NASCAR, Sturgis, and the New Economy of Spectacle

by Daniel Krier, William J. Swart

Overview

In this provocative and original monograph, Krier and Swart argue that NASCAR and the carnivalesque displays at Sturgis’s mass motorcycle rallies reveal how spectator events of this scale have come to function as intensive sites of profit making in contemporary capitalism. The authors lucidly trace the historical development of these economic spectacles and analyze the structural components that sustain them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781608468355
Publisher:	Haymarket Books
Publication date:	03/20/2018
Series:	Studies in Critical Social Sciences
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Daniel Krier (Ph.D. Kansas) is associate professor of Sociology at Iowa State University. His writings on critical theory and political economy include Speculative Capitalism: Stock Market Power and Corporate Change (W.H. Freeman & Co., 2005) and the co-edited volume Capitalism’s Future: Alienation, Emancipation and Critique (Brill 2016).

William J. Swart (PhD Kansas) is professor of Sociology and Director of the Civitas Honors Program at Augustana University. His articles on critical theory, social movements and identities have appeared in The Sociological Quarterly, Current Perspectives in Social Theory, and Critical Sociology.

Table of 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