Introduction

Abstract

The study of events as a specific field of academic inquiry is relatively young. Degree programmes within the field in much of the Anglophone world tend to focus on operational considerations associated with the project management of delivering a range of events. Consequently events are frequently located in a matrix of two dominant dimension; these can be summarised as one of scale and the other of content. Scale encompasses small, highly localised activities with a small geographic reach, to mega-events that mobilise substantial media resources and target a global audience. Content is commonly broken down into a typology of events; there are many variations on the articulation of events typological models—most can be summarised under the headings of sport, cultural, and business. However, that construal of events is being criticised more and more, whilst a neo-liberal agenda that attempts to managerialise and depoliticise de-politicised event typologies is being challenged.