Show and Biz: The market economy in TV series and popular culture (2000-2020) - Paperback

by María Blanco (Editor), Alberto Mingardi (Editor)

How is capitalism represented in popular culture today? Are profits seen as a legitimate reward of entrepreneurship? Are thrift and effort still considered a cornerstone of a healthy society? Or is it that inequalities are eliciting scandal and reproach? How is the ecosystem portrayed, vis-à-vis profit seeking companies? Are they irreconcilable, or maybe not? Are there any established trends with respect to the presentation of entrepreneurship, and that complex legal artefact that is the modern limited liability company?

These are questions that will be at the core of this book. But they are not examined through the usual theoretical point of references, but looking at TV series produced in 2000-2020.

Each chapter of this book is a case studies, covering some of the most popular, successful and engaging TV shows of the last 20 years. And showing how deep economic ideas and biases lie, at the roots of some of our times' most successful entertainment products.

Author Biography

María Blanco is Associate Professor of Economic History and Institutions at Universidad San Pablo-CEU in Madrid, Spain.

Alberto Mingardi is Associate Professor of the history of political thought at IULM University in Milan, Italy. He is also Director General of Istituto Bruno Leoni and a Presidential Scholar in Political Theory at Chapman University (Orange, Ca).