93 research outputs found
Volunteering and wellbeing:Case study of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games volunteer programmes
No full textRecent analyses of major sporting events and their legacies are evident; however, as with wide-ranging evaluations, the examination of these events is inclined to disregard the social dimension. This research evaluates the potential social legacy opportunity for Glasgow as a major event host city through its volunteer programmes. Specifically, it examines to what extent volunteering as part of a major sport event influences wellbeing. The participants’ thoughts and feelings about their experience of volunteering at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games was revealed using a self-reported, retrospective wellbeing scale – the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well Being Scale (WEMWBS). The use of the scale is intended to show how the participants feel about themselves pre- and post-Games as part of a volunteer programme. The findings suggest that wellbeing does increase and a one-off large event volunteer experience does have an impact on reported wellbeing levels, including confidence, optimism, and usefulness. Therefore, it is argued that volunteering might contribute to higher reported levels of wellbeing in both people with previous volunteering experience and non-volunteers. Considering the importance of legacy within major event literature, these findings propose an original insight into wider major event volunteer programmes’ potential social impacts and legacies
Creative Research Methods for Critical Event Studies: Introduction
No full textRebecca Finkel - ORCID: 0000-0003-2120-6211 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2120-6211This chapter provides a broad overview of creative methods and their application in the social sciences before examining the value for events and festivals research. It will provide a summary of the book’s contents to follow.https://www.routledge.com/Creative-Research-Methods-for-Critical-Event-Studies/Platt-Finkel-Sharp/p/book/978103268640
Beyond walking: The ritualistic nature of pandemic leisure
No full textRebecca Finkel - ORCID: 0000-0003-2120-6211
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2120-62112020, the year of government sanctioned walking. This chapter examines the changing nature of leisure during COVID-19 restrictions, where walking outdoors has been the only option for leisure, exercise and/or socialisation. ‘Going for a walk’ has now acquired a new significance and, it can be argued, a ritualistic rhythm in our pandemic lives. It is arguably the purpose of rituals to maintain social order even through uncommon behaviour, and this can be seen to be the case during the pandemic through the practice of walking as rule-following. Yet, there are private transgressions to be found in publicly authorised leisure. Aligned with Gluckman’s (1963) conceptions of ‘rituals of rebellion’, where ritual is an expression of underlying social tensions (or, in the case of COVID-19, public health anxieties), walking can be seen as the ‘pressure valve’ that relieves such tensions through cyclical performances of daily leisure. Through in-depth interviews, we seek to gain understanding into the ritual of walking and what new individual and collective meanings are being formulated. By engaging in an activity perhaps once thought to be mundane, walking now can be experienced as a focal point providing structure to days of social isolation or quarantine, as liberation from the constraints of lockdown, as a change of scenery when travel is not allowed, as untypical socialisation from the pre-pandemic norm, as a welcome respite from family and caring responsibilities; thus, this type of leisure has emerged as a rather more complex and affective activity in these unprecedented times.https://www.routledge.com/pubpu
Transforming leisure in the pandemic: Re-imagining interaction and activity during crisis
No full textRebecca Finkel - ORCID: 0000-0003-2120-6211
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2120-6211Item not available in this repository.There is no denying that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the ways we socialise during our leisure time. This edited collection aims to critically explore international leisure during the pandemic by seeking to understand how changes in leisure have led to transformations in the ways we have had to ‘do’ and ‘redo’ activities, such as incorporating digitalisation and distancing measures, as well as dealing with restrictions on social interaction, gatherings, and cultural activities. This has caused people worldwide to change their patterns of behaviour, especially when it comes to leisure experiences and the leisure environment, leading to critical re-evaluation of what leisure is and means in contemporary societies.https://www.routledge.com/pubpu
Transcending the Text: Briony\u27s Battle for Authorship in Atonement
No full textIan McEwan\u27s Atonement presents a meta-level relationship among author, reader, and characters. Tucked between layers of language throughout the novel, the reader discovers evidence of Roland Barthes\u27s theory that an author must figuratively die in order for a reader to inject his or her own meaning into a text. However, instead of focusing on this fatal author-reader relationship, McEwan showcases a variation of this theory in which he appears to indirectly pose the question of how a literary character fits into the authorship dynamic. Extending Barthes\u27s Death of the Author, McEwan discovers that only one person-either the author or the character-can survive and assert authority over a text when a character composes a novel within a novel. This notion of conquering the author is exhibited throughout the course of Atonement when McEwan\u27s character, Briony Tallis, takes on an authorial voice of her own, and transcends the text in which she is trapped by composing her own novel on McEwan\u27s pages. Although she is a product of McEwan\u27s imagination and linguistic artistry, the aspiring thirteen-year-old writer rebels against her creator by engaging in a battle for equal authorship rights with him. Through her interactions with patriarchal language throughout the novel, Briony is able to formulate her own bold writing style-signaling McEwan\u27s defeat in the fight for authorial legitimacy, and exhibiting the rising importance of female authors in a formerly male-dominated literary canon
In Search of the "Telling Detail": Ian McEwan, Briony Tallis, and the Demands of Authorship
No full textMuch scholarly interest surrounding Ian McEwan's Atonement has focused on the abrupt shift that occurs in the novel's final section, "London, 1999." This essay argues that this section makes it clear that the main story of the novel is not Briony, Robbie, and Cecilia's entanglement due to Lola's teenaged rape but Briony's development as a writer, her kunstlerroman. As such, it is crucial to the novel, not simply a metafictional ploy, because it illuminates the lengths she has gone to in writing her final book and fulfilling her youthful promise. McEwan's response to a real-life plagiarism accusation reinforces his depiction of Briony as an author who searches for "the telling detail," as opposed to one who sticks to verifiable, historical accuracy
