EVENTS AND FESTIVALS - EDUCATION, IMPACTS AND EXPERIENCES by Scott Fleming (Editor), Fiona Jordan (Editor) ( 9781905369041 )

Item Details

Title:

EVENTS AND FESTIVALS - EDUCATION, IMPACTS AND EXPERIENCES

By:

Scott Fleming (Editor), Fiona Jordan (Editor)

Format:

Paperback

List price:	£31.50
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ISBN 10:

1905369042

ISBN 13:

9781905369041

Publisher:

LEISURE STUDIES ASSOCIATION

Pub. date:

1 July, 2006

Pages:

236

Synopsis:

This collection of papers is one of four to emanate from the Leisure Studies Association [LSA] annual conference in 2005. Hosted by the Centre for Festival and Event Management at Napier University, Edinburgh, the conference theme was Festivals and Events: Beyond Economic Impacts. The organising committee predicated the conference on the premise that it was timely to address the wider set of impacts of festivals and events and their potential social or cultural implications for a destination. What could not have been anticipated when the conference planning was in its earliest stages was that the eyes of the world would be on Edinburgh at the time. As well as the announcement of London's successful bid for the summer Olympic Games of 2012, the first day coincided with the arrival of world leaders for the G8 Summit at Gleneagles, and with the concert at Murrayfield Stadium that marked the end of the Live 8 - Long Walk To Justice events. These different events brought into sharp relief some of the main themes of the conference; it could hardly have been more timely.This volume, with the other three from this conference (Aitchison and Pritchard, 2006; Ali-Knight and Chambers, 2006; Robertson, 2006), consolidates a series of academic and practitioner contributions to the bodies of knowledge associated with festivals and events. They build upon a more sporadic set of papers in previous LSA volumes that go back as far as Duffield's (1977) collection on tourism and regional development. Since then, there have, for example, been volumes dealing with community arts (Talbot and Vickerman, 1979, Parry and Parry, 1988), as well as accounts of the roles played by the arts in the regeneration of the inner-cities (Botterill, 1989) and in social exclusion (Snape et al., 2003). Tourism in Scotland and Scottish identity have also received some attention (Duffield, 1977; Horne, 2001), as have the implications of major (sporting) events on urban renewal (Ibbetson et al., 2003). In this volume, however, the organising structure is framed around the key themes of 'education', 'impacts' and 'experiences'.The first section deals with provision for Event Management in higher education, and is arranged in a conceptually sequential manner: programme provision, programme selection, programme delivery and the interface between pedagogy and research. In the first chapter Charles Arcodia and Megan Axelsen examine the growing influence of Event Management on Arts-based higher education programmes in Australia (in particular those focused on art galleries and art museums). They highlight the increasing use of special events by art galleries and museums to appeal to new markets and augment existing visitor numbers. This, they argue, necessitates the employment of professionals with both knowledge of the Arts and skills in Event Management. Through a thorough and systematic audit of all university and college Arts-related courses that encompass links with Business Management or Event Management, they conclude that many universities have responded to this imperative with the development of double degrees. Others are offering more electives and options that address the links between the Arts and Event Management.In the second chapter, Jose Maria Cubillo-Pinilla, Joaquin Sanchez-Herrera and Julio Cervino report the findings of an empirical study designed to explore the influence of destination image on the decision-making process of international students. In particular, they focus on how perceptions of a destination's urban environment inform expectations about the quality of the higher education provision offered there, ultimately therefore influencing choices about which academic programme to select. Inevitably, they reveal a complex set of interconnected variables - including, the university itself, the international environment and personal security, as well as the range of cultural and leisure experiences available. Importantly too, they report that there exists a strong positive relationship between the image of the urban environment and the perceived quality of the academic programme. The next chapter is concerned with experiential learning in the Event Management curriculum. In it, David Lamb reports on the evaluation of 'Recreation 212' - a module from the Bachelor of Recreation Management programme at Lincoln University, New Zealand.He describes how the module is delivered at Level Two (for full-time students, the second year of study in higher education), and is based on a collaborative partnership with key stakeholders at local, regional and national levels. With over 50 events and 300 sports coaches involved, it is a large-scale operation. Predicated on the principles of 'learning by doing', this approach provides students