Within events management, events are commonly categorised within two axes, size and content. Along the size axis events range between the small scale and local, through major events, which garner greater media interest, to internationally significant hallmark and mega events such as the Edinburgh Festival and the Tour de France. Content is frequently divided into three forms – culture, sport or business. However, such frameworks overlook and depoliticise a significant variety of events, those more accurately construed as protest. This book brings together new research and theories from around the world and across sociology, leisure studies, politics and cultural studies to develop a new critical pedagogy and critical theory of events. It is the first research monograph that deals explicitly with the concept of critical event studies (CES), the idea that it is impossible to explore and understand events without understanding the wider social, cultural and political contexts. It addresses questions such as can the occupation and reclamation of specific spaces by activists be understood as events within its framework? And is the activity of activists in these spaces a leisure activity? If those, and other similar activities, can be read as events and leisure, what does admitting them into the scope of events management and leisure studies mean for our understanding of them and how the study of events management is to be conceptualised? This title will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students on events management and related courses and scholars interested in understanding the ways in which events are constructed by the social, the cultural and the political.

This book explores and challenges the concept and experience of liminality as applied to critical perspectives in the study of events. It will be of interest to researchers in event studies, social and discursive psychology, cultural and political sociology, and social movement studies. In addition, it will provide interested general readers with new ways of thinking and reflecting on events. Contributing authors undertake a discussion of the borders, boundaries, and areas of contestation between the established social anthropological concept of liminality and the emerging field of critical event studies. By drawing these two perspectives closer together, the collection considers tensions and resonances between them, and uses those connections to enhance our understanding of both cultural and sporting events and offer fresh insight into events of activism, protest, and dissent.

Event Studies is the only book devoted to developing knowledge and theory about planned events. It focuses on event planning and management, outcomes, the experience of events and the meanings attached to them, the dynamic processes shaping events and why people attend them. This title draws from a large number of foundation disciplines and closely related professional fields, to foster interdisciplinary theory focused on planned events. It brings together important discourses on events including event management, event tourism, and the study of events within various disciplines that are able to shed light on the roles, importance and impacts of events in society and culture. New to this edition: New sections on social and intangible influences, consumer psychology and legal environment, planning and policy framework to reflect recent developments in the field Extended coverage of philosophy and research methods and how they can best be used in event studies; social media as a marketing tool; and the class and cultural influences of events New and additional case studies throughout the book from a wide range of international events Companion website to include PowerPoint slides and updated Instructor’s Manual including suggested lecture outlines and sequence, quizzes per chapter and essay questions.

This timely book addresses current gaps in the literature surrounding issues of accessibility, inclusion, and diversity in various event landscapes.Structured into four sections covering the main types of events, the chapters present original topics using innovative methodological approaches.

Critical Event Studies is a growing field, not just within event management and event studies, but across the traditional and digital social sciences. This volume -with contributions from a range of international scholars- is the first to consider the wide variety of research approaches being used by academics from around the world, whose interests lie within the reach of this emerging field. Each chapter uses one or more case examples to present and discuss different methodological approaches applicable to research within critical event studies. Students and academics alike will find inspiration and critical reflection on methodology that can support their own projects.

This book is the first to take an in-depth examination of events and well-being, adopting a much-needed critical approach to the study of events. It uses empirical case studies to help us better understand how events foster positive well-being or counter negative well-being for event organisers, participants, spectators, volunteers and even non-attending local residents. While researchers have long understood socialisation as the major motivation to attend contemporary festivals and events, it is only just being acknowledged that well-being is also a key motivator. Those researching in the field of event studies are yet to clearly articulate "the how, why, where, and impacts of socialisation." This multidisciplinary book draws together empirical research across a range of event types and sizes, from music festivals to mega sports events, to provide a nuanced understanding of their contribution to the well-being of individuals and communities. Case studies are drawn from around the world and apply a diverse range of theoretical lenses to the conceptualisation of well-being as it applies to events and methodologies used to achieve research aims and objectives. This significant volume will be valuable reading for students and academics in the fields of sport studies, critical event studies, queer studies, cultural studies, tourism, music, sociology and end-of-life studies.

The recent proliferation of events as a subject of study in its own right has signalled the emergence of a new field – event studies. However, whilst the management-inspired notion of planned events, which strives for conceptual slenderness, may indeed be useful for event managers, the moment we attempt to advance knowledge about events as social, cultural and political phenomena, we realise the extent to which the field is theoretically impoverished. Event studies, it is argued, must transcend overt business-like perspectives in order to grasp events in their complexities. This book challenges the reader to reach beyond the established modes of thinking about events by placing them against a backdrop of much wider, critical discourse. Approaches and Methods in Event Studies emerges as a conceptual and methodological tour de force—comprising the works of scholars of diverse backgrounds coming together to address a range of philosophical, theoretical, and methods-related problems. The areas covered include the concepts of eventification and eventual approaches to events, a mobilities paradigm, rhizomatic events, critical discourse analysis, visual methods, reflexive and ethnographic research into events, and indigenous acumen. Researchers and students engaged in the study of events will draw much inspiration from the contributions and from the volume as a whole.