JPMD Editorial: Grassroots festivals and place making

By Usien – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28526546

By Luise Platt and Jane Ali-Knight

Introduction

The papers in this special issue are another valuable contribution to the examination of festivals and events beyond their economic and business application and benefits. The issue further explores the close link festivals have with the communities that support and engage with them and further emphasize the value and importance of the places where they are delivered. This sense of place and community involvement is a key driver in critical event studies (Lamond and Platt, 2016). The role that events and festivals (from sporting mega-events to annual arts festivals) play in place branding has been well documented (Herstein and Berger, 2014Lee and Arcodia, 2011Derrett, 2004Jago et al., 2003). Further, the role of event-led policy in shaping urban regeneration strategy making has also received widespread attention (Foley et al., 2012Richards and Palmer, 2010Smith, 2012). However, as Richards (2017) suggests, we are seeing a shift in the understanding of the value of events from a branding function to a more holistic placemaking function. Indeed, de Brito and Richards (2017) acknowledge the tensions between bottom-up placemaking process that originates in communities and, more top-down, state-led interventions using major events.

Louise PlattJane Ali-Knight, (2018) “Guest editorial”, Journal of Place Management and Development, Vol. 11 Issue: 3, pp.262-265, https://doi.org/10.1108/JPMD-08-2018-131

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Call for Papers – Grassroots Festivals and Place Making

 

 

The Journal of Place Management and Development (JPMD) is pleased to invite papers for a special issue on “Grassroots festivals and place-making” to be published Winter 2018/2019.

Guest Editors Dr Louise Platt (Manchester Metropolitan University) and Dr Jane Ali-Knight (Edinburgh Napier University).

Overview of the Theme Continue reading “Call for Papers – Grassroots Festivals and Place Making”

Meet the IPM: Interview with Louise Platt

Louise PlattLouise Platt, member of the Institute of Place Management, leads on the MA International Cultural Arts and Festival Management programme at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her main teaching revolves around arts and cultural management, urban regeneration and cultural policy, events and festivity in communities, and she supports research students in related areas at MA and PhD level. Her own PhD was an examination of the performance of identities during the Liverpool 2008 Capital of Culture year. She have since focused on work related to identity and leisure practice from dog walking to knitting. Her current research is an examination of the Manchester and Salford Whit Walks as markers of identities in evolving urban spaces, particularly examining the post-secular city, working class communities and shifts in community identities. Louise is on the executive committee of the Leisure Studies Association. Continue reading “Meet the IPM: Interview with Louise Platt”