Policy for sustainable and responsible festivals and events: institutionalisation of a new paradigm - a response

Abstract

There are increasing calls for the assunptions and values that underpin research in the social sciences to be made explicit and for more critical attention being given to the way in which knowledge is generated and validated. lnspired by -such requests, this paper challenges some propositions made by Donald Getz'in the paper he wrote for the inaugural volume of Policl, Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events. In this paper Getz presents a vision for events policy and proposes the development of events policy that embodies a 'sustainable and reiponsible approach' to public sector involvement in events. In the spirit ofcritical,ingaged academic debate, this paper challenges the following four propositions that emerge from Getz's $009) paper: (l) the state of existing event policy research is underdeveloped; (2) that it is possible to delimit the scope and substance ofpolicy concerns within event shrdies; (3) neoliberalism has influenced governments to take a predominantly interuentionist role in events, principally to secure economic development and prosperity; (4) it is possible for governments to institutionalise an event policy paradigm. Importantly, we recognise that Getz has made significant contributions to the events policy literature, but arguably, it is irnportant to engage more thoroughly with some of his ideas and claims. Our contribution in this paper has been to argue that significant aspects, such as paradigm shifts in events policy, the role of govemment in events and the role of event policy research require more nuanced understandings in order to account for, and accommodate, the intricacies of event planning, management and policy. Our ain-r is to establish a broader agenda on events policy research that embraces a wider range of epistemologies, ontologies and methodologies than Getz proposes in his sustainable and responsible approach.