3. Liminality, Subjectivity, and Aesthetics in Event Management Studies

This chapter discusses ‘liminality’ within events management higher education by analysing the aesthetic and subjective aspects of the events experience against the instrumental, rational management of them. It is underpinned by Turner’s (Rice Institute Pamphlet-Rice University Studies 60:53–92, 1974) liminal and liminoid, subjective place experience (Lefebvre in Rhythmanalysis: Space, time and everyday life. Continuum, London, 2004; Tuan in Space and place: The perspective of experience. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1977), and Debord’s (Critical geographies: A collection of readings. Praxis (e)Press, Kelowna, pp. 23–27, 1955) psychogeographic flow. Localising event studies in business faculties within higher education institutions has resulted in an over-emphasis on managerial functions at the expense of creative and subjective elements. A literature review illustrates ‘events management’ as the prevailing disciplinary frame within the dominant discourse of the ‘experience economy’ (Pine & Gilmore, Harvard Business Review 76:97–105, 1998; The experience economy: Work is theatre & every business a stage. Harvard Business Press, Boston, 1999). Foucault’s (The archaeology of knowledge. Routledge, Abingdon, 2002) theories on the archaeology of knowledge underpin the analysis. It concludes with a call for a unified, multi-disciplinary, and subjectivist approach to the field of event studies.