Fcfn 477 - Literature Review

Erin Miller

FCFN 477

Spring 2015

Professor Webster

Literature Review #1

INTRODUCTION

        The following paper is a literature review that provides a quick summary and analysis of six different articles that deal with the social and cultural impact that festivals and events can have on varying things. The purpose of this paper is to not only explain what each of these articles are about but also give you a brief look into how they conducted their research, their findings, and what is believed should be done about the findings.

        Each of the six articles talk differently about different situations that arise from the whole idea that events and festivals have some sort of lasting effect on social and cultural topics. That being said, the following paper is set up to provide all of the information on each article including the summary, synthesis, and conclusion in separate sections giving the reader access to all of the information on the article in sequence for optimal understanding of each article.

ARTICLE ONE

        The first article I chose to review is an article by Katie Small, Deborah Edwards, and Lynnaire Sheridan titled “A Flexible Framework for Evaluating the Socio-Cultural Impacts of a (Small) Festival”. I chose to review this article for a couple different reasons. Reason one being that this article is included in the International Journal of Event Management Research, so the credibility coming along with that as well as the fact that the entire paper is centered on socio-cultural impacts made this article an easy choice and very intriguing to review.

        The article’s main focus of research is on the socio-cultural impact that festivals and events can have on the local community where the event or festival is being hosted. The article is composed of four main components. First, the paper provides an overview of the importance of understanding community perceptions of socio-cultural impacts that may arise from hosting festivals and events (Small, Edwards, & Sheridan, 2005). Secondly, the article outlines a Social Impact Evaluation (SIE) framework suitable for the comprehensive evaluation of the impacts of festivals and events (Small, Edwards, & Sheridan, 2005). Third, the paper reports on the use of a tool, the Social Impact Perception (SIP) scale that was created to measure community perceptions of socio-cultural impacts that could come about from hosting a small community festival (Small, Edwards, & Sheridan, 2005). Lastly, the article presents recommendations for the future application of the SIE framework and the SIP scale (Small, Edwards, & Sheridan, 2005). The research gathered was done so by used of a Social Impact Evaluation (SIE). The SIE used was developed specifically for the evaluation of festivals and tourism events. The article explained that a retrospective approach was ideal because in the case of events and festivals would be resource intensive and time consuming. The framework used was adapted from traditional social impact assessment models and ended up being composed of six stages of SIE framework that were chosen according to appropriateness for evaluating socio-cultural impacts of a small community festival (Small, Edwards, & Sheridan, 2005). The six stages incorporated were describe, profile, identify, project, evaluate, and feedback. Stages one through three of the framework contribute to forming a comprehensive ‘picture’ of the event or festival while stages four and five precisely measure the socio-cultural impacts that may arise from hosting the festival or event followed by step six that provides the findings which are then communicated to the organizers and stakeholders of the event giving them an opportunity to develop future strategies that can capitalize on positive impacts, and ameliorate negative impacts (Small, Edwards, & Sheridan, 2005).