Events and Society

Events of all shapes and sizes play an important part in all of our lives. They are fun, frivolous, and often allow us to escape from our everyday lives - and they are also fascinating to study and examine in a more serious way, to understand what they mean and do for us - individually and collectively. Events in Society, therefore, explores the social impact and sociological implications of designing, planning, and delivering events - cultural events like the Edinburgh Fringe Festival; sporting events like the Olympic and Paralympic Games and FIFA World Cup; to music festivals like Glastonbury.

30 carefully selected contributions feature written by global experts in a short and succinct way that are easy to digest, covering a variety of disciplines, fields, contexts, and cases. Every chapter explores a critical issue or debate based on real life events, and contextualises this within the key theoretical debates, managerial and policy implications. Throughout, there are linkages the UN Sustainable Development Goals throughout, as well as interactive features to aid understanding and spur critical thinking, including learning objectives, quiz questions and debate questions per chapter.

Some of the topics covered include:

Uniting nations and people Personal experiences and transformations Social critique and explorations Activism Programming and representation Health, safety and security Identity and gender LGBTQ+ Environmentalism Displacement and exclusion Education and participation Community development Disability and accessibility This innovative, topical, engaging, and comprehensive book is an essential reading and teaching resource for all students and lecturers in events, that are easy to integrate into educational programs.