TY - JOUR
T1 - The Assemblages of (Counter) Spectacle – Mega-Retail in Post-Dictatorship Chile and Beyond
AU - Miller, Jacob
N1 - Funding information: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Social and Behavioral Sciences Research Institute, University of Arizona, Institute of the Environment, University of Arizona, Fulbright Commission, Tinker Foundation, (grant number U.S. Students Program).
PY - 2023/10/1
Y1 - 2023/10/1
N2 - Spectacle, once a key term for critical theories, has had limited theoretical development in recent decades. To make sure the concept remains relevant today, this paper turns to actor-network theory (ANT) and assemblage theories to reconceptualize what the spectacle is and how it operates today. Working with a case study of a controversial urban spectacle in southern Chile – a new shopping mall, the “Mall Paseo Chiloé” – this paper explores a set of findings that illustrate what these approaches have to offer. First, in viewing the spectacle as a hybrid entity, we uncover vital forces inside what might at first appear to be irrelevant features of the building's architectural design. At the same time, this approach includes the forces of ambivalent desire and fluidity that reveal the dynamics of resistance inside that same design. As such, this paper focuses on a specific aspect of this building that makes it a unique form of counter-spectacle.
AB - Spectacle, once a key term for critical theories, has had limited theoretical development in recent decades. To make sure the concept remains relevant today, this paper turns to actor-network theory (ANT) and assemblage theories to reconceptualize what the spectacle is and how it operates today. Working with a case study of a controversial urban spectacle in southern Chile – a new shopping mall, the “Mall Paseo Chiloé” – this paper explores a set of findings that illustrate what these approaches have to offer. First, in viewing the spectacle as a hybrid entity, we uncover vital forces inside what might at first appear to be irrelevant features of the building's architectural design. At the same time, this approach includes the forces of ambivalent desire and fluidity that reveal the dynamics of resistance inside that same design. As such, this paper focuses on a specific aspect of this building that makes it a unique form of counter-spectacle.
KW - spectacle and counter-spectacle
KW - actor-network theory (ANT)
KW - assemblage
KW - architecture
KW - Chile and Chiloé
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85148105780
U2 - 10.1177/0308518X231155485
DO - 10.1177/0308518X231155485
M3 - Article
SN - 0308-518X
VL - 55
SP - 1631
EP - 1648
JO - Environment and Planning A
JF - Environment and Planning A
IS - 7
ER -