TY - BOOK ID - 4822854 TI - The modernity bluff PY - 2012 SN - 9780226575193 0226575195 9780226575209 0226575209 9786613676665 0226575217 128069968X 9780226575216 9781280699689 PB - Chicago London :The University of Chicago Press DB - UniCat KW - Urban youth KW - Social status KW - #SBIB:39A73 KW - #SBIB:39A4 KW - Social standing KW - Socio-economic status KW - Socioeconomic status KW - Standing, Social KW - Status, Social KW - Social conditions KW - Economic conditions KW - Etnografie: Afrika KW - Toegepaste antropologie KW - Jeunes en milieu urbain KW - Statut social KW - Conditions sociales KW - Conditions économiques KW - City dwellers KW - Youth KW - City children KW - Power (Social sciences) KW - Prestige KW - Ekonomiska förhållanden. KW - Jugend. KW - Social status. KW - Sociala förhållanden. KW - Soziale Situation. KW - Stadt. KW - Ungdomar. KW - Social conditions. KW - 2000-2099. KW - 2000-talet. KW - Côte d'Ivoire. KW - Elfenbeinküste. KW - Urban youth - Côte d'Ivoire - Social conditions - 21st century KW - Urban youth - Côte d'Ivoire - Economic conditions - 21st century KW - Social status - Côte d'Ivoire UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:4822854 AB - 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. ER -