How to evaluate cultural impacts of events? A model and methodology proposal

ABSTRACT

The increasing number of events has generated a growing research interest in assessing impacts of the events. So far, most empirical studies have analysed economic impacts, whereas social, political or cultural impacts have been taken into consideration only to a limited extent. The aim of this paper is to propose a conceptual and methodological model to measure and analyse cultural effects of events.

This article first examines how social and cultural impacts are conceptualised and analysed by different disciplines, and then proposes a new model to assess cultural impacts of events, named Cultural Impact Perception (CIP). The model has been designed using two steps, namely: (1) defining cultural impacts and (2) proposing a new methodological model for the assessment and analysis of these types of impact. The paper concludes with reflections around the future implementation of the model and underlines CIP's contribution to the scientific debate in this field.

KEY WORDS:

• Impacts
• cultural impacts
• assessment
• methodology
• events
• cultural events

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on the contributor

Alba Colombo is lecturer and researcher at the Open University of Catalunya, in Barcelona, and has experiences in events research and education with previous posts at Universidad Menéndez y Pelayo (Santander) and the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya. She holds a PhD in Social Sciences (2012) from the University of Girona. Her main research areas concern cultural and creative industries, events, and tourism, the relationship between those industries and events and tourism.

ORCID

Alba Colombo http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8519-5203

Notes

1. Are considered proposals from authors such as Maalouf (1999), who claim that an identity is formed by belonging to multiple communities, as well as from Touraine (1997), who positions cultural identity in modern times as a complex analysis, among others.