Running the Family Firm : How the Monarchy Manages Its Image and Our Money

The British royal family has experienced a resurgence in public interest in recent years. During the same period, global inequalities have expanded, leaving huge chasms of wealth inequality between ‘the elites’ and ‘the rest’. Yet, the monarchy is mostly absent from conversations about contemporary inequalities, dismissed as an archaic and irrelevant institution. This is the only book to argue that we cannot talk about inequalities in Britain today without talking about the monarchy.Running the Family Firm is about the contemporary British monarchy (1953 to present). It argues that media representations (of, for example, royal ceremonies or royal babies) are the ‘frontstage’ of monarchy: this is what we usually see. Meanwhile, ‘backstage’, there are a host of political-economic infrastructures that reproduce the institution: this is what we don’t typically see. This book pulls back the stage curtain of monarchy and exposes what is usually hidden: how it looks versus how it makes its money and power.Drawing on case studies of key royal figures – the Queen, Prince Charles, Prince Harry, Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle – the book argues that media representations of the royal family are carefully stage-managed to ‘produce consent’ for monarchy in the public imagination. That is, the corporate power of monarchy (the Firm) is disguised through media representations of the royal family (the Family Firm). In so doing, the book probes conventional understandings of monarchy, and offers a unique and radical answer to the question ‘why does monarchy matter?’ "In recent decades, the global wealth of the rich has soared to leave huge chasms of wealth inequality. This book argues that we cannot talk about inequalities in Britain today without talking about the monarchy. Running the Family Firm explores the postwar British monarchy in order to understand its economic, political, social and cultural functions. Although the monarchy is usually positioned as a backward-looking, archaic institution and an irrelevant anachronism to corporate forms of wealth and power, the relationship between monarchy and capitalism is as old as capitalism itself. This book frames the monarchy as the gold standard corporation: The Firm. Using a set of case studies - the Queen, Prince Charles, Prince Harry, Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle - it contends that The Firm's power is disguised through careful stage management of media representations of the royal family. In so doing, it extends conventional understandings of what monarchy is and why it matters"--Publisher's description. Front matter Dedication Contents Figures Preface Acknowledgements Introduction: Why does monarchy matter? The (Family) Firm: Labour, capital and corporate power ‘The greatest show on earth’: Monarchy and media power ‘Queen of Scots’: National identities, sovereignty and the body politic Let them have Poundbury! Land, property and pastoralism ‘I am Invictus’: Masculinities, ‘philanthrocapitalism’ and the military-industrial complex The heteromonarchy: Kate Middleton, ‘middle-classness’ and family values Megxitting the Firm: Race, postcolonialism and diversity capital Postscript: The post-royals Notes Index The British royal family has experienced a resurgence in public interest at the same time as global inequalities have expanded between 'the elites' and 'the rest'. Yet, the monarchy is absent from conversations about inequality. This is the only book arguing that we cannot talk about inequalities in Britain today without talking about the monarchy. -- .