Power and hegemony within a community festival

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to develop an illustrative case study of power and hegemony involved in the creation of a local community festival, through the representations of local communities' cultures from various ethnic groups within the city of Derby.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on observational analysis of the steering group and the planning forum processes, this paper will deconstruct the discourses utilised, deployed and reinvented in the Derby Jubilee Festival. Power is revealed as a pervasive and constructive set of forces that are both enabling and disenfranchising.

Findings

The definitions of cultures used in the construction of the festival are demonstrated to have significant outcomes for the communities involved or to be excluded from the community festival. Further elaborates how the paper positions are constructed on the basis of different discourses of power.

Originality/value

Few studies have developed an analysis of power and hegemony within festivals. The study shows how the values inscribed within exclusive definitions of “culture” can exclude participation from community festivals.

Citation

Clarke, A. and Jepson, A. (2011), "Power and hegemony within a community festival", International Journal of Event and Festival Management, Vol. 2 No. 1, pp. 7-19. https://doi.org/10.1108/17582951111116588