with a very effective grounding in the professional practice of Event Management. The last chapter in this section can be seen as a bridge between pedagogy and research. Judith Mair and Karen Thompson present a rigorous account of the attempt to validate a theoretical model for the decision-making process undertaken by delegates attending a UK-based Subject Association1 conference. In doing so, they provide an example of how a tentative theoretical understanding is investigated, tested, modified (where appropriate), and strengthened. The second section addresses the impacts of festivals and events, and does so both theoretically and empirically. Hannah Pattison focuses on the effects that festivals can have on urban regeneration.She notes that whilst considerable attention has been paid to the economic costs and benefits of regeneration, there has been relatively little emphasis placed on the social and cultural impacts. Drawing on a case study of the Edinburgh Festivals, she describes the way that festivals can function not only as a regional economic catalyst, but also as a means to improve the attractiveness of the built environment, to enhance the prosperity of an area, to cultivate civic pride, and to derive educational benefit. In their synthesis of scholarly published work and selected event evaluation reports in the second chapter of this section, Emma Wood, Lisa Robinson and Rhodri Thomas make some valuable connections between conceptual and applied material. From this, they have generated a theoretical model of the 'social impacts body of knowledge' [SIBOK]. The intention is, as they explain, that using the SIBOK model marketing information can be applied by organisers to public sector events. Support for festivals from the private/commercial sector is the focus of the third chapter in this section.In it, the potentially mutually beneficial links between business and the Arts are examined by John Godfrey in an empirical investigation that interrogates the views of representatives from six arts festivals and twelve businesses. Drawing on the findings of this qualitative study, he concludes that arts festivals continue to have the potential to attract support from businesses. The interest of businesses in supporting festivals relates to the variety of activities that festivals are able to offer, contributing to the achievement of a range of business objectives linked to sponsorship, corporate social responsibility, corporate philanthropy and cause related marketing. Finally in this section, Chantal Laws and Zuleika Beaven present a comparative analysis of two case-study examples of client organisations that the Arts Council, England have supported through the lottery-funded Stabilisation and Recovery Programme. The emphasis in this chapter is on the separation of the process of short-term recovery from the more complex task of achieving organisational stability in the medium to long term.In analysing this issue, they highlight the attempt to eliminate the dichotomy between policy and practice that has dominated Arts events in the public sector in the UK. The third section of this volume is concerned with the experiential dimensions of festivals and events. By synthesising the extant literature from Marketing and Event Management, and drawing on illustrative examples from the Live8 concerts of 2005, Caroline Jackson elucidates the way in which the event experience can (and should) be situated more centrally within current discourses about Event Management. This, she notes, would add a useful dimension to some of the previous academic work concerning the events industry, which has focused more on the management of events than their experiential qualities. Mikhail Bakhtin's (1984) description of the carnivalesque is the theoretical framework utilised by Neil Ravenscroft and Paul Gilchrist in the penultimate chapter.In it, they examine critically the context sensitivity of the interpretation of contemporary festivals and argue that: "contemporary festivals, as carnivalesque inversions of the everyday, can and are deployed to maintain and reinforce social order and, thus, the discipline of bodies and behaviours". They substantiate their analysis through some illustrative examples of marginalised and liminal events - in particular, raves and 'deviant' sexual practices. In the final chapter, Elspeth Frew considers the specific genre of comedy festivals in Australia. She explores the characteristics of such comedy festivals and identifies the key facets that contribute to their successful establishment and operation. The growth of these festivals, she argues, has been influenced by three key drivers: first, the growth in interest in theatrical comedy among audiences; second, the demand among comedians for an outlet for their talents; and third, the acknowledgement of potential social and economic benefits that may accrue from establishing such events.She presents an exploratory model of the characteristics of Australian comedy festivals, and notes the central importance of the audience in the success (or otherwise) of comedy festivals.

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Imprint:

Leisure Studies Association

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