Festivals, networks and communities

Jarman, David

Abstract

Festivals are a fascinating and dynamic environment in which to study social networks. They bring people together in geographically and temporally bounded contexts, for a wide range purposes. Underlying social networks help to shape careers, affect relationships between organisations, facilitate projects, and tie these events to wider communities of artists, cultural professionals, and a variety of audiences. Opportunities to conduct SNA are many and varied, from whole network studies of organisations and creative communities, to ego network analysis of freelancers and festival employees. Festival and event management literature has grown substantially through the current century, though network focused research and SNA based methodologies are still limited. This chapter draws from a range of academic papers and industry sources, to review work done to explore the nature of festival networks and applications of SNA. The chapter then considers the potential for a “network theory of festivals”, as a response to a more commonly found tradition of stakeholder-based work. Ultimately, consideration is give to opportunities for a normative approach to festival networks: a collection of values, morals and ethics that should inform how festival professionals treat their colleagues, partners and audiences, in a sustainable, accountable, diverse and responsible industry.

Citation

Jarman, D. (2025). Festivals, networks and communities. In N. Crossley, & P. Widdop (Eds.), Handbook of Culture and Social Networks (213-224). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781803928784.00023

• Online Publication Date: Jan 22, 2025
• Publication Date: 2025
• Deposit Date: Jan 23, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 23, 2026
• Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 213-224
• Series Title: Research Handbooks on Social Networks series
• Book Title: Handbook of Culture and Social Networks
• Chapter Number: 17
• ISBN: 9781803928777
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781803928784.00023
• Keywords: festivals; networks; community; career; stakeholders