Call for Papers – The human geography of special events and festivals (RGS-IBG 2012)

Sponsor:

• Geographies of Leisure and Tourism Research Group (GLTRG)

Session Convenors:

• Dr Kirsten Holmes, Curtin University – k.holmes@curtin.edu.au
• Professor Tom Baum, Strathclyde University – t.g.baum@strath.ac.uk

Abstract:

Research on events and festivals within leisure and tourism is maturing with the launch of new journals and study programs (Getz, 2007). Yet much is still unknown about the social impact of events and festivals (Carlsen, Ali-Knight and Robertson, 2007) and the human side of events and festivals has been largely under researched (Baum et al, 2009). London will shortly host the Games of the XXX Olympiad, with athletes participating from 204 National Olympic Committees, the event employing 6000 paid staff, involving up to 70,000 volunteers and attracting thousands of predicted tourists and day visitors from the UK and abroad (www.london2012.com). The event’s legacy will be to create new residential communities on the Olympic site, training, jobs and wider social benefits such as further volunteering. While most events and festivals are on a much smaller scale they still rely on these human contributions. This session will focus on the human dimension of events and festivals, by going beyond current event impact studies to answer questions of how far oft-cited social and cultural benefits of events are or can be realized (Fredline, Jago & Deery, 2003; Rogers, Robertson & Leask, 2009). As such this section will address the following research questions: Do events and festivals genuinely bring people and communities together to help generate social capital? Can they really lead to intercultural exchange between people from different countries and cultures and if so, in what ways? Do they promote volunteering either during or after the event and how do they do this? What are the negative outcomes from events for residents beyond simple car parking and noise complaints? How far do events really act as a draw for tourists? What kind of human legacy is created in terms of employment, skills development and new communities? And how can these questions best be researched?

References

Baum, T., Deery, M., Hanlon, C., Lockstone, L. & Smith, K. (Eds.). (2009). People and work in events and conventions. Wallingford: CABI.

Carlsen, J., Ali-Knight, J. & Robertson, M. (2007). Access-A research agenda for Edinburgh festivals. Event Management 11 (2007): 3-11.

Fredline, L., Jago, L. & Deery, M. (2003). Developing a generic scale to measure the social impacts of events. Event Management 8, 23-37.

Getz, D. (2007). Event studies. Oxford: Elsevier.

Robertson, M., Rogers, P. & Leask, A. (2009). Progressing socio- cultural impact evaluation for festivals. Journal of Policy Research for Tourism, Leisure and Events 1(2) 156-169.

Deadline for Abstracts: 31^st January 2012

See www.rgs.org/ac2012 for more details on the conference