The impact of young people's participation in events

Abstract

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the social impact that two events, the Adelaide Fringe Festival and the Clipsal 500, have on young residents (16-19 years old) of Adelaide. The purpose of this paper is to examine how young people participate in these events and how this affects their sense of involvement in the event and contributes to their identity development. Design/methodology/approach – A mixed methods approach was adopted in which focus groups and questionnaires were conducted with secondary school students. As an exploratory study, focus groups (n=24) were conducted in the first stage of the research. The results of the focus groups were used to develop a questionnaire that resulted in 226 useable responses. The final stage of the research explored one event in further depth in order to determine the influence of different participation levels. Findings – This study found that young people demonstrated more involvement in the Adelaide Fringe Festival and their identities were more influenced by this event. Further investigation of the Adelaide Fringe Festival also indicated that level of participation affects the social outcomes gained, with those participating to a greater degree achieving higher involvement and increased identity awareness. This is demonstrated through a model which aims to illustrate how an event impact an individual based on their role during the event. Originality/value – This paper applies two leisure concepts in order to analyse the impact of events. Activity involvement is a concept which examines the importance of the activity in the participant's life. Also of importance to young people is how activities contribute to their identities, especially because they are in a transitional period of their lives.

Enhancing Social Cohesion where Festival as a Media, is it Possible?

“…The stronger support of the community will be the more awake the characteristic values [25,26] festivals and messages to be conveyed through the festival can be received well by the visitors and the community itself [27]. Based on some opinions above, it can be reflected that an event can give a sense of pride for the organizers and society "civic pride" [28] and develop social capital [29], and they can also impact on individuals by providing a sense of belonging and identity [25,30]. The festival can be seen from the perspective of citizens' civilization (civic virtue), civic engagement, and volunteerism.…”

EVENTOS CULTURAIS: MEU DINHEIRO ME DIZ AONDE VOU? Uma análise sob a ótica da Teoria da Identidade Social (SIT)

“…O mercado brasileiro de eventos gera cerca de 7,5 milhões de empregos, desse total, quase 80% dos eventos são voltados à cultura (ABEOC, 2013). Os eventos dinamizam a Economia, trazendo benefícios, principalmente, para o local de realização (HIXSON, 2014).…”

“…Para Falassi (1987), evento é um fenômeno social dinâmico, encontrado em todas as sociedades do mundo. Eventos são importantes para fomentar o turismo tornando-se pontos fortes para as campanhas de marketing nesse setor (GERTZ, 2008;HIXSON, 2014;LIU, 2014), tornando-se, desde a segunda metade do século XX, importantes dentro da indústria turística (GETZ, 2010).…”

“…Os eventos também podem criar uma oportunidade de lazer e recreação para o mercado local e regional (LIU, 2014). Trazem contribuições econômicas para o local e, por isso, governantes e organizações de marketing, têm interesse em capitalizar todo o impacto positivo por eles trazido (HIXSON, 2014). Rollins e Delamere (2007) acrescentam ao mencionado, a representação considerável que os eventos possuem para o desenvolvimento de diversos setores, como cultura, artes, turismo.…”

“…Aqui você se diverte, esquece de tudo lá de fora, eu amo estar aqui" (ENTREVISTADO 10). Outro ponto a se considerar é a possibilidade de implicação social e econômica gerada pelo evento, assim como definido (ou exposto) em Hixson (2014).…”