Living in a Themed Environment: Welcome to Fantasy

Abstract

The following essay attempts to illustrate a specific development contemporary Western societies have gone through in the last three decades: the transformation from a merely industrial society to a recreation and event society characterized by highly themed environments. The first part of the essay will be dealing with sociological theories describing the change within Western societies’ value-system.¹ In the course of the paper the focus will be on American world expositions. The American world’s fairs and trading fairs laid grounds for a development during which fairs became more differentiated and put a greater emphasis on show elements. Starting off as mere expositions of industrial goods, fairs soon embraced a variety of thematically arranged pavilions. Most interesting for the topic of this paper are the entertainment pavilions. These amusement sections of world’s fairs are the legitimate ancestors of today’s theme parks. Moreover, Neil Harris, professor of history at the University of Chicago, assumes that fairs and expositions influenced the way Americans think about the social functions of public spaces, amusement parks, museums of art and science, and convention centers.³

The world of Disney is inescapable. It is the alter ego and the collective fantasy of American society, the source of many of our myths and our self-esteem.

—Sharon Zukin, “Learning from Disney World”