Events Policy & Planning Legacy Case Study 1.

.0 Literature Review Events are recognised as being of local, national and international importance. Foley, et al. (2011) They are powerful tools in effectively achieving objectives on all levels of society and now have a wider acceptance of the strategic value that they bring as stated by Crowther (2009). Event policies are put into place to be the ideology of overall government policies (Getz, 2007) and help achieve these overall aims in a powerful and effective way. Conversely although events boast a significant advantage in achieving these policies, Foley, et al. (2011, p.1) states understandings of their impacts and outcomes remain underdeveloped. This debate is more predominant in policies that have less tangible outcomes which is reinstated by Foley, et al. (2011, p.61) who voices the challenge facing policy makers is that the economic benefits of events are easier to document.. other than policies with ..longer-term and more subjective indicators such as social policies. Local governments have a great interest in achieving social policies and slowly more are seeing how events prompt cities to utilise cultural assets and resources in an attempt to become distinctive, to regenerate the urban fabric and to create social prosperity. (Richards & Palmer 2010, p.2). Social policy refers to in the eyes of Alcock, P (2008, p.2) as the actions taken within society to develop and deliver services for people in order to meet their needs for welfare and wellbeing. Social policies can be broken down to a variety of sub policies including community cohesion, community pride, community welfare and other people focused goals in which events can be tactically used to fulfil these aspirations. Richards & Palmer (2010, p.99) agrees stating events are now used as a key part of City strategies for social regeneration. The UK government have recently had a push on social policies due to the current economic recession. The annual social policy review states the economic crisis has had a profound impact on those aspects of social life and well-being central to the study of social policy. Greener et al. (2010, p.5). This has resulted in a brake down on community spirit and job opportunities for the low socio-economic class which has also sparked concern for an increase of crime within cities. It is argued that disadvantaged youngsters will commit crime due to them not having the opportunities there for them and crime gives them their only prospect of achieving the material goods in which they desire. Hall et al. (2008). Events can help this particular problem by incorporating community pride and opportunities for people in this situation so that other options and faith is given to the social crowd and made aware of, which can create a brighter legacy for people in this difficult situation. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) acknowledges the power of events in this context by reporting in their Policy Action Team 10 report by saying events can effectively contribute to neighbourhood renewal by improving communities performance in the far key areas of health, crime, employment and education. DCMS (1999). This shows that if events are more thoroughly researched and looked into on how they can help tackle these social issues then local governments can create events with more meaningful experiences which can achieve the desired goals and outcomes of social policies suggested by Getz (2007). With the social issue of unemployment, events create jobs for people which in result give them a sense of belonging and scope for their future. It gives people opportunities to gain valuable experience and provide a foot in the door of the working world. Although Faulkner (1993) points out that it is easy to overestimate the amount of jobs created by events due to it only lasting a short period of time, sometimes just the period of the event, so that job opportunities are short lived. But with the information gathered it is clear to see that having a sense of belonging and having a sense of community pride added with valuable experience does make a positive impact on the social issues concerned, no matter what 1

