Introduction: understanding celebrity society
1. The foundations: individualism, media, and the public sphere, theatre, court society
2. Celebrity’s secret: the economy of attention
3. Celebrity as a social form: status, charisma, and power
4. Imagined community, self-formation, and long-distance intimacy
5. Celebrity politics: performance, populism, and philanthropy
6. CEO, firm, and worker celebrity
7. Celebrity in cyberspace: micro-celebrity and globalization
Conclusion: the elusive rationality of celebrity
Biography
Robert van Krieken is Professor of Sociology at the University of Sydney, and Visiting Professor at University College, Dublin. His research interests include the sociology of law, criminology, childhood, processes of civilization and decivilization, organizations, cultural genocide, populism, and ressentiment, as well as contributing to the theoretical debates around the work of Elias, Foucault, Luhmann, and Latour. Previous books include Norbert Elias (1998), Celebrity and the Law (2010, co-authored), and Sociology (6th edition, 2016, co-authored).
