1st Edition
Reimagining Community Festivals and Events Critical and Interdisciplinary Perspectives
This book celebrates and builds on Alan Clarke (1956–2021) and Allan Jepson’s 2015 book Exploring Community Festivals and Events. It showcases how far the study of community festivals and events has come in the intervening years, and in so doing it is a response to recent calls for researchers to take a more critical approach to event studies.
This is an interdisciplinary book that draws together empirical research across a wide range of community event types, sizes and within diverse communities. Chapters in this book are grouped into four themes that highlight the breadth and depth of work being done: reviving and maintaining tradition(s); a focus on belonging; challenges and tensions; and innovations in teaching and research. Another of its core strengths is its international perspective – the book encompasses research from around the world including Turkey, Portugal, Greece, India, the UK, the US, Austria and New Zealand. There is also a diverse range of theoretical lenses applied to the study of community events, and some innovative methodologies used to achieve research aims and objectives.
This volume will appeal to students and researchers in the fields of critical event studies, cultural studies, place-making, tourism, music, sociology and geography. Several chapters also provide insights and key learnings for those lecturing and working in event management and industry professionals.
1. Understanding the Complex Nexus of Interdisciplinary Research in Community Festivals and Events
Allan Stewart Jepson, Raphaela Stadler and Trudie Walters
Part I. Reviving and Maintaining Tradition(s)
2. Small-scale Community-led Carnival Festivals on a Mission: Reviving Local Heritage and Community Benefits
Fiona Eva Bakas, Maria Psimouli and Stella Kladou
3. Beyond the Band and Game: The Sociocultural Impact of a Historically Black College and University Homecoming Experience
Kristine M. Fleming and Nikki L. Lyons
4. Factors Influencing Changes to Traditional Folklore and Cultural Festivals
Rajesh Nautiyal and Stu Hayes
Part II. A Focus for Belonging
5. Formation and Sustaining of Neo-tribes: Anchoring Place and Event
Kubra Asan and Ebru Bingol
6. Let's Put Up a Stage: Experiencing Speyfest, a Celtic Music Festival in Scotland
Daithí Kearney and Adèle Commins
Part III. Challenges and Tensions
7. Putting the "Multi" in Multicultural: Challenges in Representing Diversity Through Community Festivals and Events
David McGillivray and Trudie Walters
8. "Sounds a Bit Poncy for Me": Understanding Elitism Within a Community Arts Festival
Trudie Walters
Part IV. Innovation in Teaching and Research
9. Measuring Attitudinal Change in Community Light Festivals
Mandy Curtis and Adam Jones
10. Becoming, Being…Belonging? Using Collaborative Autoethnography to Explore Community Events and Festivals.
Raphaela Stadler and Philipp Wegerer
11. Teaching Community Events, Power and Empowerment to Final Year Event Management Students: Pedagogical Considerations and Reflections
Raphaela Stadler
Biography
Allan Stewart Jepson, PhD, is a multi/ interdisciplinary researcher following a track on well-being in contemporary leisure experiences; this has included research into power and hegemonic relationships, community festivals and events, social inclusion, festival and event memories, gerontology, and neurodiversity. Allan continues to build teams to investigate the complexity of physiological, psychological and sociological paradigms which influence long-term well-being. He is an advocate for change, equity and inclusion of neurodivergent populations.
Raphaela Stadler is Associate Professor for Tourism and Event Management at Management Centre Innsbruck (MCI), Austria. She is currently working on several multidisciplinary research projects to better understand the sociological and psychological impacts contemporary leisure experiences (festivals, events and tourism) have upon individuals, families and communities. Her specific research interests and areas of expertise include community events and festivals, community cultural development, power and empowerment, well-being and quality of life.
Trudie Walters is a critical event studies researcher from Aotearoa, New Zealand. Her research platform is centred on events and leisure as interdisciplinary lenses through which to understand the inner workings and values of society. She serves on the editorial board of a number of top academic leisure and events journals and is a board member and past president of the Australia and New Zealand Association for Leisure Studies.
