Skip to main content

ETHNOS_APP

Home • Search • Journals • List 0

Disney World as Structure and Symbol

Re-Creation of the American Experience

Bibliographic Data

ID5773438
AuthorsDaniel M Johnson (0000-0002-1505-6723, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, corresponding author), David M Johnson (0000-0003-2896-7419)
Year1981
Volume15
Issue1
Pages157-165
Publication date1981-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Popular Culture (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-3840 • E-ISSN: 1540-5931
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.0022-3840.1981.15412157.x
OpenAlexW2094256891
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited3

It has been said that the Disney theme parks are the cities America wishes it had; immune to death and taxes, clean, orderly, crime-free family style environments of optimism and nostalgia, politically independent, with the advantages but few of the vices of real cities. Treatments of the amusement park in political terms, such as Michael Harrington's Atlantic article, "To the disney Station," while invariably critical, indicate the important position these places have attained as complex institutions in themselves-living commentaries on society at Large, as well as important standard-setters for new social, political and economic philosophy for planning and control in all sectors of national life. In this way, Disney's worlds-and parks built under their influence-have come to be viewed as societies in miniature, reliable images of work, leisure, human relations and politics in the larger world outside. Here anthropologist David Johnson uses morphology as the key to discerning the meanings of these prototype parks for basic cultural values in many aspects, including work, class, economic order, technology, individualism, history, and cross-cultural adventure. In fact, these Disney versions have now themselves become a special mode of first-hand experience in the repertoire of the great national shared experience

Symbol (formal · Theme (computing · Media, Gender, and Advertising

  • Images of Main Street

    Open Access•Virginia A Salamone, F A Salamone•Journal of American Culture•1999

  • River Magic

    E Arnould, Eric J Arnould et al.•Journal of Consumer Research•1993

  • The Walt Disney World Underground

    Open Access•David Pike, David L Pike•Space and Culture•2004

  • Disneyland and Disney World

    William T Borrie•Loisir et Société / Society and…•1999

  • Mirror, Mirror for Us All

    Bethanee Bemis•The Public Historian•2020

  • Authenticity and commoditization in tourism

    Open Access•Erik Cohen•Annals of Tourism Research•1988

  • The atom according to Disney

    Elizabeth Walker Mechling, Jay Mechling•Quarterly Journal of Speech•1995

  • Pleasure and Politics in Disney’s Utopia

    Adelaide H Villmoar, Peter G Stillman•Canadian Review of American Studies•2002

  • Hearts and minds

    Simone Pettigrew•Consumption Markets & Culture•2011

  • Disney and the presentation of colonial America

    Laurie A Meamber•Consumption Markets & Culture•2011

  • The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

    Erving Goffman•The Presentation of Self in…•1990

  • The social construction of reality

    Peter L Berger, Peter L Luckmann Thomas A Berger et al.•The social construction of reality•1967

  • The tourist

    Dean Maccannell•The tourist•1999

Unique citing works10
Citations per year0,26
Citation span1988 - 2020 (33)
Citation velocityhistorical
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 10
Ethnos_APP • Open Source Project • MIT License • Frontend v2.0.0 • Privacy and Cookies • API Documentation: api.ethnos.app/docs • API Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17049435 • Frontend Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17050053 • cruz.rio.br • Expectantes Misericordiae