Identifying social consequences of rural events

Abstract

Events have a range of consequences for host communities. While a number of researchers have focused upon impact assessment, there are some fundamental issues that require addressing. Firstly, most research investigating the social impacts of events use predefined quantitative assessment techniques or tools. These tools limit the ability of respondents to indicate the diversity of social consequences that they may experience. Secondly, the labeling of social consequences as positive or negative fails to acknowledge the "shades of gray" that may exist. Thirdly, there is a lack of research specifically investigating the social consequences of events within rural communities. Therefore, there is a need to identify a range of social consequences that occur as a result of hosting events, especially within rural communities. This is best achieved from the perspective of those experiencing the phenomena, thus qualitatively. This article aims to address these gaps by examining the social consequences of rural events from an event stakeholder perspective within three rural communities of Southwest Queensland, Australia. Specifically, this article reports on a number of social consequences identified that have been underutilized or discussed within the existing literature.