ABSTRACT
Over the last two decades or so, scholars and researchers have devoted increasing attention to examining the transformation of cities into spaces of consumption, leisure, and entertainment. Oft-cited books by Hoffman, Fainstein, and Judd (2003), Rath (2007), Hannigan (1998), Chatterton and Hollands (2003), Rojek and Urry (1997), and Gottdiener, Collins, and Dickens (1999) note that in many cities and rural areas, tourism has become the main strategy of urban revitalization as local governments and the tourism industry have forged close institutional and financial ties to “sell” the city to potential “consumers.” Lloyd’s (2005) conception of “neo-bohemia” and Clark’s (2004) notion of the city-as-an-entertainment-machine have drawn attention to the rise of urban entertainment and the transformation of cities into places for consuming spectacle, identity, ethnicity, and culture. The proliferation of research on the role of “theming,” “imagineering,” and “branding” reflects widespread concern with understanding the increasing dominance of corporate entertainment spaces across the world (Gotham 2007b; Gottdiener 2001; Greenberg 2008). Cities have long used entertaining motifs, theming strategies, and branded symbols to create economic value and revitalize themselves (for an overview, see Sorkin 1992). What is new today is the extensiveness and intensity of this phenomenon and the growth of a systematic body of specialized knowledge, information, and training on how to produce spaces to enhance consumption.
