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The last ten years have shown a significant upward trend of engagement in public management reflecting a significant increase in interest in the topic. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the benefits and factors affecting the construct of civic engagement that thus far are missing in the current literature through the analysis of studies published in the main journals of management.

Through a systematic literature review, the current research tries to advance the progress in the understanding of the civic engagement construct analyzing a sample of 96 papers published in the main journals on the subject areas of “communication,” “marketing” and “public sector management.”

The literature was codified and characterized as follows: level of analysis, variables that affect civic engagement; benefits of civic engagement; and theoretic and methodological approach. This research explores the construct through an analysis of the literature found in the main scientific journals to intercept its various profiles and facets alongside the mechanisms that precede and follow its manifestation.

Public organizations can no longer do without engaging citizens in decision-making processes. Public managers can use these findings to establish a connection with their citizens and influence their publics through commitment and managerial actions that guarantee direct democracy.

This is the first research that aims to study the phenomenon in the public sphere from a multidisciplinary perspective that is as yet incomplete. An integrated vision can highlight current and future developments and eventual opportunities for further research.

This article explores the cultural politics of civic pride through Hull's year as UK City of Culture (UKCoC) in 2017. It unpicks some of the socio-political meanings and values of civic pride in Hull and critiques the ways in which pride, as an indicator of identity and belonging, was mobilised by UKCoC organisers, funders and city leaders. It argues for more nuanced and critical approaches to the consideration and evaluation of pride through cultural mega events (CMEs) that can take account of pride's multiple forms, meanings and temporalities.

A multidimensional, mixed methods approach is taken, incorporating the critical analysis of Hull2017 promotional materials and events and original interviews with a range of stakeholders.

The desire for socio-economic change and renewed identity has dominated Hull's post-industrial sense of self and is often expressed through the language of pride. This article argues that UKCoC organisers, cognisant of this, crafted and tightly controlled a singular pride narrative to create the feeling of change and legitimise the entrepreneurial re-branding of the city. At the same time, UKCoC organisers overlooked the opportunity to engage with and potentially reactivate the political culture of Hull, which like other “left behind” or “structurally disadvantaged” places, is becoming increasingly anti-political.

Through the case study of a relatively unresearched and under-represented city, this paper contributes to cultural policy literatures concerned with critically assessing the benefits and shortcomings of Cultural Mega Events and to a more specific field concerning Cities of Culture and the political cultures of their host cities. This paper also contributes to an emerging literature on the centrality of pride through the UK's post-Brexit Levelling Up agenda, suggesting that pride in place is becoming figured as a “universal theme” of the neoliberal city script.

This study aims to focus on the development and upgrading of the Hagley Park cricket oval in Christchurch for the 2015 Cricket World Cup and how this hallmark event was used a catalyst to rebrand the city following the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes.

This paper is based on the findings from research conducted between 2012 and 2016. Data for the analysis were collected from mainstream media, sport organisations websites and government archives. In addition, a two-round series of semi-structured interviews with relevant stakeholders was undertaken in the aftermath of the Cricket World Cup.

In the case of Christchurch, the earthquakes and the destruction of much of the downtown provided a recovery opportunity, with the 2015 Cricket World Cup used to expedite the development of a new sporting venue in the city centre and rebrand the city to international tourists and sport enthusiasts.

The Hagley Park cricket oval case study provides evidence on the rhetoric of urban competitiveness and the use of hallmark sporting events to reframe urban development in post-disaster contexts.

This research provides further evidence on the logics of disaster capitalism and how cities embark on costly redevelopment projects for sports and events whilst overlooking exacerbating vulnerabilities among the local community.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a scale to measure the legacy of psychic income associated with the Olympic Games.

Using the 2008 Beijing Games as an example, data were collected from Beijing residents through structured questionnaires. A scale of measuring psychic income (SPI) was developed through conducting a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) based on a sample of 375.

In the CFA estimation, a seven-factor SPI was identified with 24 pertinent items retained. This seven-factor model displays good fit to the data, construct validity, and reliability.

Despite the importance of psychic income widely recognized in the existing literature, there has been a lack of valid scales to measure major sports events psychic income in general and Olympic psychic income in particular. This paper develops a multidimensional scale from the host community perspective, which can provide academics and local organizers with a reliable and valid tool to assess Olympic psychic income.

Local authorities use events and festivals within their region to help achieve a diverse range of economic and social objectives. However, the success of these events, which can take up a substantial amount of the tourism, leisure or arts and cultural budget is rarely assessed in a systematic and objective manner. This article describes the importance of measuring the impacts of such events

The methods for assessing the success of local authority events are trialled through the use of a case study involving two events organised by Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council.

An evaluation of the methods, after conducting the case study, indicates that the techniques produced robust data that was valuable in planning future events and in securing funding. The relative simplicity of the methods used will help to ensure that similar evaluations can be carried out in‐house for little cost for future public events.

This article sets out practical guidelines for undertaking the measurement and evaluation of some of the major impacts of local authority events. Similar methods can be used by other public sector organisations involved in hosting public events.

Towns and cities across Canada face rapidly changing economic circumstances and many are turning to a variety of strategies, including tourism, to provide stability in their communities. Community Economic Development (CED) has become an accepted form of economic development, with recognition that such planning benefits from a more holistic approach and community participation. However, much of why particular strategies are chosen, what process the community undertakes to implement those choices and how success is measured is not fully understood. Furthermore, CED lacks a developed theoretical basis from which to examine these questions. By investigating communities that have chosen to develop their tourism potential through the use of murals, these various themes can be explored. There are three purposes to this research: (1) to acquire an understanding of the “how” and the “why” behind the adoption and diffusion of mural-based tourism as a CED strategy in rural communities; (2) to contribute to the emerging theory of CED by linking together theories of rural geography, rural change and sustainability, and rural tourism; and (3) to contribute to the development of a framework for evaluating the potential and success of tourism development within a CED process.

