Theorizing urban spectacles

Kevin Fox Gotham

City, 2005, vol. 9, issue 2, 225-246

Abstract: In this paper Kevin Fox Gotham critically explores a number of urban festivals in the US city of New Orleans, namely Mardi Gras, the Jazz and Heritage Festival, and the Essence Festival (previous articles in City have looked at similar topics—see for example Tony Harcup (Vol. 4, No. 2) in relation to Leeds, and Kim Dovey and Leonie Sandercock (Vol. 6, No. 1) in relation to Melbourne. Gotham’s central concern is to develop a critical theory of urban spectacles, using the ideas of Guy Debord and Henri Lefebvre, to highlight the conflicts and struggles over meanings of local celebrations, highlight the irrationalities and contradictions of converting cities into tourist spectacles, and wider concerns about the relationship between tourism and local culture. Rather than seeing this spectacularisation of local cultures as simply negative or positive, Gotham discusses how tourism is a conflictual and contradictory process that simultaneously disempowers localities and creates new pressures for local autonomy and resistance. Detailed ethnographic material is used to show how local festivals have become 'battlefields of contention’, with different groups and interests attempting to produce them for their own ends. In the face of globalised forms of cultural production and consumption that limit creativity, we hear voices from local actors who use urban spectacles to sow seeds of dissent, create breeding grounds for reflexive action and launch radical critiques of inequality.

Date: 2005
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13604810500197020 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:cityxx:v:9:y:2005:i:2:p:225-246

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/CCIT20

DOI: 10.1080/13604810500197020

Access Statistics for this article

City is currently edited by Bob Catterall

More articles in City from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().