Conclusion

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Peterson
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
World's Fairs ◽  
Top Down ◽  
The West ◽  
Corporate Power ◽  
International Expositions ◽  
The Future ◽  
World’S Fairs ◽  
State Functions

While diminished audience numbers and the impossible scale of resources required to successfully pull off international expositions over the last fifty years suggests that their days are numbered in the West, the extraordinary draw of the 2010 Shanghai Expo (73.1 million) demonstrates that the form is far from dead. The massive resources that flowed into that expo and the 2020 Dubai Exposition would suggest that top-down economies, ones where the state functions as the seat of corporate power, can create an attractive platform for any ambitious nation to seek out a seat at the table. The future of representation at world’s fairs may thus be more about ‘nationalising the sell’ than representing nation.

Asian Self-Representation at World’s Fairs

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Peterson
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Difference ◽  
Asian Country ◽  
Dominant Mode ◽  
World's Fairs ◽  
Politics Of Representation ◽  
The West ◽  
Modes Of Representation ◽  
National Representation ◽  
International Expositions ◽  
World’S Fairs

International expositions or "world’s fairs" are the largest and most important stage on which millions routinely gather to directly experience, express, and respond to cultural difference. Rather than looking at Asian representation at the hands of colonizing powers, something already much examined, Asian Self-Representation at World’s Fairs instead focuses on expressions of an empowered Asian self-representation at world’s fairs in the West after the so-called golden age of the exhibition. New modes of representation became possible as the older "exhibitionary order" of earlier fairs gave way to a dominant "performative order," one increasingly preoccupied with generating experience and affect. Using case studies of national representation at selected fairs over the hundred-year period from 1915-2015, this book considers both the politics of representation as well as what happens within the imaginative worlds of Asian country pavilions, where the performative has become the dominant mode for imprinting directly on human bodies.

scholarly journals Cosmopolitan Sophistry: Grounding Politics in Disorder and Uncertainty

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 197-223
Author(s):  
Jon Marshall
Keyword(s):  
Social Movement ◽  
Chaos Theory ◽  
Evolutionary Ecology ◽  
The State ◽  
Legitimate Authority ◽  
The West ◽  
Social Death ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Moment ◽  
As If

Conceptions of the State, Nation and politics, which are actually in play in ‘the West’, usually descend from totalitarian models which are primarily Platonic and monotheistic in origin. They aim for unity, harmony, wholeness, legitimate authority and the rejection of conflict, however much they claim to represent multiplicity. By expressing a vision of order, such models drive an idea of planning by prophecy as opposed to divination, as if the future was certain within limits and the trajectory was smooth. Chaos theory and evolutionary ecology shows us that this conception of both society and the future is inaccurate. I will argue that it is useful to look at the pre-socratic philosophers, in particular the so-called sophists Gorgias and Protagoras and Heraclitus with their sense of ongoing flux, the truth of the moment, and the necessary power of rhetoric in the leading forth of temporary functional consensus within the flux. This ongoing oscillation of conflict provides social movement and life rather than social death.

Mexico in World Expositions and Fairs

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Douglas
Keyword(s):  
Mexican Revolution ◽  
World's Fairs ◽  
Political Life ◽  
International Expositions ◽  
Investment Opportunities ◽  
World’S Fairs ◽  
Trade Shows

Mexico’s involvement in world’s fairs and other international expositions is examined. From 1867 to 1929, governments promoted nationalism and industrialization through world’s fairs in Europe and international expositions in America. Mexico, which had recently achieved independence from Spain, became involved in these fairs to bolster its economy and image, competing with other nations to sell local goods and offer investment opportunities to foreigners. Since 1850, Mexicans have encouraged commerce and industry while enthusiastically marketing their country as a tourist “wonderland.” Accounts of Mexico’s participation in world’s fairs draw attention to the imperialism embedded in such events, suggesting that they were deeply problematic. Defined as cultural palaces and trade shows, fairs have chronicled changing ideas about nationalism, modernity, and, more recently, branding. In the wake of the Mexican Revolution, Mexicans have recognized their strategic importance, although a persistent theme in the literature is that these are inherently tiresome and expensive undertakings and a significant drain on economic and political life.

Fair Encounters: Bulgaria and the “West” at International Exhibitions from Plovdiv to St. Louis

Slavic Review ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 547-570
Author(s):  
Mary Neuburger
Keyword(s):  
International Trade ◽  
National Identity ◽  
World's Fairs ◽  
World's Fair ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
The West ◽  
International Exhibitions ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
World’S Fairs ◽  
Intellectual Elites

By the late nineteenth century, world's fairs had captured the imagination of Bulgarian political and intellectual elites. Bulgarians were not only enthusiastic pilgrims to the major world's fairs in the west, but by 1892 they had staged their own international trade exhibition in Plovdiv. Here, as elsewhere, the fair phenomenon was an arena for broadcasting messages of national prowess and progress, as well as a context for the performance and contestation of national identity. But for Bulgarians the fair phenomenon at home and abroad was also part of a highly contested process of negotiating its unique place between east and west, politically, economically, and culturally. The tensions and dilemmas that characterized the Plovdiv fair experience were also palpable in Bulgarian participation in fairs abroad, such as the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 and the St. Louis Fair of 1904, where both the nation and the west were yet again reimagined.

Evolution of a political industry with examples from Chinese history

2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 384-398 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shixiong Cao
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
National Income ◽  
Subsequent Development ◽  
The State ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Political Intervention ◽  
Autocratic Politics ◽  
State Functions

In explaining the development and operation of states, analysis has focused on economics (e.g. production, and the buying and selling of products) and its relationships with laws, customs, and government, as well as with the distribution of national income and wealth; however, researchers have paid less attention to the economic efficiency of the associated “political industry”. This lacuna is puzzling because politics is a form of industry that is born when a state forms, that develops as the state matures, and that flourishes as democracy and globalization become dominant. The state functions as a monopoly that reaps huge profits, and either seeks more profit through military or political intervention in the affairs of other states or uses military or political force to protect itself against such behavior by other states. A growing focus on human rights causes this industry to flourish while giving birth to new political systems that weaken autocratic politics. To reduce the costs of political affairs by increasing their efficiency, states have explored both top-down and bottom-up approaches. To understand the nature and functioning of this industry, I discuss its origins and subsequent development to provide insights into how the functioning of a state can become more effective. I provide specific Chinese examples to show how these approaches work.

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