Two levels of data collection and analysis were employed in this research. Initially, a survey of Canadian provincial tourism guides was conducted to determine the number of communities in Canada that market themselves as having a mural-based tourism attraction (N=32). A survey was sent to these communities, resulting in 31 responses suitable for descriptive statistical analysis, using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). A case study analysis of the 6 Saskatchewan communities was conducted through in-depth, in person interviews with 40 participants. These interviews were subsequently analyzed utilizing a combined Grounded Theory (GT) and Content Analysis approach.

The surveys indicated that mural development spread within a relatively short time period across Canada from Chemainus, British Columbia. Although tourism is often the reason behind mural development, increasing community spirit and beautification were also cited. This research demonstrates that the reasons this choice is made and the successful outcome of that choice is often dependent upon factors related to community size, proximity to larger populations and the economic (re)stability of existing industry. Analysis also determined that theories of institutional thickness, governance, embeddedness and conceptualizations of leadership provide a body of literature that offers an opportunity to theorize the process and outcomes of CED in rural places while at the same time aiding our understanding of the relationship between tourism and its possible contribution to rural sustainability within a Canadian context. Finally, this research revealed that both the CED process undertaken and the measurement of success are dependent upon the desired outcomes of mural development. Furthermore, particular attributes of rural places play a critical role in how CED is understood, defined and carried out, and how successes, both tangible and intangible, are measured.

Research into the library as place investigates the role of public library buildings as destinations, physical places where people go for various reasons ranging from making use of the library's resources and services or seeking to fulfill an information or reading need to less easily identified reasons that may include using the library's building as a place to make social or business contacts, to build or reinforce community or political ties, or to create or reinforce a personal identity. This study asks: How are one rural US public library system's newly constructed buildings functioning as places? The answer is derived from answers to sub-questions about adult library users, user, and staff perceptions of library use, and observed use of library facilities. The findings are contextualized using a framework built of theories from human geography, sociology, and information studies.

This case study replicates a mixed-methods case study conducted at the main public libraries in Toronto and Vancouver in the late1990s and first reproduced in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 2006. It tests methods used in large urban settings in a rural, small-town environment. This study also expands on its antecedents by using thematic analysis to determine which conceptualizations of the role of the public library as place are most relevant to the community under investigation.

The study relies on quantitative and qualitative data collected via surveys and interviews of adult library users, interviews of library public service staff members, structured observations of people using the libraries, and analysis of selected administrative documents. The five sets of data are triangulated to answer the research sub-questions.

Thematic analysis grounded in the conceptual framework finds that public realm theory best contextualizes the relationships that develop between library staff members and adult library users over time. The study finds that the libraries serve their communities as informational places and as familiarized locales rather than as third places, and that the libraries facilitate the generation of social capital for their users.

This article's purpose is to examine the case for the use of the theatre arts in the evaluation of UK City of Culture (UKCC) programmes, specifically headphone verbatim.

Through an analysis of secondary evidence, supported by some primary research, this article analyses past and present evaluation practices surrounding UKCC programmes and the case for headphone verbatim to be included as a method of gathering and distributing research data. The article also observes the challenges in how data may be disseminated through verbatim theatre performance practices, given the limited examples of its use in this context.

The author argues that the theatre arts can provide a different way of knowing and understanding the impacts of UKCC projects on the host city. Specifically, that headphone verbatim can bring an experiential perspective that is rarely if ever captured by existing UKCC evaluation methods and policymaking in general.

This article details an innovative method of evaluating social impacts associated with UKCC projects.

The purpose of this paper is to argue that changes in urban retail markets in the first half of the nineteenth century should be viewed as significant innovations in retailing methods.

Retail innovation is set in the context of urban growth, changing consumer demand and product availability. A brief review of the literature leads into a discussion of innovation in non‐shop retailing and of the need for markets to adapt to a changing context. Evidence from local authority archives, particularly Stockport and Birkenhead in Cheshire, is used to explore this in more detail, including the construction of purpose‐built market halls.

Markets remained pivotal to the supply of food and some other goods. They offered a familiar yet controlled and safe environment. But market halls represented a significant innovation in terms of their size and of the money and civic pride invested in them. Local context, including ownership of market rights, was important in determining how markets adapt to urban growth.

Business records of market traders tend not to survive from this period; so, findings have to be derived from more indirect sources. The need for further research into local authority archives is indicated.

The first half of the nineteenth century is a relatively neglected period in recent retail history research. The paper draws attention to innovation in this period. It provides local context for innovations like market halls that are well documented at a general level, but less well researched locally.

This study aims to identify the motivations, challenges and desires of the various actors working in contemporary downtown revitalization in mid-sized cities.

Using Spokane, Washington, as a case study, 24 semi-structured interviews were conducted with key players in downtown redevelopment, including public administrators, private developers and non-profit representatives.

Results indicate that those conducting renewal projects are primarily motivated by economics, but additionally cite heritage preservation values and community development as significant factors. Moreover, contemporary renewal projects are found to be small-scale endeavours, undertaken by individual private investors, as government involvement has significantly diminished. Revitalizers tended to express frustration with a lack of investor and public awareness regarding renewal opportunities, suggesting that increased information dissemination might promote further renewal work within mid-sized urban downtowns.

Findings provide insight into issues with neoliberal policies in addressing contemporary urban issues, and suggest a more nuanced understanding of contemporary urban development processes beyond the narrowly defined profit-driven paradigm.