Tournaments of Destruction: Consumers Battling for Visibility.

This article introduces the concept of "tournaments of destruction," defined as staged, ritualized social performances involving entertainment and competitive rivalry where consumers deliberately destroy valued material objects before a focused audience. The study centers on the Izikhothane subculture—low-income, low-power Black African male youth in Soweto, South Africa—who engage in conspicuous consumption and destruction of high-end Italian apparel brands as a means to gain visibility and social power within their hyper-local community. Drawing on Alexander's theory of social performance, the research explores the motivations, enactment, and social dynamics of these destructive battles, highlighting themes of spatiotemporal visibility, intentionality of destruction, collective effervescence, and sociomoral condemnation. The article situates Izikhothane tournaments of destruction alongside similar practices in pre-market societies (e.g., potlatch ceremonies) and contemporary social collectives, contributing a broader understanding of destruction as a multifaceted social performance within consumer culture.