Branded Dreams, Boss Babes: Influencer Retreats and the Cultural Logics of the Influencer Para-Industry

Abstract

This article critically examines influencer retreats as important sites of industrialization within the social media entertainment industry. Using Pangea Dreams as a case study and drawing on industrial discourses and textual artifacts, including interviews, popular press articles, and social media posts, I argue that influencer retreats constitute sites where assumptions about modes of production, labor, and content are produced and circulated, passing industry lore and knowledge onto those aspiring to break into the scene. Positioning influencer retreats as part of a growing influencer para-industry, I argue that these sites deserve consideration and critical examination as part of the extra-textual field and organizational structure surrounding the rapidly formalizing social media entertainment industry. This research provides insights into processes of industrialization in the social media entertainment industry and its growing para-industry, as well as a critical examination of the ways in which influencer retreats both reflect and reproduce social inequalities and hierarchies within the industry.