Theorizing urban spectacles

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.