NASCAR, Sturgis, and the New Economy of Spectacle

NASCAR, Sturgis, and the New Economy of Spectacle maps the structure of economies of spectacle in stock car racing and large displacement motorcycle rallying. The book traces the historical development of economic spectacles and models the structural components and moving parts that sustain them. Economies of spectatorship emerge when activities and legends in the cultural commons are privatized or enclosed as immaterial property. Once privatized, a spectacular diegesis supports a triple-circuit of profit: spectatorship markets (payments to see), sponsorship markets (payments to be seen) and trophy markets (payments to be seen enjoying). Vivid illustrations of legendary action in NASCAR and carnivalesque displays at Sturgis reveal how spectator events function as intensive sites of profit-making in contemporary capitalism.

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.