Theory Of Spectacle Research Articles

Recuperative Wokeness: Nike and the Commodification of Potential for Social Change

Faced with the increasingly politicized nature of sport and the need for resource accumulation under neoliberal capitalism, brands employ political stances to connect with consumers and expand customer bases. The ubiquity of social media in the present moment offers a unique opportunity to analyze corporate messaging and also audience response. Seven hundred and fifty YouTube comments from three Nike ads were coded. Overall commenters responded positively to Nike acting as a “representative” for progressivism in sport while failing to acknowledge larger social movements or Nike’s own questionable business practices. Using Debord’s theory of spectacle and Fisher’s capitalist realism, we discuss “recuperative wokeness,” our term for how these narratives serve to co-opt activism, and how this works to maintain the legitimacy of neoliberal market system.

Spectacle Construction and Consumption Alienation of Cultural Livestreaming E-commerce

Purpose - Although suffering from a crackdown on after-school tutoring in China, the New Oriental education giant has found new life in livestreaming e-commerce. With their new pattern of livestreaming, New Oriental has shown a special kind of spectacle in cultural communication. Design/methodology/approach – Based on the theory of spectacle and the perspective of case analysis, this study examines the spectacle construction and consumption alienation of New Oriental’s livestreaming. Findings - This study finds that the spectacle of New Oriental’s livestreaming consists of three aspects. “People” in livestream are divided into livestreamers and viewers, they are the main constructors of the livestreaming spectacle; “Commodities” are endowed with symbolic value; and during the livestreaming, self-identification and emotional resonance will be completed in two-way interactions and become a specific “field”. This kind of cultural livestreaming also caused alienation phenomenon in consuming behavior, purposes and objects. Originality/value - This paper extends existing research by examining spectacle construction divided into three aspects, which are the essential construction of the retail industry as well as the core of livestreaming e-commerce. By revealing the consumption alienation and potential problems in this media spectacle, suggestions will be proposed for consumers to promote sustainable consumption.

The battle for trans rights: Political spectacle theory and its implications for education policy

AbstractIn the United States, an increasing political divide and an emphasis on culture war issues have increased legislation and policy targeting transgender and non‐binary students in public education systems. Transgender and non‐binary identities are weaponized by conservative politicians who seek to influence policies in schools. Local, state, and federal protections are the solution to end discriminatory policies and the weaponization of transgender and non‐binary identities for political gain.

Introduction: The Olympic Scholarship of John J. MacAloon

Introduction: The Olympic Scholarship of John J. MacAloon

Sport or Spectacle? The Harlem Globetrotters’ 1955 Visit to Israel

The Harlem Globetrotters basketball team visited Israel as part of its 1955 world tour. As representatives of American culture, the US team challenged the leaders of Israeli sports culture who sought to maintain a tight alignment between local sports, Zionist values, and political interests. This paper uses Debord's society of the spectacle theory to analyse the public criticism of the Globetrotters’ visit to Israel. The analysis finds that the critique, which extended beyond strictly sports criticism, reveals the zeitgeist of Israel’s first decade of independence and its prevalent attitudes toward body culture norms, and illuminates the role assigned to sport in Israeli ethos.

The magic of IPSAS accrual: the real without reality

PurposeThis study examines the controversial success of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) accrual implementation, using the case of Tanzania.Design/methodology/approachInterviews, documentary reviews and observations were used for data collection. This study draws on the spectacle theory for data analysis.FindingsThe findings demonstrate that IPSAS accrual was a spectacle during its production and consumption. The features and forms of the spectacle were revealed in IPSAS accrual during its production and affirmed by actors during its consumption. Further affirmation of IPSAS accrual as the spectacle was revealed through communication of good news and the hiding of bad news. The outcome was the alleged roles of IPSAS accrual.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is limited as it was conducted in only one country. The controversial success is global and calls for further research in other parts of the world.Practical implicationsThe International Monetary Fund should stop recommending implementation of IPSAS accrual along with cash basis as the two systems are incompatible. Moreover, government officials should have alternative thinking presenting a different view of the world, so as to avoid being passive, and focus on reality rather than appearance.Originality/valueThis study is the first to explain the controversial success of IPSAS accrual implementation. It demonstrates the usefulness of spectacle theory in the field of accounting research, especially in the context of reform implementation. Moreover, this study confirms that IPSAS accrual is a spectacle (Uddin et al., 2011).

