Events and the Social Sciences by Andrews Hazel;Leopold Teresa;

Author:Andrews, Hazel;Leopold, Teresa;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1125159
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group

(Source: Hagström 2007)

It is these meanings that link consumption practices with the reproduction of identity and social relations. Before we connect consumption choices to these two areas of social life we need to consider the issue of commodification.

Commodification

Kevin Meethan (2001: 5) sums up the meaning of commodification quite nicely when he states it is ‘the ways in which material culture, people and places become objectified for the purposes of the global market’. What Meethan is referring to is the ways by which things, people and places become commodities. A commodity is an item that has had a price attached to it and can be bought and sold. Thus the food we buy, our clothes and our household items — fridges, TVs, furniture and so on — are all commodities. Turning things into commodities is part of consumer cultures so that, within the context of events, we can see many cultural festivals and rituals being repackaged as commodities. One example is when Pope Benedict visited Bavaria in 2006.This religious event was commodified, with a huge range of merchandise and goods available to celebrate the event ranging from ‘Papst-Bier’ (pope beer) to Vatican flags, mugs and beer glasses with pictures of the Pope, and specific websites dedicated to promoting the visit. Another example can be seen in Figure 5.3, which shows a café advertising food as part of the Queen's Jubilee celebrations in the UK in 2012.

Turning things into commodities does not only refer to the actual cultural goods that are produced and consumed, such as songs, food and dances, but also to experiences. Indeed, experiencing festivals and cultural events, and even the ‘fantasy of an imagined and desired experience’ of an event, presents a commodity (Green 2007: 205).

What needs to be remembered within this context is that when events become objectified and commodified, there is the need to differentiate one event from the other. Thus, many commodified events (such as the Trinidad Carnival (Green 2007)) represent certain cultural elements while disregarding others, so that the authenticity of such events may get lost (this will be explored in more detail below). Such a commodification process might impact on local and regional relationships, and local and personal identities. A different viewpoint is presented by Phipps (2011: 120), in his work on an Indigenous cultural festival in Australia. While acknowledging the danger of commodification of cultural elements, he argues that: ‘cultural festivals at very least provide opportunities for direct encounters with Indigenous people that can counteract some of the routine colonising practices’. In other words, the consumption and commodification of indigenous values, customs, games, music and dances presents the possibility for ‘serious, joyful and urgent acts of cultural politics’.

In terms of events, we can see that many festivals and rituals that were once of local interest become part of the package of entertainment for tourists, something the tourists pay to see, either indirectly because they have bought a holiday at a particular destination in which an event is held, or directly by paying, where required, either to participate in or view such events.

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