized, a spectacular diegesis supports a triple-circuit of profit: spectatorship markets (payments to see), sponsorship markets (payments to be seen) and trophy markets (payments to be seen enjoying). Vivid illustrations of legendary action in NASCAR and carnivalesque displays at Sturgis reveal how spectator events function as intensive sites of profit-making in contemporary capitalism.
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
List of Figures and Tables
1. A Historical Sociology of Spectacle: Economics and the Changing Modalities of the Carnivalesque
2. Economies of Spectacle and Micro-Primitive Accumulation: A Tale of Two Cities
3. The Structure of Economies of Spectacle
4. Paying to See: Spectator Markets, the Outlaw Biker Legend and the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally
5. Paying to be Seen: Sponsorship Markets, Branding and the Management of Legends
6. Paying to be Seen Enjoying: Trophy Markets, Display and Surplus Enjoyment
7. Dark Spectacle: Authoritarianism and the Aestheticization of Economics
8. The Future of Economic Spectacles: Virtual Augmentation and the Dialects of Aura
References
Index