length of employment. Bowdin (2006, p.37) complies with this expressing the importance in the value of participation and the impacts that it has including increased pride. A sense of participation and interaction with events is also an extremely effective way of tackling social policies. Belfoire (2008 p.66) suggests communities should thus have a major say in the planning and management of events. If the people believe they have a say in how events are run then they have a sense of belonging and identity which can create personal pride in the community. It is also a platform for people to express themselves and make aware to others of their presence. Getz (2007 p.197) continues saying if events have little or no meaning of importance to people, they will not attend. That is why local governments need to work not just on their own on events but in partnership with sponsors and community groups to really tackle social policies effectively. This also helps the problem that events are being increasingly unsupported due to the lack of economic benefits (Foley 2011) and helps prove that there is a need and a want for people to get involved and to create events that can support social issues in cities. This also leads to the opportunity for events to be a catalyst for local governments to create awareness of different social groups in the community. Bowdin (2006 p.37) affirms this by saying events can broaden peoples cultural horizons and expose them to new and challenging people, customs or ideas. Events can have the power to create awareness of these different groups to create harmony between social groups and to steer away from out casting any particular group. It is clear-cut to see that social policies can be strategically met by local governments by the use of events and their policies as they are, as Foley (2011 p.6) states powerful symbolic and material entities that can address social problems. With looking at event policies and their positive effects on achieving higher social policy aims its clear that events need to be looked at by Local Governments has a lethal weapon in fulfilling their overall policies and can easily do so. Getz (2007 p.13) also states government agencies routinely formulate social and cultural policies, then assist the event sector in implementing those policies. But it raises the question on how true is this in the real world. Already highlighted is the knowledge of how effective events can be but also highlighted is the lack of knowledge of events to actually achieve this. It does spark a query on how effectively or not are local governments using their events in a tactical way to achieve their overall higher social policy goals. 2.0 Case Study Nottingham City Council Nottingham in the East Midlands has had a jaded image through the bad reputation it has with crime and anti-social behaviour, especially in 2005 where the City got the nickname of Shottingham due to a high volume of gun crime activity. Nottingham has also a widely diverse community with a high percentage of Asian, Black, Mixed Race and Chinese population. Because of this Nottingham City Council has a great interest in achieving social policies to create a safer and well connected community across the City. (Nottingham City Council 2011) In terms of its overall social policies there are three main areas in which the Council want to excel in which are Community Awareness, Community Welfare and Community Cohesion. (Nottingham City Council Social Policies 2009/2012) Although it states social policies and aims the Council do not have visible event policies that are in place to help strategically fulfil these overall social policies. This may be due to, as previously discussed, the lack of knowledge in the power of events and as Derrett (2003 p.49) states the social impacts of events and their measurements have not, until recently, been a priority. This does not mean events are not necessarily being used strategically, it just means the events that Nottingham City Council are involved in need to analysed to try and find links that go back and feed to the overall

social policies trying to be achieved. Hopefully with the aim of creating events of all kinds to meet diverse, strategic goals of society Getz (2007 p.263) 2.1 Community Awareness Looking at Community Awareness there are many different types of social groups and communities in Nottingham so this social policy is a high priority for the Council to satisfy. Events that can create awareness and acceptance to any particular social group are a great provider in reaching this goal. Getz (2007 p.203) states people are changed by their experiences. An event that the Nottingham City Council is involved in that aims to change peoples perceptions is Nottinghamshire Pride. Nottinghamshire pride is an annual festival held to create awareness of the Nottingham lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and transsexual community. This increasing community pride in which some community events achieve. (Bowdin, 2006 p.37) The festival aims to provide a safe focal point to bring together our community to celebrate our diversity and sense of pride which for some people may be difficult in everyday life, due to prejudice and injustice. (Nottinghamshire Pride 2011). The event is in partnership with Nottinghamshire Health Care which also promotes safe sex to all involved. It is also in partnership with the Nottinghamshire Fire Service which aims to bring the community together. The event is sponsored by E-ON which gives the event funding for the activities. It is mainly a one day festival which includes a Pride March through the streets of Nottingham and also a music festival which is held at the Arboretum in which the Council own. The event also has many satellite events running throughout the year which gives the opportunity for people to get involved at a variety of venues and involving diverse events. The event is not just openly available to the target community but actively encourages other people to embrace the festival. This as a result hopes to open the minds of the overall community and have awareness of its belonging. The Nottinghamshire Pride looks to really reach out to achieving the councils overall aim of Community Awareness in this instance. Nottingham City Council also ran Nottingham Black History Month in October 2011 which will now become an annual event. The aim of the event is to promote knowledge of black history and experience (Nottingham City Council 2011) It is hosted by the people involved including cultural organisations, community groups and community centres in which the people have the choice of what they want to do and achieve. This fits in well with Richard & Palmers (2010 p.5) that successive city rulers have sought to use events to cohere urban society around their own vision of civic life. The event includes events such as guest lectures, music, poetry, awards and comedy. But although they say they encourage the outside community to get involved in these events there are no activities involved that directly get the contrasting communities together. Nottingham City Council could look at Bristol City Councils event where they hosted the West Indies cricket team during the Cricket World Cup 1999. They targeted local school children and local Afro-Caribbean communities to enjoy and participate in free cricket sessions together. If they brought an aspect of directly mixing diverse communities together then the Community Awareness could be heightened even more so then it already is. 2.2 Community Welfare Community Welfare is also a key policy that the Nottingham City Council wants to accomplish as part of their overall social aims. Nottingham City Council has a Crime and Drugs Partnership Plan 20132014 in which their main aim is to reduce all crime by 36%. Interestingly though looking at the statistics on gun crime which was once very bad back in 2005 the statistics today show that gun 3

