The Modernity Bluff

Name: The Modernity Bluff
Price: 61.95 AUD
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ISBN: 9780226575209

Crime, Consumption, and Citizenship in Cte d'Ivoire

Sasha Newell

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Paperback

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English

University of Chicago Press
20 June 2012

Consumerism; Social & cultural anthropology

In Côte d’Ivoire, appearing modern is so important for success that many young men deplete their already meager resources to project an illusion of wealth in a fantastic display of Western imitation, spending far more than they can afford on brand name clothing, accessories, technology, and a robust nightlife. Such imitation, however, is not primarily meant to deceive—rather, as Sasha Newell argues in The Modernity Bluff, it is an explicit performance so valued in Côte d’Ivoire it has become a matter of national pride.

Called bluffeurs, these young urban men operate in a system of cultural economy where reputation is essential for financial success. That reputation is measured by familiarity with and access to the fashionable and expensive, which leads to a paradoxical state of affairs in which the wasting of wealth is essential to its accumulation. Using the consumption of Western goods to express their cultural mastery over Western taste, Newell argues, bluffeurs engage a global hierarchy that is profoundly modern, one that values performance over authenticity—highlighting the counterfeit nature of modernity itself.

By: Sasha Newell
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 23mm, Width: 15mm, Spine: 2mm
Weight: 482g
ISBN: 9780226575209
ISBN 10: 0226575209
Pages: 296
Publication Date: 20 June 2012
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Sasha Newell teaches at the College of the Holy Cross.

Reviews for The Modernity Bluff: Crime, Consumption, and Citizenship in Cte d'Ivoire

The Modernity Bluff takes its place comfortably with the best writing on African youth, cities, and popular culture - Cole, De Boeck, Mbembe, Nyamanjoh, Simone, Weiss, White - and gives an utterly original angle for understanding the cultural underpinnings of the current conflict in Cote d'Ivoire. Sasha Newell knows both the contemporary and classic Africanist literatures. He also brings to bear a considerable amount of specialist theory to explain the ways the performance of 'bluff,' seemingly a kind of consumerist simulacrum, can actually create something out of nothing. (Mike McGovern, Yale University)