Sport, Spectacle, and NASCAR Nation Consumption and the Cultural Politics of Neoliberalism

by Newman, Joshua I.; Giardina, Michael D.

• ISBN13: 9780230115194
• ISBN10: 0230115195
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-09-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Sport, Spectacle, and NASCAR Nationcritically interrogates stockcar racing's ascendance into the upper-echelon of the North American sporting popular. While most contributions to the public discourse gloss over NASCAR's exclusively white racial identity politics, its underlying patriarchal gender politics, its overtly conservative political commitment, its hyper-Christian orthodoxy, and its omnipresent commercialism, this book connects the dots and critically analyzes the problematic nature of this non-natural, strategically-orchestrated sporting spectacle.

Author Biography

Joshua I. Newman is an associate professor of Sport Management at Florida State University, where he teaches physical cultural studies, political economy, and critical body pedagogy. He is the author of Embodying Dixie: Studies in the Body Pedagogics of Southern Whiteness. Michael D. Giardma is an assistant professor of Sport Management at Florida State University, where he teaches physical cultural studies, sport media, and qualitative inquiry. He is the author of Sporting Pedagogies: Performing Culture Identity in the Global Arena.

Table of Contents

Why NASCAR? Why Now? * Sporting Automobility * The Road and Serfdom * Consuming Stockcar Bodies * The "Southernization" of Sporting America * Racing for Jesus * Militarizing NASCAR Nation * The Limits to NASCAR Nation * Coda: On Recession and Secession