Event Studies

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.

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.

Event Studies are overwhelmingly widespread in financial research, providing tools for shedding light on market efficiency, as well as measuring the impact of various occurrences on public firms' security prices. Mastering the Event Study approach is essential for researchers and practitioners alike. Event Studies for Financial Research aims to help readers obtain valuable hands-on experience with Event Study tools and gain technical skills for conducting their own studies. Kliger and Gurevich provide a detailed application of their approach, which consists of: a description of the method; references; guided applications; and elaborated framework for implementing the applications.

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.

Exploring the relationship between gender and events, this book delivers an ethnographic analysis of the celebration of gender equality in the context of the culture-led event. Drawing upon Critical Event Studies, Anthropology of the Festive and Gender Studies, this book provides a comprehensive understanding of the entangled, conceptual entities of gender and events. Through a gendered analysis of the culture-led event, Hull UK City of Culture 2017, this work expands epistemological perspectives relevant to the study of events in general and City/ Capital of Culture initiatives in particular. Driven by a feminist, collaborative methodological approach, the book draws on four years of ethnographic, qualitative research in the city of Hull and its celebration of the title, UK City of Culture in 2017 and provides an in-depth analysis of how audiences engage, performances enact, and infrastructures condition the production of cultures of gender equality in the citywide celebration. This will be a valuable resource for upper-level students and academics in the field of Event Studies, Cultural Policy, Geography, Anthropology and Gender Studies.

Many books exist on various aspects of event management, reflecting growing academic and professional interest, but there has not been a book written on Event Studies until now. As the event management field expands, there is a growth in demand for advanced texts, particularly with a multidisciplinary research and theoretical orientation. Event Studies is the first text to embrace this new direction in the field of event management providing: * Students and practitioners with an explanation of why planned events are important from a social/cultural, economic and environmental perspective. * Readers with an understanding of how various disciplines and other professional fields view planned events, and the contributions they make to understanding events. * Research students with a detailed evaluation of research issues and challenges, and of methodologies and theories applicable to event studies. The bibliography is extensive and numerous research examples are provided. * Professionals with a tool to expand their knowledge well beyond the art and science of producing events to include the philosophical and scientific foundations of event studies. For the event management student, and for professionals, Event Studies provides the necessary body of knowledge and theoretical /methodological underpinnings on the subject of planned events.

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.

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.