Critical Event Studies

Although most leisure experiences are firmly situated within event studies, some critics suggest that event management is an abomination that has undermined the freedom of individuals in their leisure and helped displace the study of leisure in universities. For example, Rojek (2014:32) argues that the professionalisation of events studies, and its transformation into an academic discipline, has been hampered by the neo liberalisation of higher education which has foregrounded event management mainly at the expense of critical leisure studies. However, what he fails to point out is that this has nevertheless encouraged attempts to make event studies into a more critical subject field (Lamond and Platt, 2016; Spracklen and Lamond, 2016). These authors, as well as Blackshaw and Coetzee (2020), argue that the more event studies interact with other critical subject fields, not just leisure studies but sociology, cultural studies and politics as well – the more relevant it becomes, and thus the more useful.

Critical event studies radically challenge all preceding formulations of events studies and event management by accepting that there is a central contestation at the heart of all events (Lamond and Platt, 2016). Dashper, Fletcher, and McCullough (2014) introduce their volume with an excellent outline on the emergence of critically underpinned events research. They challenge the assumption that what event scholars are doing is merely ‘borrowing’ social science theory to events; instead, they argue events should be placed, ‘at the heart of wider social, cultural, political and economic issues’ (p. 4). Similarly, Andrews and Leopold (2013) place events within the social science context and present a user-friendly introduction, for students, to key social theories and how they can offer a more nuanced understanding of events.

Festivals and leisure events have emerged as subjects of heightened interest, with a growing emphasis on conducting in-depth examinations and exercises that extend beyond superficial observations of their immediate effects. This interest is characterised by a growing awareness that these events are not merely colourful spectacles, but instead serve as important windows into the cultural, social, and sustainability dimensions of a community and society. Scholars recognise that these festivities can reveal complex processes such as the interaction of tradition and modernity, the negotiation of identity, the path to equity, embracing diversity, and encouraging inclusion, all of which can have a significant impact on society, sustainability, and globalisation. These events can be seen as collective expressions in which subjects experience identification, liminality, and liminoid states (Turner 1979), at the same time as uncertainty. Quinn (2003; 2005) and Jamieson (2004) make the link between festival and identity, understanding festivals as a mechanism by which people can reassert, associate, or contest, an ascribed identification. Debates on social rules, behaviour, norms, status, on a frame of a festival aim of understanding social experiences, social outcomes and impacts (as processes as well as social patterns). Therefore in this sense Bourdieu’s concept of capital (1972, 1986) and Putnam’s (2001) conceptualisation of social capital emerged in different ways throughout participation in festivals. Also there is discord between those who understand festivals and events as an ‘intensification of the collective being’ (Duvignaud 1976) and those who see them as being inherently subversive and political (Noyes 2003, Bullen & Egido 2003). In both perspectives, the idea of social cohesion arises as a fundamental aspect of the festival experience and its consequence legacy, highlighting political objectives and the pursuit of social justice, while also accentuating the importance of embracing diversity and raising awareness about systemic discrimination and inequality.

In this way, studies on leisure events and festivals are increasingly oriented towards a different perspective, moving beyond initial trends of management and effectiveness to focus on analyses and research linked to their legacy – in different dimensions – from a critical viewpoint.