Humanities & Social Sciences
Description
Streaming Privilege examines how today's serial television plays a powerful role in legitimating the 'new Gilded Age' of extreme inequality. Through a sharp cultural analysis, the book reveals popular culture's obsession with wealth and dynastic families - and how it helps to sustain economic divides.
Focusing on four major series - Downton Abbey, The Crown, Succession and Yellowstone - the book explores what today's most-watched television dramas reveal about contemporary attitudes toward wealth.
At the heart of the book is a concern with the intersection of family, wealth and morality. As dynastic structures once again dominate economy, stories of wealthy families offer a cultural lens through which audiences make sense of economic disparities. The book shows how television does not merely reflect inequality but actively shapes our understandings of it.
Streaming Privilege is essential reading for scholars and students in media studies, cultural studies and economic sociology - as well as for general readers interested in how popular culture influences our perceptions of inequality.
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Endorsements
We are living in an age of extreme inequality - when the wealth of the super-rich has skyrocketed and dynastic power seems unstoppable. At the same time, our television screens are saturated with glossy dramas about the rich and the privileged. Streaming privilege dives into this cultural paradox. From Downton Abbey to The Crown and from Succession to Yellowstone, today's most-watched television series are obsessed with wealth and inherited power. What do these celebrated shows tell us about the world we live in and the one we ought to build? Why do we enjoy following the lives of rich heirs and their families? The book explores how quality television reflects and shapes our anxieties about inequality and inherited wealth, making us both desire and hate the life of luxury. In a time when oligarchs rule and economic divides deepen, the luxury turn in contemporary television is no accident. On the contrary, these blockbuster shows serve as cultural blueprints for understanding today's elite rule. Blending anti-elite sentiments with nostalgic celebrations of tradition and family values, quality television offers us ambiguous - and often contradictory - narratives about wealth and merit. They help viewers navigate real-world questions about class, morality and who deserves to inherit. Accessible yet critically rigorous, Streaming privilege challenges us to rethink not just the stories we love, but the unequal systems we live in. It urges to consider the narratives and policies needed to change the direction and to stop wealth inequalities from growing.
Reviews
We are living in an age of extreme inequality - when the wealth of the super-rich has skyrocketed and dynastic power seems unstoppable. At the same time, our television screens are saturated with glossy dramas about the rich and the privileged. Streaming privilege dives into this cultural paradox. From Downton Abbey to The Crown and from Succession to Yellowstone, today's most-watched television series are obsessed with wealth and inherited power. What do these celebrated shows tell us about the world we live in and the one we ought to build? Why do we enjoy following the lives of rich heirs and their families? The book explores how quality television reflects and shapes our anxieties about inequality and inherited wealth, making us both desire and hate the life of luxury. In a time when oligarchs rule and economic divides deepen, the luxury turn in contemporary television is no accident. On the contrary, these blockbuster shows serve as cultural blueprints for understanding today's elite rule. Blending anti-elite sentiments with nostalgic celebrations of tradition and family values, quality television offers us ambiguous - and often contradictory - narratives about wealth and merit. They help viewers navigate real-world questions about class, morality and who deserves to inherit. Accessible yet critically rigorous, Streaming privilege challenges us to rethink not just the stories we love, but the unequal systems we live in. It urges to consider the narratives and policies needed to change the direction and to stop wealth inequalities from growing.
Author Biography
Hanna Kuusela is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Jyväskylä
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Manchester University Press
Manchester University Press is a leading UK publisher known for excellent research in the humanities and social sciences.
View all titlesBibliographic Information
- Publisher Manchester University Press
- Publication Date July 2026
- Orginal LanguageEnglish
- ISBN/Identifier 9781526190055 / 1526190052
- Publication Country or regionUnited Kingdom
- FormatPrint PDF
- Pages248
- ReadershipGeneral/trade; College/higher education; Professional and scholarly
- Publish StatusPublished
- Dimensions234 X 156 mm
- Biblio NotesDerived from Proprietary 6526
- Reference Code17698
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