Post-humanist investigation into human-equine relations in event landscapes: Case of the Rodeo
No full textFinkel, Rebecca - ORCID 0000-0003-2120-6211
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2120-6211Due to the increases in human leisure time, education, and affluence, animals are now incorporated into a range of recreational activities, which encourage and enable intra-active multi-species encounters in experiential environments. Framed in post-humanist theory, this chapter seeks to challenge the singular focus around human subjects, blurring boundaries between the human and nonhuman, looking beyond human agency and exploring the ‘more-than-human’ within the human-equine sporting event relationship. Focusing on a qualitative case study of the Austin Rodeo in Texas, USA, it is evident from this research how the boundaries and significant differences between humans and horses are challenged by the fluidity and interconnectedness of both species in rodeo performance spaces through increased knowledge, skill, and companionship. This has implications for the leisure, tourism, and events fields by repositioning animals as partners in the co-creation of cultural experiences.https://www.routledge.com/Accessibility-Inclusion-and-Diversity-in-Critical-Event-Studies/Finkel-Sharp-Sweeney/p/book/9780815350828https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781351142243pubpu
Accessibility, Inclusion, and Diversity in Critical Event Studies
No full textMost early social research into planned events had the effect of broadcasting narratives of dominant cultures and privileged groups. More recently, however, convergences of gender, sexualities, ethnicities, age, class, religion, and intersectional analyses and events studies have started to drive new critical understanding of the impacts of events on non-mainstream, non-majority communities around the globe. This timely book addresses current gaps in the literature surrounding issues of accessibility, inclusion, and diversity in various event landscapes.
Structured into four parts covering the main types of events, the chapters present original topics using innovative methodological approaches. Each chapter employs a case study to illustrate the key intertwining issues in these various experiential realms. Further, the chapters are all cross- or interdisciplinary, drawing on gender, sexualities, cultural, race/ethnicity studies as well as multiple literatures that feed into critical events studies and exploring a variety of global examples.
This significant book opens the path to further research on the role and importance of accessibility, inclusion, and diversity in events environments worldwide. It will be of interest to academics and researchers of critical event studies as well as a number of related social science disciplines.https://www.routledge.com/Accessibility-Inclusion-and-Diversity-in-Critical-Event-Studies/Finkel-Sharp-Sweeney/p/book/9780815350828https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781351142243pubpu
Postcards from the Future:Researching Audiences at Bad Ischl-Salzkammergut, European Capital of Culture 2024
No full textThis chapter interrogates the wider regenerative ambitions of Bad Ischl-Salzkammergut European Capital of Culture (ECC) 2024. On public transportation, as part of the ECC initiative, the author invites participants to respond in drawing to the question, “What does a postcard of the future Salzkammergut look like?” The artistic expression of drawing as a reflective and imaginative practice for research purposes contributes not only to the understanding of challenges and opportunities of this creative approach for critical event studies, but also can appraise the efficacy of the ECC agenda for urban regeneration and future placemaking
Creative Research Methods for Critical Event Studies
No full textRebecca Finkel - ORCID: 0000-0003-2120-6211
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2120-6211Events, in their multitude of forms, are generally understood to be creative endeavours (Silvers, 2012). From design through to implementation of spectacle, they draw on creative skills to deliver experiences that entertain and inspire the audience. Thus, it can be argued that creativity in events requires creativity in researching events. It is from this basis that we, as phenomenological researchers of experiential environments, inquire, are we actually employing similarly creative approaches to research events? In her comprehensive assessment of creative methods, Kara (2020) comments that creativity in research can help us address societal questions that traditional methods cannot, but they are no less robust. Thus far, within event and festival studies, we are yet to see a comprehensive assessment of the use of creative methods. This book will fill that gap whilst complementing work on research methods for critical event studies (Lamond and Platt, 2016).
Creative research methods are not simply confined to arts-based methods, nor are they always qualitative in approach. Creativity is also not just about data collection or dissemination. Like all good research that is robust and well designed, creativity must emerge from research questions and contexts of the work. Creativity is not a bolt-on or an afterthought. Creativity can be both methodology and method. In this regard, using creative research methods emerges from the onto-epistemological foundations of the research.
Traditional research methods have potential to constrain researchers from understanding complex social issues around events and festivals. They also can marginalise some participants from having a voice in research. It is our contention that employing creative methodologies/methods in how we study events and festivals can facilitate more inclusive approaches to research that do not favour dominant hegemonic narratives and provide diverse perspectives. It is through richer findings that critical event studies can advance as a subject field.
For this edited collection, we will present work from across disciplines and methodologies. It will cover what falls/emerges between the cracks, including new pathways or lessons learned from researching during the pandemic and other challenging landscapes. Each chapter will examine creative methodology and/or methods in the event and festival context using case study example(s), or address issues associated with using creative research methods (e.g., ethics). Each chapter will provide a simple ‘how to’ set of guidelines to help researchers to consider employing creative methods in their own work, or a series of ‘think points’ to develop ethical practices. In particular, this will be useful for students studying events and festivals at undergraduate and postgraduate level and provide them with empirical as well as conceptual guidance.https://www.routledge.com/Creative-Research-Methods-for-Critical-Event-Studies/Platt-Finkel-Sharp/p/book/978103268640
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