Racial Misdirection: How Anti-affirmative Action Crusaders use Distraction and Spectacle to Promote Incomplete Conceptions of Merit and Perpetuate Racial Inequality

Despite the marginal success that anti-affirmative action groups have had at paring back the use of race in college admissions practices, affirmative action has remained largely in-tact as a tool to promote diversity on college campuses. But what might happen if “diversity”—the very thing that heretofore has protected affirmative action—was used instead as proof of its supposed unfairness? In this paper, focusing on the Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard case, we will employ Political Spectacle Theory to analyze the strategies and tactics used by the anti-affirmative action groups to distract from their real aims and to divert focus away from mitigating structural inequality.

Leading Through the “Influx:” Leadership Responses and the Influence of a Political Spectacle

Principals encounter numerous crises, such as migration influxes. Relevant literature explains principals respond to these crises in a variety of ways. However, there is a dearth in the literature that examines what influences principals’ responses through a crisis. The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative case study broadly asks, how, if at all, did principals respond to the “influx” of Puerto Rican students, and what factors influenced how the principals’ responded? By applying political spectacle theory, the findings of this study revealed two categories of response: preparing for the influx and recalibration after the influx did not occur. The insights gained from this study extend the knowledge base about principals and how political spectacles influence their responses during a crisis.

Komodifikasi Masyarakat Tontonan dalam Demo Tolak RKUHP dan Revisi UU KPK

Indonesian students on 23 September 2019 then showed forms of opposition to the RKUHP and the Revision of the KPK Law. They show this through the appeals written on the poster during the demonstration. One of the locations that became a meeting point in Gejayan, which is famous for #gejayanmemmon. The purpose of this study is to study how members of the media publish and carry out the commodification of the evaluation measures. The method used in this research is content analysis. Researchers collected some of the content produced by students and posted on the online news web. from the content, then the study conducted an analysis using public spectacle theory from Guy Debord and the commodification of Vincent Mosco. The results of this study indicate that the media are taking advantage of this action by making their action a spectacle for the public. That way the media can get success from the demonstration with a fairly low economic capital, because all the content of the demonstration that has been done has spread through social media. Enough media to sample the content available on social media.

Heritage spectacles: the case of Amphipolis excavations during the Greek economic crisis

This article explores the ways in which the archaeological excavations at Amphipolis, Northern Greece, were transformed into a ‘heritage spectacle’ during the summer of 2014. The article argues that the spectacularisation of Amphipolis excavations constituted a powerful, political medium for dis-orientating the wider Greek public from issues related to the severe economic crisis of the country. Although the practice of heritage spectacularisation is not new, the media spectacle of Amphipolis introduced an advanced mechanism for spectacularizing archaeological research and the past. The article deconstructs this mechanism through a thematic content analysis of about 100 newspaper articles published in the Greek press, filtered through the lenses of spectacle theory. As it is demonstrated, the spectacularisation process of Amphipolis excavations is embodied by emotive dramatisation, banal cultural symbols, escapism and power imbalances. The article concludes with an interpretive framework for heritage spectacles while highlighting ethical and practical implications regarding the role of archaeologists and heritage practitioners towards political ‘abuse’ of heritage in times of socio-economic and political crises.

Putting political spectacle to work: Understanding local resistance to the Common Core

In the fall of 2013, a parents’ group formed to protest the new Common Core based mathematics textbook recently adopted by their school district. Quickly allying with teachers, the new coalition began to, “hammer,” the district to drop the Common Core and return to more traditional texts and pedagogies. They did so by speaking at Governing Board meetings, participating in interviews with local newspapers, appearing on a local radio talk show, and forming social media accounts. This intrinsically motivated case study uses qualitative media analysis to examine the texts produced from these and other public declarations to better understand local policy formation through the mechanics of “political spectacle.” Political spectacle theory suggests that policy may be formed through dramatic public displays and that policy formed from such spectacles often undemocratically reinforces existing inequalities. The study analyzes the parent, teacher and administration policy actors’ use of political spectacle elements such as symbolic language, construction of problems, casting of enemies and allies and distinctions between onstage and backstage drama to understand the adoption, challenge and ultimate rejection of a Common Core based mathematics text in a mid-sized southwestern United States School district.

