Search

This critical commentary focuses on the development of research in Event Management on social sustainability in the context of events. Findings suggest that while there has been a plethora of articles published in the journal that touch on elements of what we understand to relate to social sustainability (e.g., resident impacts; sense of community, place, belonging, etc.) there are very few that have explicitly situated their work in the sustainability field. This means that it is somewhat difficult to pull together the various threads of disparate studies to comment on the evolution of research on events and social sustainability as a whole. There is considerable scope for articles published in Event Management to build on these growing efforts to think systematically and comprehensively about festivals and events through the lens of social sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research responds to calls to further our understanding of exhibitions in the library context by exploring the significance of a commemorative exhibition staged in a public library. Employing a qualitative methodology, it centers on the 'Goodbye Dublin: The War of Independence in the City' commemorative exhibition, staged by Dublin City Pearse Street Library, between August 14th and October 31st, 2019. The findings show that the commemorative nature of the exhibition appealed to a variety of new, lapsed and frequent library users, connecting with Irish and non-Irish residents, as well as tourists visiting the city. In this regard, the exhibition was effective in its objective of appealing to a new and wide-ranging audience, however, the findings underline the need for more diverse and varied marketing, if this aim is to be entirely successful. The staging of the exhibition as an active authoring and articulation of the past by the library is highlighted, and the use of multimedia is seen to transform the library into an emotionally charged, dynamic, and multisensory space. This facilitates an immersive encounter, involving interplays between the exhibition narratives and visitors' personal memories and interests. This offers different ways for visitors to engage with the library, inspiring them to find new meanings, explore issues of personal, collective and national identities, and to reassess contemporary events. Overall, the research makes an important contribution by highlighting the complexity and importance of commemorative exhibitions in the context of public libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultivating places and spaces to encourage sociality and foster sociocultural inclusion is a very pertinent societal challenge. Community festivals are often marshalled in the interest of making cities more hospitable for the increasing numbers of migrants, refugees, remote workers and tourists internationally on the move. This study investigates if and how community festivals are constructing hospitality through their practices. The findings are drawn from a qualitative study of two community festivals in Dublin's North East Inner City, an ethnically diverse area characterized by social disadvantage. They suggest that community festivals can make places more hospitable. However, the approaches taken to inculcating hospitality can differ substantially. Here, the two study festivals were found to differ in terms of how they extended welcome and exerted social control, how they constructed the host-guest dynamic and how they operationalized the concept of gifting. Overall, the findings encourage further analysis of festivals using the concept of hospitality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Festivals have been conceptualised as serious leisure activities as well as arenas for cultural capital acquisition and embodiment. However, there is still theoretical confusion surrounding the process of cultural embodiment, especially in leisure practices. This article suggests that the serious leisure perspective, in combination with cultural capital ideas, offers a means of deepening understanding of how cultural capital can be embodied in festival settings. To make its arguments, the article draws on qualitative data collected at two long-established literary festivals, one in Ireland and one in Italy. Observations and interviews with festival participants were used to develop an understanding of participants' cultural capital embodiment. The article suggests that the serious leisure perspective is a valuable theory to throw light on three elements of cultural embodiment at festivals: (1) body; (2) pre-existing cultural resources; (3) time. Interlinking serious leisure with cultural capital leads to an in-depth analysis of how culture is embodied during festivals. This article demonstrates the value of using serious leisure and the embodied state of cultural capital ideas in tandem to further understand cultural embodiment in festivals. The study concludes by suggesting potential future studies and areas of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]