The social aesthetics of family space : The visual heritage of Disney in a Swedish amusement park

• Disneyland’s 1955 Main Street is inspired by Walt Disney’s childhood on hometown street. Today, Disney Main Street has become a visual, cultural and historical heritage, and its aesthetic is visible in the architecture of American outlet villages, shopping malls and leisure parks all over the world. The Swedish amusement park Liseberg is one example of a place that reflects its influence. Initially this project set out to use visual documentation to explore the transference of Disney Main Street to a local context. In the course of this endeavour, however, its aim became to take on board an approach that can twist and challenge the settled, consensus view that Disney Main Street is an infantilising construct. So, the chapter begins by facing its own challenge: how to say something new about the well-trodden ground of Disney Main Street. This is resolved via the premise that methods enact the topics we research. The chapter will thus demonstrate that it is possible to avoid taking on the assumptions of earlier research in discussing Disney Main Street. This is achieved by discussing Main Street with family ethnography and the concepts of pure and impure critique (Illouz 2007). What emerges is a more ambiguous and complex interpretation of both Main Streets and their visitors.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Tvärvetenskapliga studier inom samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Social Sciences Interdisciplinary (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Annan humaniora -- Kulturstudier (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Other Humanities -- Cultural Studies (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Disney main street

amusement park

impure critique

child studies

dismaland

family ethnography

visual heritage

methodological reproductivity

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kap (ämneskategori)