Abstract
Chapter 4 examines what makes scenes attractive. Drawing on Baudrillardian analysis to show that consumption often represents a means through which people send messages to one another, it is suggested that scenes are no different. Correspondingly, it is argued that what makes scenes appealing is the way in which they transmit messages of originality and distinctiveness, and via our consumption of them they also allow us to send messages to say we are making a break from the norm in order to pursue something new. The ‘level’ of attractiveness a scene might possess is then formally defined as ‘scenic capital’, and the impact of scenic capital on the evolution of scenes over time assessed.
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Notes
See Veblen, T. (1899) The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions (New York, Macmillan), p. 74.
Baudrillard, J. (1968) The System of Objects (London, Verso).
Polsky, N. (1971) Hustlers, Beats and Others (Harmondsworth, Pelican).
Lister, R. (2000) To Rio via the 3rd Way: Labour’s welfare reform agenda’, Renewal: A Journal of Labour Politics (Online), 8, 9–20.
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© 2016 Chris Brown
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Brown, C. (2016). Scenic Capital and the Attractiveness of Scenes. In: Scenes, Semiotics and The New Real: Exploring the Value of Originality and Difference. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-59112-8_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-59112-8_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-88784-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-59112-8
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