crime is down by 36% (Clarke, 2011) but peoples perception of gun crime getting worse has risen to an alarming 60% (This Is Nottingham, 2011). This possibly may show that the Council dont need to necessarily tackle crime directly but actually tackle the perception of the people of Nottingham. Getz (2007 p.196) describes this as psychic benefits. An event that has polices in place to help reduce crime is the notorious Goose Fair. The Goose Fair is an annual fair that is held annually on the Forest Recreational Site, which is owned by the council, and is held in the first week of October. It attracts big carnival rides and stalls and is a hallmark event for the City. Having a hallmark event creates a sense of pride to the people of Nottingham and research suggests that local communities value Hallmark events as a feel-good aspect (Bowdin 2006). Also with the event attracting people from nearby cities Getz (2007 p.340) says community identity and pride can be heightened through sharing with outsiders. To actively reduce crime the Goose Fair Tenants Handbook (2011) states that the whole area of the event will be a dry area, meaning no alcohol consumption allowed. The rules on games where very strict as well with no gun games or violent games allowed. The giving away of any type of gun was also prohibited. This tied with the policy of creating a great community spirit is one of the ways in which Nottingham was actively trying to tackle crime whilst also trying to change peoples perceptions of the City. Getz (2007 p.64) makes an interesting point to contradict the efforts made by the council by saying all too often celebrations result in fighting, riots or crime. But it has to be accepted that events always have a level of risk involved with them especially with big events as this, and with the Councils special efforts in trying to reduce this risk it looks convincing to be able to help the overall social policy. Also to further prove that statement false if you look at the event of Schoolies Week in Australia it shows the Councils special efforts in reducing crime and anti-social behaviour in a good light. The Schoolies event is an annual carnival that happens the week after final exams for school children. The problem though is that it has come under scrutiny as the event is widely accessible to alcohol and has resulted in high levels of crime and anti-social behaviour. With Nottingham City Councils policies in place we can see that there is extra protection made over anti-social behaviour happening. 2.3 Community Cohesion Nottingham City Council also has a Sub-Social Policy of Community Cohesion. Community cohesion is about bringing everyone together and thats what their main aim is to do in their Community Cohesion Strategy Plan 2007. UK Government passed down policies to local governments to get people connected through all communities and all walks of life. (Direct Gov 2011) Richard & Palmer (2010 p.78) say successful eventful cities tend to be those that have used their events not only to create physical space, but also fill those spaces with vibrant social and cultural interaction. The main space in Nottingham that holds a variety of events that brings everyone together is the Market Square which is in the heart of the City which is very versatile in its uses for events. The site is also owned by the Nottingham City Council so they can choose what events to place there. One event that has become very popular over the years is the Christmas Market. In previous years this has involved a German run company to come and set up a Christmas market in which people would visit not just from Nottingham but from all over the country. Bringing people together from all over the country and celebrating the City of Nottingham and allowing interaction between all walks of life. Although this year bad reports have been made on the use of the site which has changed from the normal proceedings. Originally the event was ran by many different community groups who could have a stall and sell and advertise what they wanted which brought a lot of involvement from the local community. This year however the City Council have ran it themselves with no outside help or 4

partners and have made it into a mini fair which many people are frustrated about. This goes back to earlier findings of giving the local community a say and a chance of participation in events which clearly provided great community spirit and a better chance of achieving overall social policy aims. It seems like this move on this particular event has dented the community pride somewhat and returning to the way they originally organised the Christmas Fair would be achieving the social policy aim of community cohesion to a greater extent. 3.0 Evaluation/ Discussion Although raised by renowned event policy literatures that event policies are not yet understood fully, it is clear to see that Nottingham City Council are using their events, if not unknowingly, to help achieve their higher Social Policy aims. Weaknesses have been highlighted but overall the wide variety of events that include all social communities, with the implementation of these events show clear links to being able to strategically help achieve their overriding Social Policies. Through research made, it is clear to see that events do have the power to challenge the imagination and to explore possibilities when it comes to looking at achieving Social Policies. (Bowdin, 2006) Nottingham City Council look to have a great range of thought-out events to achieve this themselves and if they did implement Event Policies in a more tactical and strategic way across all events they held, there is no reason why Nottingham cannot achieve and exceed all their Social Policy aims. This in result would pass on a legacy, giving the community of Nottingham full awareness, welfare and cohesion.

Bibliography
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