Event Power: How Global Events Manage and Manipulate"Rojek’s argument is a psychological one, although his message is political: global events build on people’s needs to feel empowered and jointly engaged in the pursuit of a higher purpose; they allow a break from daily routines, provide an illusion of intimacy and social membership, and create a sense of self-validation and personal gratification. In short, participation in such events makes us feel good. At the same time, the real effect of global events seems to be the maintenance of global inequality and social injustice, as well as huge profits for the organizations involved in planning, commercializing and securing these happenings. In sketching out this palliative function of global events from the perspective of people’s needs on the one hand, and unveiling their puppet masters backstage on the other, Rojek’s book presents a compelling account of the role of organized events in modern society." - Organization Studies Events dominate our screens, our lives, and increasingly global geopolitics. Analysis of events and their management has remained rooted in leisure and management studies - until now. This break-through book provides an introduction to event management, while also situating events in questions of power and social control. Rojek powerfully argues that events are essential elements in corporate-state partnerships of ′invisible government′ that have revived the romance of charity as to form illusory communities, while cloaking power imbalances and social inequalities. Events are moving politics from the old idea of ′the personal is political′ to the new, more seductive notion that ′representation is resistance′. Wielding rich case studies from the World Cup and the Olympics to Live Aid, Burning Man and Mardi Gras, Rojek presents a dazzlingly original account of communication power, social ordering and control. It is essential reading in media & communication studies and across the social sciences. |
Contents
1 | |
2 WHAT ARE THE MAIN TYPES OF EVENT? | 13 |
3 WHY IS MORAL REGULATION RELEVANT? | 31 |
4 HOW IS EVENT COGNITION FORMULATED? | 50 |
5 HOW ARE GLOBAL EVENTS ORGANISED? | 70 |
6 WHAT DO CYCLICAL EVENTS DO? | 80 |
7 WHY ARE WE DRAWN TO EVENTS? | 100 |
8 WHAT IS EVENT CONSCIOUSNESS? | 112 |
9 WHAT DO SINGLEISSUE EVENTS DO? | 122 |
10 WHY ARE EVENTS SO EMOTIONAL? | 139 |
11 WHAT IS EVENT APPROPRIATION? | 152 |
12 DOES EVENT MANAGEMENT HAVE A FUTURE? | 178 |
187 | |
198 | |
201 | |
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Common terms and phrases
achieve action Angelina Jolie audience Band Aid benefits Bernays Black Rock City Bob Geldof Bono Brazilian Burning Man City campaign Carnival Castells celebrity communication power corporate culture cyclical events defined economic emergency emotional Ethiopia event cognition event concept event consciousness event planners event planning event programme example exhibitionism Facebook festival FIBA field FIFA World Cup figureheads financial first funds Games Gay and Lesbian GCAP George Clooney global event management human humanitarian impact inequality influence interests invisible government involved issues Live Aid Live Earth London ludic means ment million moral regulation neoliberal network public official Olympics organised participation performative labour police political popular portrayed post-event Poverty History PR-media hub professional event profile programme public relations questions reflects relief response samba securitisation significant Situationists social ordering society specific sponsorship stateless solutions Steve Jobs strategy Sydney Mardi Gras tion transcendence