Suzanne Collins’ <i>Hunger Games</i> and the Society of the Spectacle

The theory of spectacle is introduced by Guy Debord in his famous book The Society of Spectacle. Debord presents the society of Spectacle as a mere representation of seemingly real images which is used by the capital for its own good. Spectacle consists of images such as games, entertainments or television shows which are political tools in the hands of the Capitol to stabilize its power. In fact, by applying these images through different exciting entertainments and shows, the Capitol disperses people more and destroys their unity so that people cannot be united to rebel against the Capitol’s power. This paper tries to apply the theory of spectacle to Suzanne Collin’s Hunger Games and as the title of the novel is very telling of itself, it revolves around the annual event of Hunger Games connoting the starvation of the poor people in the twelve districts and the Capitol. The setting of this novel is Panem which is shown as a dystopia because of its misusing of the modern technologies which are much more developed than our own so that people’s mind will be entrapped within the images produced by these technologies. This research tries to prove that the city of Panem, with its governor President Snow, well represents the society of spectacle. This paper shows the influence of such a society on the poor people of these districts and the way they overcome President Snow.

Chinese Desires? Olympism and Dominance, Guangzhou and Missed Opportunity, Major Leagues and Isolation on the Pacific Rim

Understanding the situation of China's self-promotion via Olympism requires us to connect two patterns. China is successful at Guangzhou and in Beijing Games at sponsoring and competing in Olympic-style sports festivals, but also surrounded by highly popular professional team sport leagues in baseball, rugby and cricket from Japan to India. China is successful in the promotion of its new capitalist economy but is critically short of energy sources and its aggressive diplomacy in pursuit of energy by land and sea has led to confrontations from Japan to Burma and even to the US ‘pivot’ to Asia. Review of theories of situation demonstrates that while a Debord-style spectacle theory might seem to explain the sporting spectacles and a realism in the tradition of Clausewitz might seem suited to the military situation, in fact approaches to situation combining realist and constructivist elements are stronger; a Deleuzian emphasis on will to power needs to be supplemented by Weberian attention to ends and ideas. Neither pattern explains the other; they connect. China makes history and its internal debates over state and middle class values can be tracked observing promotion of professional team sport in urban China and the scale of state sponsorship of Olympic-style games.

Debord, Time and History

AbstractThis essay reads Guy Debord’s theoretical work through its primary philosophical and theoretical influences, and in doing so draws attention to his concerns with time and history. These concerns are used as a means of clarifying Debord’s theory of ‘spectacle’ and of highlighting its virtues and failings. The essay uses Debord’s remarks on subjectivity and temporality to pursue the theoretical dimensions of his interest in strategy, and thereby addresses his Hegelian Marxism via his comments on the relation between strategy, history and dialectics. His concerns with temporality are, however, also shown to pertain to the theory of spectacle’s shortcomings as an account of capitalist society. The essay thus attempts to draw out some of the more-neglected foundational material upon which the theory of spectacle rests, contending that the former may be of greater contemporary interest than the latter.

Sport and the Theatrics of Power in a Postcolonial State: The National Games of 1960s Laos

The National Games of 1961 and 1964 transformed the theatrics of state power in postcolonial Laos. While using modern sporting spectacle to promote national unity and progress in a context of Cold War division, the games were also embedded in an existing theatrics of power, which dramatised the status of their founder, General Phoumi Nosavan. The modern motifs of national unity and progress were not only a device of state legitimation; they were also the currency of status display, an end in itself. Combining the theory of spectacle in modern societies with a modified reading of Geertz's “theatre state”, this article questions the modernising impact of sport, arguing instead that twentieth-century technologies of performance have transformed the theatrics of power in postcolonial Southeast Asia.

The Cult of Exchange Value and the Critical Theory of Spectacle

The Cult of Exchange Value and the Critical Theory of Spectacle

Postscript: History as anthropology

Postscript: History as anthropology

Olympiske erindringssteder

Konstruktion af erindringssteder og national identitet - OL i 1896 og 1936 bruges som eksempler.Olympic places of remembrance From the beginnings of the modern Olympic games the events themselves have provided material for the construction of remembrances. But so have the edifices, the rituals, the actions and the people associated with them. Staging and message, intention and unconscious association have varied according to the current political situation and contemporary taste, but also according to resources and technological progress. The Olympic games prove themselves here to be adaptable, accommodating themselves as well to the invocation of ancient Greek ideals as to the dramatization of Nazism’s sense of superiority. In selecting remembrance sites, the players involved have to a large extent had a free hand. Anything large, beautiful and elevated, anything which can provide tradition and culture, anything which enhances prestige and is blessed by the legitimate taste of the time can be used. Olympic places of remembrance are glorifications of the past, illusions of eternity and teleological directedness towards their own age all rolled into one. They link an imaginary present with a fictional past. The question of what constitutes the special fascination of the Olympic games has been addressed by MacAloon, who tried to provide an answer with the assistance of a “Theory of Spectacle”. In my opinion, however, the idea of the construction of places of remembrance can also contribute to an improved analysis and interpretation of the Olympic games.