Power and hegemony within a community festival

Abstract

Purpose -This paper aims to develop an illustrative case study of power and hegemony involved in the creation of a local community festival, through the representations of local communities' cultures from various ethnic groups within the city of Derby. Design/methodology/approach -Drawing on observational analysis of the steering group and the planning forum processes, this paper will deconstruct the discourses utilised, deployed and reinvented in the Derby Jubilee Festival. Power is revealed as a pervasive and constructive set of forces that are both enabling and disenfranchising. Findings -The definitions of cultures used in the construction of the festival are demonstrated to have significant outcomes for the communities involved or to be excluded from the community festival. Further elaborates how the paper positions are constructed on the basis of different discourses of power. Originality/value -Few studies have developed an analysis of power and hegemony within festivals. The study shows how the values inscribed within exclusive definitions of "culture" can exclude participation from community festivals.

Music Festivals and Social Inclusion – The Festival Organizers’ Perspective

“…Clarke and Jepson (2011) identified the importance of understanding how event organizers themselves frame community, as this framing tends to be influential in terms of the accrual of benefits from the event. When assessing a festival's inclusive or exclusive nature, it appears to be prudent to consider not just the local (geographically proximate) community but also the other communities of interest that may be affected.…”

Tourism Events and the Nature of Stakeholder Power

“…However, due to their lack of power to influence the event management, their interests were neglected. Notwithstanding, diffuse stakeholders may exercise their power through passive resistance and a withdrawal of support from the events (Clarke & Jepson, 2011). Ford et al (2012) proposed forming more allies and collaborators with less powerful stakeholders as a strategy to increase both the power of diffuse stakeholders and the event organizer's own power.…”

“…Empirical investigations reveal that in the process of managing collaborative tourism activities, power is ubiquitous in every system of relations (see, e.g., Cooper, Scott, & Baggio 2009;Jamal & Getz, 1995;Sheehan, Ritchie, & Hudson, 2007) featuring differences in both the amount and the type of power that different stakeholders hold (Beritelli & Laesser, 2011;Ford, Wang, & Vestal, 2012;Hazra, Fletcher, & Wilkes, 2014;Marzano & Scott, 2009;Reed, 1997). Previous studies have explicitly addressed the concept of power within tourism planning and networks, as well as destination marketing and management, yet only a few studies (e.g., Clarke & Jepson, 2011;Larson, 2002) have analyzed the power relationships within the context of events and festivals. Although stakeholder power relations are a nascent theme within event tourism research, there is a paucity of studies on emerging event destinations such as those in Southeast Asia.…”

“…A recent study on power distributions in tourism networks by Ford et al (2012) indicated that reputation, allies, and hierarchy were the source of influence. Beritelli and Laesser (2011) and Clarke and Jepson (2011) identified knowledge and competence as resources in the exercise of power. However, mere possession of resources does not make one powerful.…”

“Dear International Guests and Friends of the Icelandic Horse”: Experience, Meaning and Belonging at a Niche Sporting Event

“…Some groups and individuals are included in the event space as insidersbe that as organiser, participant, spectator, sponsor, local community member -and others remain outsiders, for social, economic, cultural or even political reasons (Clarke & Jepson, 2011). Identity claims always involve an inside and an outside, a 'who we are not' as much as 'who we are', and consequently "the logic of identity becomes a logic of a boundary" (Sykes, 2006, p. 20).…”