Local Agricultural Shows in the Scottish Borders

Rural areas have encountered numerous changes to the economic and social fabric of their communities over recent decades. As a result they have suffered declining economies and shifting demographic characteristics, therefore they have looked to tourism and specifically events as a foci of rejuvenation. However much of the research in this area has been directed towards the economic impacts of tourism and overlooked the social consequences that tourism and events create. Additionally much of this research has investigated urban and large scale events at the peril of smaller community rural events. This paper investigates the social consequences of a small rural community festival utilising a case study approach of Queensland's Inglewood Olive Festival. The results suggest that a number of social consequences occur within rural areas from hosting community events, these are evident on both an individual and a community level. The findings were categorised into five domains: physical, economic, learning and developing, affective and networks and interactions.

In J. Mair (Ed). Handbook of Festivals. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

Urban People / Lidé města, 2017

The Village of the Year in the Czech Republic is a national competition held since 1995, announced annually by the Ministry of Regional Development. Its aim is to promote the " restoration " and " development " of the Czech countryside through communal projects carried out by villagers themselves. Each year hundreds of Czech and Moravian villages enter the competition. Being focused on the countryside, the notion of rurality is one of the com-petition's defining features. But what kind of rurality is it? What are its constituents? How it is performed in the village competition projects? And what are the sources of the forms it takes? Our analysis of media representations by village competitors (web sites, video presentations, etc.), alongside materials provided for competitors by the Ministry and other participating organizations (competition rules, official documents, etc.) and various media representations of the competition (television reports, etc.), reveals how the discourses involved operate and how they create a certain " ideal " village that is to be seen as a model to be followed. We argue that the several discourses of rurality interwoven in the representations of villages within the competition (those of experts/academics, public/media, villagers, and policymakers) form an interdiscourse of " pop-rurality " , which is a rurality deterritorialized, enriched with shared global (pop-cultural) elements, and re-territorialized again, to then float freely in public (especially virtual) space.

Hristova, S. D. 2021. Local Festivals as Resources for Community Well-Being and Dealing with Crises (conference abstract). SCA– Studii si Cercetari de Antropologie, No. 7, 2021, pp. 48. Publisher: Anthropology Institute of the Romanian Academy „Francisc I. Rainer”., 2021

A conference abstract published in ARS Journal of the Romanian Academy. Objectives. This study explores the traits of local festivals as key social, economic, and cultural resources, and serving as stimuli for boosting regional identities. The research scrutinizes the inherent funds of local festivals to revitalize solidarity within local communities, and to develop effective strategies for dealing with crises. Material and methods. The study started in 2020 with literature review and participatory observation of four local festivals in different regions in Bulgaria and continued into 2021 with content analysis of online media channels, as the keyword search was customized between March 2019 - March 2021. The observed events are the Festival of Roses in Kazanluk, the Forewalkers (Nestivari) in Kosti, the Festival of yoghurt (kiselo mliako) in Momchilovtsi and “July Morning” event in Kamen Briag. Results. A common characteristic of the observed local festivals is their extensive media coverage, as they are notable for being dramatic and having ritual significance. Among of the topics revealed by the media content analysis, are the photographic vibrance of old crafts which tend to disappear; the international business investments in festive regions (Capital Daily); the theatrical-patriotic rise of “historical restoration scenes”, seen as a chance to diversify the monotonous cultural calendar of the municipalities through EU funding (Dnevik), etc. Local festivals largely lean on the non-discrimination principle, as they are open for inputs and participation of individuals of various ethnicities, age groups, professional affiliation, and social status. The observed celebrations share another distinguishable characteristic: the well-being of the local community is a common goal for all citizens, mobilized to identify communal priorities and take optimal decisions related to good governance, accountability, and sustainable change. Through organizations of festivals, local communities accumulated “lessons learned” in dealing with real and potential crises, both long-term (such as depopulation, unemployment, remoteness of the settlement, loss of trust in public institutions, weakened communal and intergenerational ties, etc.) and short-term ones (i.e., COVID-19 pandemic, floods, earthquakes, landslides and other calamities deriving from anthropogenic factors, social isolation, ethnic confrontation). Local communities have been collecting know-how of resilience to crises through producing local festivities, and are willing to establish cross-regional networks, showcases and other dissemination activities to proliferate their solutions to other endangered regions. Among the worthy practices is the establishment of steady infrastructure, utilizing the expertise of NGOs and involving voluntary associations of citizens with readiness and response to crises, etc. Conclusions. The effect of the communal events is a stronger sense of social cohesion, equality, inclusion, trust. Participating in local festivities connects citizens through galvanizing mutual communication, stimulating formation of “weak ties” and minimizing class and other social differences. Keywords: local festivals, local community, civic engagement, crisis, social cohesion

in Roth, Klaus (Hg). Feste, Feiern, Rituale im Östlichen Europa. Studien zur sozialistischen und postsozialistischen Festkultur. LIT Verlag, 2008

Rural Sociology, 2020

Journal of Rural Studies, 2017

(2017) Festival heterotopias: spatial and temporal transformations in two small-scale settlements, J. of Rural Studies, 53, 35-44. Final version manuscript Abstract This paper reports the findings of research undertaken at two festivals which take place in small-scale settlements: one in a village set in rural western Ireland, the other in a small coastal town set within a largely rural Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in southern England. It uses Foucault's concept of heterotopia as an analytical tool to further understandings of how the spatial and temporal interruptions caused by festivals temporarily transform the prevailing social order. The findings attest to the manner in which festivals juxtapose several incompatible spaces, creating a diverse array of social alterations in consequence, and highlight the accumulative effect produced through the transformation of multiple discrete spaces. They empirically illustrate the well-established argument that heterotopias disrupt traditional concepts of time and further support their temporal layering effect: that is, the sense of past festivals intertwining with and informing the social actors' experience of current festivals. While the findings illustrate how festivals can require certain acts or rituals to gain entry, importantly, they show how maintaining these rituals during the festival is critical to social actors' continued immersion in this temporary world. The study concludes by offering a modified set of principles of heterotopia specifically tailored to apply to festivals within the context of rural settlements.

This article explores the critical role of agents e their practices, interests, rationalities and identities e in order to re(focus) the materiality, representations and the imagination of rural space. Based on fieldwork carried out in Mesta, a village of the eastern Aegean island of Chios, it documents different versions of rurality, which emerge in association with actors' spatial practices linked to production or consumption activities. Qualitative data analysis unravels an intensely 'political series of subversions, conflicts and contradictions. The latter emerge in the context of practices centering on tourism and the construction of the agricultural landscape as an 'aestheticized' space through the performance of the rural. I argue that underlying the violation of dominant interpretations of space and normative patterns, often expressed as commodification of 'tradition', are diverse worldviews and concerns about the ways self-and community interests are expressed and realized.

2006

Events have a range of consequences for host communities. While a number of researchers have focussed upon impact assessment there are some fundamental issues which 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 labelling of social consequences as positive or negative fails to acknowledge the 'shades of grey' which 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. This is best achievedfrom the perspective of those experiencing the phenomena, thus qualitatively. This paper 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.

The cultural aspects of a " way of life of a place " and a " sense of community " help us to better understand the processes of change being experienced in regional Australia. This article explores how community-based festivals grow over time to reflect the values, interests, and aspirations of residents. It presents observations of the nature of four community cultural festivals in destinations in the northern rivers region of NSW. The investigation explores how a sense of community and place are linked to such events. It seeks to establish how festivals develop and manage the tensions generated by different community voices. How community festivals reflect the community's sense of itself and its place validates the substantial shared interest by residents and visitors in such events.