ABSTRACT
The Routledge Handbook of Events explores and critically evaluates the debates and controversies associated with the rapidly expanding domain of Event Studies. It brings together leading specialists from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, to provide a state-of-the-art review on the evolution of the subject. The first edition was a landmark study which examined how event research had evolved and developed from a range of different social science subject areas and disciplines. The Handbook was the first critique of the extent to which the subject had developed into a major area of social science inquiry.
This second edition has been fully updated to reflect crucial developments in the field and includes brand new sections on ever-important aspects of Event Studies such as: anthropology, hospitality, seasonality, knowledge management, accessibility, diversity and human rights, as well as new studies on ‘the eventful city’ and the benefits of events in older life. The book is divided into four inter-related sections. Section 1 introduces and evaluates the concept of events. Section 2 critically reviews the relationship between events and other disciplines such as the contribution of economics, psychology and geography to the critical discourse of Event Studies. Section 3 focuses on the business, operational and strategic management of events, while the final section crucially focuses on critical events as a new paradigm within the burgeoning literature on Events.
It offers the reader a comprehensive and critical synthesis of this field, conveying the latest thinking associated with events research, edited by two of the leading scholars in the field. The text will provide an invaluable resource for all those with an interest in Events Studies, encouraging dialogue that will span across disciplinary boundaries and other areas of study. It is an essential guide for anyone interested in events research.
1 Introduction SECTION 1 Conceptualising events 2 Event studies 3 Public events, personal leisure? 4 Events and tourism 5 Events and hospitality 6 Sports events: typologies, people and place SECTION 2 Disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches to events: concepts and methods of analysis 7 The history of events: ideology, representation and historiography 8 Anthropology of events: diasporic perspectives, events and the representation of people 9 Socio-cultural impacts of events: meanings, authorized transgression, and social capital 10 The economic contribution of special events 11 A spatial extension to a framework for assessing direct economic impacts of tourist events 12 Geography and the study of events 13 Revisiting the psychology of events 14 The political analysis and political economy of events 15 Urban studies and the eventful city 16 Events management education 17 Quantitative and qualitative research tools in events SECTION 3 Business, operational and strategic issues associated with events 18 The private sector and events 19 Event staging 20 The experience of events 21 Designing event experiences 22 The media, marketing and events: a new reality 23 Seasonality and events 24 Staffing for successful events: having the right skills in the right place at the right time 25 Knowledge management in events 26 Event impacts and environmental sustainability SECTION 4 The critical turn in events: contemporary issues, society and events 27 Accessibility, diversity and inclusion in events 28 Disability and events 29 Human rights, events and the media: a neglected relationship 30 The benefits of events in older life 31 Faces, spaces and places: social and cultural impacts of street festivals in cosmopolitan cities 32 Events, cities and the night-time economy 33 Retrospect and prospect
