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This research will thus not deal as much with
the phenomenology of the gambling experience,
though I urge the interested reader to consult
Goffman’s seminal
essay, “Where the Action Is” for an analysis of
this matter (1967, see also Fisher 1993, Reith
1999, McMillen 1996).
7
with American and European casino companies)
have legitimated casinos through reference to
the ability
of a gambling industry operating in accord with
efficient free market principles to “uplift” the
black
African population economically. Blacks have
been constructed as workers and entrepreneurs,
and casino
corporations as benevolent agents of both
economic growth and justice. In contrast, the
economic success
of an Indian casino industry in California was
well established prior to legalization (Bear
Stearns 2000—
also, California guy’s talk from conference),
while political and corporate elites were united
in their
opposition to tribal gaming (Brosnan 1996; Mason
1998; Lurie 1999). Legitimation has thus
occurred
through emphasizing to the public casinos’
potential for furthering political and cultural
development for
Indians. And insofar as the influence of
corporations in actual casino operations is
perceived as a threat
to tribal autonomy, their presence is concealed.
I now describe in detail the history of my two
cases, my
research methods, and specific hypotheses
concerning both the discourses surrounding
organizational
legitimacy and their material “truth effects.”
History (Capitalism, Race and Vice)
Colonialism in South Africa and the United
States
Early Dutch colonizers in South Africa during
the seventeenth century sought only to establish
stopping ports for the long journey around the
Cape of Good Hope; the Bantu speaking peoples
they
encountered there were treated as trade
partners, especially for cattle (Frederickson
1981).
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