Celebration Events - week 10

1. Celebrating time
and space
Celebration Events | By Ashley Garlick

2. Time, place and space
• Events can reconfigure temporal and spatial
relations
• Both time and space are situated cultural
processes
• Socially constructed

3. Time

4. Events as markers of
time
• The temporal nature of events makes when they
are staged very important
• Events can help people focus on the future, or
remember the past
• Often the anticipation of an event can see the
most positive impacts

5. Events as markers of
time
• Events themselves can mark important
moments in the calendar, eg. Harvest Festival
• Events can celebrate the passage of time, eg.
New Year’s Eve
• Event can also be used to “periodise” the lives
of people and host nations, eg. Olympic
Games, World Fairs.
• ‘Once in a generation’
Source: Smith, A. (2012). Events and Urban Regeneration: The strategic use of events to revitalise cities, Routledge:
London, UK.

6. Events as a ‘turning
point’
• Major and mega events often come with
investment in infrastructure, creating tangible
benefits for a community
• The event begins to symbolise the improvements,
and is seen as the visible demonstration of
improvement
• Seen as a “fateful moment” in the lives of
individuals, as well as a city
Source: Smith, A. (2012). Events and Urban Regeneration: The strategic use of events to revitalise cities,
Routledge: London, UK.

7. Space

8. What is place?
• Geographical location
• Material form
• Investment with meaning and value
Source: Gieryn, T.F. (2000). A Space for Place in Sociology. Annual Review of
Sociology. Vol.26. pp.463-496.

9. …or is it?

10. Theoretical
foundations
Sense
of place
Place
identity
Place
attachment
Place
dependence

11. Place identity
• Cognitive
• First attributed to Prohansky (1978)
• Incorporation of place into the larger concept of self
• More than attachment
• A substructure of self-identity
• Dominates Environmental Psychology
Source: Proshansky, H. Fabian, A. Kaminoff, R. (1983). Place-Identity: Physical World Socialization of the Self. Journal of Environmental Psychology, Vol. 3, iss.1, pp.57-83

12. Place dependence
• Conative
• Purposeful, but not necessarily rational
• How well a setting serves a purpose when
compared against alternatives

13. Place attachment
• Affective
• Emotional relationship with a place
• Human-place bonding
• Altman & Low, 1992
Source: Low S.M., Altman I. (1992) Place Attachment: A conceptual enquiry. In: Altman I.,
Low S.M. (eds) Place Attachment: Human Behavior and Environment, Springer, Boston, MA

14. Sense of place
• Physical and social phenomenon
• Has been explored in a range of disciplines
• Social Anthropology, Geography,
Environmental Psychology, Cultural Studies
• Can be measured (Jorgensen and Stedman,
2001)
• Often celebrated in festival events
Source: Jorgensen, B.S. and Stedman, R.C. (2001). Sense of Place as an Attitude: Lakeshore Owners
Attitudes Towards Their Properties. Journal of Environmental Psychology, Vol. 21, pp.233-248

15. Belonging
• Bringing people together
• Opportunities to reminisce
• Create a sense of shared experience and identity
• Belonging creates a link between the past, present and future

16. What does a place
do?
• Emplacing difference and hierarchy
• Power-vessels and strongholds
• Proximity, interaction, community
• Places spawn collective action
• Secures otherwise intangible cultural norms,
identities and memories
Gieryn, T.F. (2000). A Space for Place in Sociology. Annual Review of Sociology. Vol.26. pp.463-496.

17. The production
of space
Lefebvre, H. (1991). The Production of
Space. Blackwell: Oxford, UK.
The
production
of space
Spatial practices
Representation
of space
Spaces of
representation

18. Spatial practices
• Physical or spatial practices of a place
• The ‘facts’ of a place

20. Representation of
space
• Mental or conceived space
• The ‘designed’ use of the space
• How it is intended to be used
• Includes visual representations of a space

22. Spaces of
representation
• The ways in which spaces are lived in
• What people actually do in a space
• Actual use can sometimes contradict conceived
used
• Lived use of a space can, over time, lead to changes
in conceived use

24. Subverting
conceived space

25. Subverting conceived
space
• Provides novelty
• Shared experience
• Space influences behaviour

26. Use of space
• Interactions of space and inhabitants
• Space directly influences behaviour
• Can be influenced by media and ways in
which the space is presented
• Events can create a “safe space” where
marginalized groups can exist (Walters and
Jepson, 2019).
Source: Walters, T. and Jepson, A. (2019). Marginalisation and Events. Abingdon: Routledge.

27. Hallmark events
• Events where the essence of the event
cannot be separated from the place
• To change the space would change the
nature of the event

28. Examples?
• Royal Ascot
• British Summertime Concerts
• London Marathon
• Pride
• Wimbledon
• Queens
• Notting Hill Carnival

29. Summary
• Events as markers of time
• Passage of time; periodise host region; turning
points
• Place can have identity, and is involved in identity
formation
• Space is a created phenomenon with interrelated
features
• Spatial practice; spaces of representation;
representations of space
• Space directly influences behaviour, and behaviour
can influence space