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ABSTRACT
We approach field-configuring events (FCEs) as gatherings that engender formative moments in the trajectory of technologies, professions, or industries. Previous research has focused on the field-level consequences of FCEs, implying we still know little about how these events are produced and sustained. Our aim in this paper is concomitantly to theorize the particular role of prizes as elements that help produce and sustain FCEs. Drawing on a qualitative case study of awards allocated at the 2018 Gothenburg Book Fair, we show how prize givers arduously attempt to raise issues and celebrate accomplishments in ways that are packaged for dissemination through media outlets. And these awards generate occasional visibility for prize givers and – by extension – for event organizers. Our paper contributes by highlighting how FCEs and prizes co-construct each other, and how such co-construction regularly unfolds in relation to a media logic that favors simplification and standardization.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank our editor and the two anonymous reviewers at Culture and Organization for helpful comments that improved this manuscript in many important ways.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).